Why do you think PTO/t100 is failing or has failed?
Broadcast product: they’re on mainstream tv globally. HBO/Warner bros, Fox Sports etc plus YouTube
They’ve acknowledged they want additional money. They’re hosting multisport events with up to 10,000 participants.
They’re selling out T100 races that they’re charging $500 USD for.
They have the premier athletes. The 70.3 world champions both got comfortably beat by multiple t100 athletes.
The idea of two major events hosted by ironman is a throw back to what the sport was before the PTO arrived. We barely got any races to watch and those that we did were dog shit. Let’s not forget the PTO formed because ironman neglected professional triathlon. The investors saw an opportunity to profit from Ironmans neglect.
The people cheering for the demise or failure of t100 blow my mind.
When you consider the cash burn and that they haven’t sold broadcast rights for any meaningful sum (if they had it would be public). Yeah they haven’t made much progress. What they have done is continuously reinvent themselves every year wasting investor funds.
I’m glad after Pat basically let his client off the hook for breaking contract by saying - if athlete’s hearts aren’t in it, they shouldn’t do it, Mark basically said if you sign the contract, you honor it. That was the main reason that Kat didn’t sign I assume - she didn’t want to honor it. I applaud that - and I applaud Paula for trying to honor hers even if she wasn’t able to finish.
Sam the same - at least Taylor shut it down - Sam raced last week. I know…he’s got to feed his family - but I really hoped he would honor the contract he signed.
They don’t have commercial that show sponsorship and income.
You can pay these companies to show your product , Ironman did it with nbc for years like a paid advertisement. Doesn’t mean they are paying you just because it’s on tv.
Those events don’t belong to them.
Comparing 70.3 worlds vs the last t100 is just dumb and you know that.
No one is cheering for the demise we are making observations of what we are seeing and what they are reporting.
Reply to Athletes are bad for not honouring contracts , but t100 not paying out that contract in proper time is …..
I dont think they selling out anything, some AG races were on early bird status till registration closed, and the participant list for the T100 is usually in the hundreds + a few hundreds for the run events etc. They bought the London triathlon, hardly can be praised for overcharging a lappy lap course.. If they want Age Group money they need to do a way better job at accommodating AG needs..
Oh come on. Both male and female fields were excellent, but in the context of the last month, the yardstick you’re using is no good even for stirring shit
Well there is this one.. Thing is, these are multisport festival weekend just like Noosa and Mooloolaba so what is the definition of success? 10,000 people in Singapore? There have been thousands in attendance at some of the T100 events this year and I expect the Gold Coast to reach the 10 000 mark as well.
Wait, what? You believe that? The investors saw Ironman selling for a billion dollars and figured they could throw a few million at it and have a piece of something that might become worth a billion dollars or more someday. That’s a pretty great return. They used the star potential of the pros to put a high performance face on the product, but if you could turn 30 million into a billion that’s over a 3000 percent return. You’re not really seeing that kind of return outside of a handful of bio or tech companies.
No one was investing in Ironman so they can give more money to pros and change the pro business model. They did with the pros what Ironman does, use them for attention and legitimacy.
No sooner did they get the pros did they start “neglecting” them too; to use your word. Reduced payouts to the top 100, eliminate payouts to the top 100, reduce prizes at races, reduce contracts to their top athletes, rinse and repeat.
What’s most fascinating about the PTO is how rapidly it has become a home for WTCS athletes. Which makes the merger a smart move. I can’t imagine all those federations are happy to see “their” talent they spent years and so much money developing into the Olympic pipeline get a taste of success and leave for good to long course. T100 can keep the Olympic athletes getting paid and getting some of the attention that long course gets, since most of the world doesn’t do draft legal in significant numbers.
The most exciting thing I think the t100 can do is actually reinvent the Olympic distance race into a non draft t100 race in the Olympics. Obviously a long term play, T100 could finally align the Olympic sport to the way most of the world engages with triathlon.
People say it’s too long for the Olympics. Tell that to a multi day day golf match or a 6 hour bike race. There’s always a possibility to change things, especially if it can drive a critical mass of interest to follow it and there’s an organization with money bank rolling it.
? It was pretty clear at the beginning of the year that the T100 final would be the most competitive middle distance race of the year. Some athletes didn’t make it to the start line or didn’t make it there ready to race their best. We don’t need any excuses for those that didn’t prioritize being their best at the race that everyone knew would be the strongest field of the year. The top finishers in the top race are just that, the top finishers in the top race.
The great folks at MetaSport in Singapore host the T100. They have hosted everything from the Singapore 70.3 to the 70.3 Bintan to the MetaMan Iron Distance to their own series of races.
I’ve raced a bunch of their events so it was easy for me to find.Ill do some internet sleuthing for you to find the other ones. You can just Google “How many participants at …” pick your event.
Hi Kyle, yes Pat mentioned Torremolinos as he was there but it is much much bigger than that. There’s way more events than you probably are aware of that move thousands of athletes each. There’s people competing in 5-6 different races during the same event and people that do 4-5 of those ETU/WT competitions on top of also doing a couple Ironman races.
The statement of people not liking short course because you can’t race it is plain wrong. Also, Olympic distance for AGers is non draft, whilst Sprint only are draft and in quite a few countries there are already qualifying races. Just adding a few elements
Indeed. I enjoy the PTN podcast mainly. All the hosts have unique insights to bring. And their boots-on-the-ground work takes serious time and preparation.
But they did seem out of touch with the enormous WT age-group scene this week. Going since 1989 BTW. And just domestic triathlon scenes in general. Away from branded racing. Especially in Europe. But of course, the pro-game is their speciality.
Just something constructive I hope. If they want to continue being, “the best pundits in triathlon.”
I wish I had a car and just jump intonit, drive a few hours, do a Short Course and be home in the evening. As it stands, Short Course just is a bad deal with logistics in terms of racing time vs logistic time. Hopefully T50 can help a bit with these shortcomings, eg attractive bike rental options or races in major cities that can be easilz reached by train.
I don’t know where you live, but in countries where I lived, Italy, UK and Luxembourg this is easily doable. In the UK there are multiple races of any distance on the same weekend in all places of the country, and often you can race 10+ times per year within a 1 hour drive range.
Correct. I’m in Munich now. Last year I raced 12 triathlons. Sprint and Olympic. Furthest drive from home was 2 hours. Total entry fees easily under €1000. Zero branded events. Did similar seasons when living in France and the UK.
But they’re opining on the viability of the business model for WT - they should know about it. Again, Mark’s wife used to race AG plenty, at least since 2017, unless he is not aware as she was using her maiden name back then
