Correct me if I am wrong, but the new refund program that was announced yesterday applies only to Ironman and Ironman 70.3 races in the US, right?
And it is not even super clear as to which Ironman race in the US this program would apply to (as they only say “select US Ironman”). I guess this makes sense if the company (a third party) who is undertaking to provide the refund is a US-based company and has no affiliates in other countries like Canada.
So this announcement is not super helpful for anyone who wants to race an Ironman event in Canada in 2015…but I guess at least it is a move in the right direction overall.
I like this line from the email, emphasis added by me:
“If an athlete elects to purchase the Full Refund Plan and is unable to participate in the event due to an injury, unforeseen illness, pregnancy, childbirth, active military duty, or travel delays to the event, they may be eligible for a full refund of the registration fees paid to enter the event.”
So it’s not full blown insurance, but just another WTC money grab.
But I thought WTC has been moving towards owning all of its races as opposed to licensing to ensure that all of the Ironman branded races live up to a certain standard?
Think of the additional revenue this program will generate for WTC. If you are a triathlete and are committing a whole year in advance to a race, chances are, you will purchase the $90 “insurance” for an Ironman. Now assume 80% of all athletes registering for a particular Ironman buy this insurance and assume that the event capacity is 2,500 entries. So that means a revenue stream of 2,000 x $90 = $180,000 for WTC. Of course, I imagine they pass off at least half of this revenue to that third-party company. Even if WTC keeps only a small percentage of this revenue since they are essentially not bearing any risk, it is still in essence “free revenue” for the WTC.
For the third-party company that is covering this risk, this is also a lucrative opportunity. Suppose that of the 2,000 athletes that bought the insurance, no more than 10% will successfully claim the refund (because let’s face it, if you are a triathlete training for an ironman, you will probably make sure you do everything you can to get to that race, unless it is something REALLY outside of your control)…
I think your assumption is wrong. I don’t think you will get anywhere near 25% of the people purchasing the $90 insurance.
I’m from America. I’ve done races in Europe, where they offer such program, but at a lower cost and you still don’t see that high of a rate for insurance purchase.
Americans are risk averse and will probably select insurance at a greater rate than they would in Europe, but yeah, 80% is probably a stretch. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. If a large number of people buy the insurance, I think there will be a higher DNS rate because folks that have insurance and a valid reason will cash in whereas now they will do everything within their power to get to the start line. And if there is a higher DNS rate, then WTC will be able to sell more entries for sold-out races and still have the same number at the start.