WTC and IM Chattanooga

Sep 4, 13 14:16

Post #1 of 272 (17077 views)

So, I've been a pretty staunch defender of WTC and their races, but I have to say, that today's IM Chattanooga registration debacle has seriously pissed me off. Not that they decided to let certain tri clubs pre-register, but the fact that they did it secretly, and with no transparency to those of us who aren't members of clubs. I don't have any numbers, but based on the threads on this board (such as 2 clubs having 100 spots), my hunch is that anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 of the probably roughly 3,000 spots were gone long before registration opened at noon today. Now, had I known that is what the WTC was doing ahead of time, I wouldn't have assumed I would get in. I would have known it would probably sell out quickly. And I would be cool with that, having known about it ahead of time. All WTC had to do was to be transparent. But the fact that the WTC decided, for some obtuse reason, to do this and to also ask everyone to keep it quiet on social media, stinks. As somebody else on another thread said, the simple fact that they decided to keep this a secret means that in some respects WTC knew that this would not be very popular, which begs the question as to why they did it in the first place.

Spot

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Post deleted by japarker24 [ In reply to ]

Sep 4, 13 14:18

Post #2 of 272 (17060 views)

Re: WTC and IM Chattanooga [spot] [ In reply to ]

Sep 4, 13 14:34

Post #3 of 272 (16981 views)

I can understand offering some slots to local clubs, but it sounds like they offered slots to clubs that weren't even local and I think that's shitty. I also think it will hurt small tri clubs. If you're going to join a club to try and get an early entry, why would you join a small club that might only get a couple of slots? So the big clubs will get bigger and the small clubs will disappear.

It's like a new version of the Ironman Access program (or whatever that program was called).

Re: WTC and IM Chattanooga [spot] [ In reply to ]

Sep 4, 13 14:38

Post #4 of 272 (16950 views)

I don't think the numbers are as high as you think.

My understanding was the local tri clubs were offered early reg slots as well as the top-5 ranked clubs/teams in each of the four club divisions according to WTC's point/ranking system. Div I clubs are the biggest and Div IV clubs the smallest.

So early registration was offered to the Chattanooga area clubs and 20 other clubs of various sizes. So it seems Div I clubs like EN and LA Tri Club had 60 or more entries but Div IV clubs might have had a handful at best.

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Re: WTC and IM Chattanooga [Supersquid] [ In reply to ]

Sep 4, 13 14:41

Post #5 of 272 (16929 views)

I agree with the OP. Basically, WTC said to many of us we were not welcome or our participation was not preferred. Thanks WTC, i will remember that and support other companies such as Rev 3 or Challenge in the future.

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Re: WTC and IM Chattanooga [GMAN19030] [ In reply to ]

Sep 4, 13 14:46

Post #6 of 272 (16904 views)

Maybe I missed it, but I am an LA Tri Club member and I saw no mention of pre-reg spots.

Re: WTC and IM Chattanooga [Cobble] [ In reply to ]

Sep 4, 13 14:47

Post #7 of 272 (16896 views)

I can't imagine why WTC would want as lany local club members being involved n a local race and bringing large numbers of supporters/spectators to the event and possibly additonal volunteers as well. The best colicy is to clearly make sure as few locals do the race and support the event as possible. Local supprot isn't important for races to suceed. I hear IMMOO is a terrible event because all of these locals including college students are all over the place cheering you on. What a distraction when I'm jsut trying to race my race. IM's shoudl be held in the middle of nowhere far form all humans.

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Last edited by: motoguy128: Sep 4, 13 14:50

Re: WTC and IM Chattanooga [spot] [ In reply to ]

Sep 4, 13 14:54

Post #8 of 272 (16857 views)

spot wrote:

. But the fact that the WTC decided, for some obtuse reason, to do this and to also ask everyone to keep it quiet on social media, stinks. As somebody else on another thread said, the simple fact that they decided to keep this a secret means that in some respects WTC knew that this would not be very popular, which begs the question as to why they did it in the first place.

Spot

Yes...clearly they thought it would be SUCH an unpopular decision. I mean, the race did sell out in minutes. Very unpopular....at least among those who did not get in....

Re: WTC and IM Chattanooga [Trispoke] [ In reply to ]

Sep 4, 13 14:58

Post #9 of 272 (16809 views)

Trispoke wrote:

I mean, the race did sell out in minutes.

No, it didn't. The "open to the general public" registration sold out in minutes. The registration for the race itself took from the time they allowed anyone to register until it was sold out.

Re: WTC and IM Chattanooga [spot] [ In reply to ]

Sep 4, 13 15:00

Post #10 of 272 (16790 views)

I have no problem with WTC opening early entry to tri clubs.

But doing this in "secret" is kind of crappy, IMO.

And this is coming from a member of a WTC-associated tri club.

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Re: WTC and IM Chattanooga [Cobble] [ In reply to ]

Sep 4, 13 15:01

Post #11 of 272 (16785 views)

Cobble wrote:

I agree with the OP. Basically, WTC said to many of us we were not welcome or our participation was not preferred. Thanks WTC, i will remember that and support other companies such as Rev 3 or Challenge in the future.

FTW!!!!! Best post yet! Yes, that is exactly what they said! ;) What I think is more to the point, they are saying thank you to clubs who organize groups who want to participate in a specific WTC event, clubs which organize group training camps at the race sites, who encourage people to sign up, help them train, ect. But we can roll with your "WTC doesn't love me".

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Last edited by: Bryancd: Sep 4, 13 15:08

Re: WTC and IM Chattanooga [spot] [ In reply to ]

Sep 4, 13 15:10

Post #12 of 272 (16745 views)

So your hunch is 1000-2000 or 33-66% of the slots were pre-registration? What research do you have to support such an outlandish number? Your model must need some tweeking if your range has a 100% swing of possibility.

Were pre-registration slots given? Yes, were they that many. I'd be highly skeptical of that.

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Re: WTC and IM Chattanooga [Coach Ken K] [ In reply to ]

Sep 4, 13 15:23

Post #13 of 272 (16670 views)

Coach Ken K wrote:

I have no problem with WTC opening early entry to tri clubs.

But doing this in "secret" is kind of crappy, IMO.

And this is coming from a member of a WTC-associated tri club.

The only issue I see with the club system is it could break apart small regional clubs as members seek larger clubs with more people doing WTC events. I am a member of a tiny 80member club in New Jersey and who mainly do sprint races and have social events. Given what happen today with three of our members wanting to do Chattanooga but not making thru we might think of joining a club with more IM participants. This would remove the IM'ers from our club as they're not going to pay to be in two clubs which would be a loss for our club.

I understand what they're doing but it might not be the best thing for triathlon as a whole. I love seeing all these tiny clubs popping up and now it might just be consolidation to gain WTC points.

It's much more fun to play triathlete than be a triathlete....

Re: WTC and IM Chattanooga [relentless] [ In reply to ]

Sep 4, 13 15:24

Post #14 of 272 (16656 views)

relentless wrote:

So your hunch is 1000-2000 or 33-66% of the slots were pre-registration? What research do you have to support such an outlandish number? Your model must need some tweeking if your range has a 100% swing of possibility.

Were pre-registration slots given? Yes, were they that many. I'd be highly skeptical of that.

It's called a "hunch" for a reason. Look it up. I also explained in my OP how I guessed at that number. Yes, it's a guess. Yes, I may be waaaay off.

Spot

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Re: WTC and IM Chattanooga [CPA_PFS] [ In reply to ]

Sep 4, 13 15:42

Post #15 of 272 (16577 views)

And no, the server crashed in minutes. It did NOT sell out that fast, even with the fewer entry slots available. People were getting thru and registered 60-90minutes after being in queue. It's the folks who were already thru, entering their info who got screwed when the server crashed.

Re: WTC and IM Chattanooga [skinnybike] [ In reply to ]

Sep 4, 13 15:50

Post #16 of 272 (16537 views)

Lots of folks, judging by the thread that was open at the time, waited in the queue, only to get the "on hold" screen. That's what happened to me.

Spot

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Re: WTC and IM Chattanooga [skinnybike] [ In reply to ]

Sep 4, 13 16:02

Post #17 of 272 (16490 views)

skinnybike wrote:

And no, the server crashed in minutes. It did NOT sell out that fast, even with the fewer entry slots available. People were getting thru and registered 60-90minutes after being in queue. It's the folks who were already thru, entering their info who got screwed when the server crashed.

This^...I had heard rumors of pre-registration for tri clubs. Was I expecting it to sell out very quickly, no, but I was still on before 12:00 ready to go. My heart sank into my stomach when I got through registration (which only took me 2 minutes) and the server crashed. I sat at work for two hours refreshing the damn page for nothing. I waited "in line" on a que, only to see the general entry still "on hold" My only issue is with active and the joke of a server they must have.

In Reply To:

Re: WTC and IM Chattanooga [Bryancd] [ In reply to ]

Sep 4, 13 16:09

Post #18 of 272 (16455 views)

Bryancd wrote:

Cobble wrote:

I agree with the OP. Basically, WTC said to many of us we were not welcome or our participation was not preferred. Thanks WTC, i will remember that and support other companies such as Rev 3 or Challenge in the future.

FTW!!!!! Best post yet! Yes, that is exactly what they said! ;) What I think is more to the point, they are saying thank you to clubs who organize groups who want to participate in a specific WTC event, clubs which organize group training camps at the race sites, who encourage people to sign up, help them train, ect. But we can roll with your "WTC doesn't love me".

Have to agree with Bryan and to be honest, if I was ready to pull the trigger on a full I probably would have jumped into the early reg group with ONE as well.

Re: WTC and IM Chattanooga [spot] [ In reply to ]

Sep 4, 13 16:20

Post #19 of 272 (16395 views)

this is not the first time the Active.com registration process crashed in the last few years. Seems to me they need to take a long hard look at their provider.

@rhyspencer

Re: WTC and IM Chattanooga [spot] [ In reply to ]

Sep 4, 13 16:36

Post #20 of 272 (16334 views)

Spot this happens at all races in Australia.

If you are a member of TA (your USAT) you get early entry.

Rhymenocerus wrote:

I think everyone should consult ST before they do anything.

Re: WTC and IM Chattanooga [spot] [ In reply to ]

Sep 4, 13 16:39

Post #21 of 272 (16317 views)

Why is it you think WTC owes anyone "transparency" in anything they do? Everyone is free to support whatever events they want or boycot those they aren't a fan of. Your first mistake was assuming yourself would get in at all. Even without early entries it easily could have sold out in 5min. Personally, I think Active.com shit the bed yet again.

Re: WTC and IM Chattanooga [spot] [ In reply to ]

Sep 4, 13 16:43

Post #22 of 272 (16293 views)

I got in so I'm probably biased but I don't really understand the WTC hate on this one

-- for years preference and pre-reg has been given to volunteers and onsite reg the year before. How is Tri club preregistration any different?
-- strengthening the Tri clubs value proposition and/or local support isn't that a good thing?
-- many other races don't have a transparent number of slots so why should this one in particular?

To me the key issue is the crash and "behavior" of active.com

Re: WTC and IM Chattanooga [TH3_FRB] [ In reply to ]

Sep 4, 13 16:45

Post #23 of 272 (16278 views)

TH3_FRB wrote:

Why is it you think WTC owes anyone "transparency" in anything they do? Everyone is free to support whatever events they want or boycot those they aren't a fan of.

Exactly! I really don't understand the uproar here. How many people on here moaned about this choice of location, course route, timing close to Louisville, etc...? They obviously did their homework and hit a home run as far as they are concerned and made an outstanding business decision it would seem.

The only thing WTC should be concerned about is the crappy technology Active is apparently using.

Re: WTC and IM Chattanooga [andreasjs] [ In reply to ]

Sep 4, 13 16:48

Post #24 of 272 (16253 views)

I think it was different because in the past everyone has always been aware, and WTC has made it very plain, that certain folks got priority. What I don't understand is why WTC didn't just own up to the fact that tri clubs were going to get priority for this race. It also seems strange to me that they would go so far as to ask people not to talk about pre-registration.

Spot

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Re: WTC and IM Chattanooga [TH3_FRB] [ In reply to ]

Sep 4, 13 16:51

Post #25 of 272 (16240 views)

TH3_FRB wrote:

Why is it you think WTC owes anyone "transparency" in anything they do? Everyone is free to support whatever events they want or boycot those they aren't a fan of. Your first mistake was assuming yourself would get in at all. Even without early entries it easily could have sold out in 5min. Personally, I think Active.com shit the bed yet again.

Well, honestly, they don't "owe" me anything. I just think it's crappy of them to do business this way.

Spot

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Taco cat spelled backwards is....taco cat.

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