Pros get paid exactly what they should get paid…what the market will pay. That doesn’t diminish anything from the hard work and sacrifice that they put in at all. It simply says that when you choose a fringe sport that isn’t very marketable outside of those the participate, the value/marketability of a pro isn’t very high and therefore doesn’t yield a very large pay grade.
People (not saying you, necessarily), complain that the Crossfit Games gets a larger payout than Kona. Well, sadly for humankind, the CFG are in much higher demand for TV coverage than Kona for the average person…therefore, the market pays more.
The final thing to remember is that IM triathlon doesn’t really need pros. If it were announced tomorrow that WTC will not longer be paying prize purses, bike companies would no longer be sponsoring pros, etc…there really wouldn’t be a real big difference in total. I think that there is a valid argument that the bike companies, shoe companies, etc get a return on their sponsorships and that there might be a significant enough shift in the market to justify paying top performers to try keep market share. That being said, I think it’s a very hard data point to quantify. People will continue to sign up for IM races…pros or no pros.
But saying that Pros should be paid more b/c they work really hard and sacrifice much isn’t a very good argument (again…not saying that is what you, Jordan Rapp, are out there saying).