I was watching bullriding on OLN the other night and they had a ‘special ride’ thing going on. It was not a part of the championship/eliminations or whatever they call it in the PBR, just a ride for the hell of it. However, the prize was $45K. $45K for an informal 8 second ride on a bull!!
I’m not trying to discount the athleticism of PBR competitors, those guys are badassess…hardcore without a doubt. But $45K for 8 seconds!? It wasn’t at the PBR finals in Vegas, it was at a tour stop in Spokane.
Then I thought about our sport and how much the pros make when they win an IMNA event…and how much 1st place pays in the Hawaii Ironman: $100K, $50K for second…that’s pretty lame for 8 1/2 hours of work after a years worth or preparation…makes you want to learn to ride a bull!!
How much do you think 1st place at an IMNA event should pay? I say $100K
You’re absolutely right. Now go out and get the sponsors that will pony up the prize money. Let us know how it goes.
For Hawaii, I say 1st place should pay $1M
To echo krgregg and ken, it’s a matter of sponsors. Like NASCAR, rodeo has a wide appeal, spectators PAY to watch it, it’s televised, everything sponsors chomp at the bit to get at. Triathlon does not have paid spectators and very few are televised. The sponsors don’t have much of a viewership to sell to, mainly consumers who are totally dedicated to and participate in the sport and if they’re not racing in it, they’re volunteering/supporting/organizing it. Entry fees alone rarely cover the cost of an event so sponsorship is necessary to bridge the gap between a red bottom line and a black one, and this doesn’t even cover prize $. Like other sports, triathletes don’t necessarily make their living by prize money, it’s through their personal sponsorship deals. They are constantly having to sell themselves. I’ve seen many very talented athletes give up their pro status after one or two years because they didn’t work to get their names out there and get those sponsorship deals.
$1 million for Kona sounds pretty fair. That’s what you get if you win the US (tennis) Open. I think the other posters are missing the point of the question. It wasn’t “why don’t we get more money?”, it was “how much should we get?”. $100K for IMNA sounds pretty good, too. Although with that kind of money to be made, a lot more would have to be invested in rules enforcement.
Thanks, the point was not why don’t the pros get paid more, the point was what they deserve to be paid. The PBR has powerful sponsors, but they have not been collecting licensing fees from Timex for nearly 20 years either……the way the WTC has. And that’s just one trademark license, think of all the other “Ironman” licensed products out there.
I think the pro purse at IMNA events and Kona could be enhanced and should be enhanced because the athletes that compete at the top level deserve it.
I feel the need to point out that massive head trauma and death are very real possibilities for the guys on the PBR. You couldn’t pay me enough to do that “sport”.
How about the the opposite approach. Maybe all the big money sports should start paying the same as triathlon?
In addition to Ironmans paying more, I wish more regional and local races offered prize money. There are a couple of races in the 25K to 35K around here, but I am not sure if that is the norm countrywide.
I would pay more money for the race, if the race director was up front with the associated costs of the race. For example, I need to charge you X amount of dollars to cover the costs of the race, and turn a profit. Then I could use the sponsor’s contribution for prize money, not just to make ends meet.
P.S. Ironman logo is one of the most powerful/recognized brands in the world, they should be paying more for race purses. If they can’t gain the proper sponsorship to support this, they are not maximizing the power of their brand. They should look at some more better marketing strategies.
My thoughts are if an athlete wants to make money at “playing” then they should be responsible for their own income.
I see what you are trying to say here, but who do you think pays for a professional baseball/hockey/football payer’s salary? We do. Why should triathlon be any different? Remember they have no cash draw from spectators like Football Mom says. I would think based on what I have seen in triathlon, the biggest fans of the professional athletes are us, the racers. Therefore it is like buying a ticket to a baseball game and getting to play in the game, no matter how bad you suck. Wouldn’t you pay a little more for that baseball ticket?
To the average couch potato that is indirectly paying the wages of professional athletes, an 8hr Ironman race is very, very, very boring and not worth watching.
An 8 sec bull ride is very, very, very exciting.
As for Eric Clark that said the Ironman logo is one of the most valuable brands in the world, sorry but that is wishful thinking through rose coloured glasses. Most people the world over would never have seen it, never recognised it and have no association with it. Here in Australia that now has 2 Ironman races the vast majority of people on the street if you told them you competed in Ironman they would say “oh, those surf lifesaving races.”
Professional sport and its top athletes have only started to become richer and richer in recent years and it is in direct proportion to the media coverage they receive. Ironman and to a lesser extent triathlon in general will never be able to be packaged well for TV and consequently the athletes will never be receiving the big dollars that they “deserve”.
If you want to make a lot of $ at sport - run the 100m under 10 sec, serve tennis balls at 220 km/h, play 4 rounds at Augusta 20 under the card, score 50 points in a game against the Lakers. 99.9 % of triathletes never could, hence they are in triathlon - we train hard and suffer well and often perform feats of super endurance. Trouble is it takes 8 hours to demonstrate that to the world and most of the world has already fallen asleep.
Yes I would be worried that the fianl outcome would be that both 0 out of 10 people recognise the Mdot log and 10 out of 10 recognised the M dot logo.
My subjects would have been a remote mountain tribe in outer mongolia and yours would have been the last 10 winners of a certain triathlon race each October in Kona Hawaii.
