Haven’t seen them, so can’t speculate as to how much negotiating room there is (if at all).
@Michal_CH I was spitballing off the list, but that makes sense for him to do Roth, especially with the elevated purse / collaboration with PTO at that event.
I’m sure the contract amount decreases with each athlete, like last year.
A little shocked to see Findlay sign again after her latest interviews. Also surprised Kat did not sign given her double success last year. Her Bahrain sportwash money must favor Ironman.
I think everyone expected Findlay to sign. Money is too good to turn down. If you are not doing IM, and you turn down T 100, it can represent a serious dent to earnings, unless she wins everything else and get hefty bonuses
Her interest in doing a full IM is interesting, which would suggest she will skip the max allowed races as stipulated in the contract?
I am surprised that Knibb has signed up. This would mean 2 IM and 6 T-100 races at the minimum. Not sure if there is space to fit in WTCS and TT races
So remind me again what are the “race requirements” for contracted athletes and/or to score the most points? I assumed they tightened it vs last year when people were making some rather “interesting” race decisions? Or not?
A lot of you are throwing out numbers here like you have seen their contracts. I would suspect that many were able to negotiate their individual ones to “Taylor” them to some small special needs. We saw that last year with the ITU athletes, so perhaps in order to retain their champions there was some wiggle room in there.
And of course there could also be clauses as if you cannot fulfill the entire contract, there is some deduction that is not a contract killer. Do we even know what these first contracts contain in them generically?
Findlay was a little surprise, but I had a feeling in her interviews she was talking without thinking too much about it. Of course she would one day like to give full distance and Kona a go, but she made it sound like it was imminent. And who knows, perhaps she got a contract which will allow something along those lines, just not the entire Pro series.
Lots of great athletes in the wings for that 2nd round, and together with this core group is going to make it even more competitive. Glad Sam took my advice… (-;
I think eventually all this “narrative” on how athletes can race all these events and take top T100 type of contract money is going to go away because it’s going to genuinely become a top racing series, very similar to WTCS now (I mean it’s already there because they are they bag man). I think eventually you won’t be able to afford to NOT race the overwhelming majority of races as the athletes likely “focus” in on this series more and more. So all this negoitating to keep athletes “happy” will all but go away imo cus eventually the racing will be what the racing is. Want to be apart of it- great. Want to race a bunch of other stuff- great, T100 isn’t for you. They probaly aren’t there just yet, but I’m thinking their negoiating tactics have improved over what they “allowed” last year.
The 2024 contracts had a base amount plus a prize purse per race plus the final Tour standings bonus.
The base amount (which was tiered per ranking) was paid out (as I’ve shared upthread) as x% up front, a flat y% per race for the minimum number required, and the remainder (z%) paid if contract fulfilled.
I understand that this year ‘x’ will be lower and ‘y’ and ‘z’ will be larger to encourage/incentivise athletes to respect the contract.
Seven races have been announced (though there’s some wobbling about a couple of dates e.g. Las Vegas - see upthread) and we await Vancouver to be announced (that’d be 8). I wonder if there’s another, so total of 9.
This year the scoring was best 3 plus GF. I’m expecting 2025 to be best 4 + GF (to encourage competitive racing). Six has been mooted as the number of races the contract requires (5 + GF). Implies plenty of wildcards.
I can see why several missed Miami this year as it was super early.
Given that a high percentage of the 20+20 who sign will have raced at Taupo, pleased that the PTO have set the first race in mid April.
I’d like to see every athlete racing there: what excuse could there be ('tis a fortnight before Texas though and only two weeks after Oceanside).
Im glad Kat never signed, I think she can win Kona next year if she races less, love to see her put 100% focus on that.
As someone else has said, the 10 listed men are not exciting to me at all, definitely needs some ITU move ups and Norwegian wild card action.
No one said this, just you. The 8 men thus far are the top guys from last year, so 12 more to go. Who doesnt “excite” you from the first earned contracts? Even Youri who struggled after his one win is often in the race up front, just never got that mojo back. And of course they are replacing Gomez and Ali, so that will tighten up the fields too. Although Allistar always was in the front end racing to the bitter end, and finally showed in the last race he belonged there.
Maybe I read it somewhere else then about the lack of interest, sorry the 8 athletes given contracts, out of the 8 Sam Long and MVR are the only two that really interest me, if those were the only 8 athletes racing I probably wouldn’t bother watching the whole broadcast like I usually do.
This isn’t to say the other 6 are bad or I dislike them or anything like that, and im sure T100 are going to add more exciting/interesting athletes.
No complaints at all about the women though (although I hope someone steps up next years and can challenge Knibb)
That will be interesting if both Funk and Luis do Roth as their first LD
I could have sworn I heard someone say the 1st race is mandatory next season. Can’t remember where I heard that though and I could be making it up.
Laura Philips hasn’t signed either so both Kat and Laura going all in for Kona in 2025 with Knibb is going to be one very interesting race.
Yeah I heard that also, 1st and GF are mandatory. I definitely get making the 1st mandatory, builds interest at the beginning of the year.
Don’t forget LCB…
Yep LCB and Lionel are the two biggest names in triathlon, T100 should be offering contacts to both.
If your LS though your at a point in your career where you have to make the best decision that puts you in a position to win the races he wants. He’s not so over the hill so to speak to just take the money and go into retirement tour type. So does T100 improve LS’s chances at the goals he wants?
Sam Long is what nearly 10 years younger than LS, he’s got a bunch more years of his career and he can be much more selective with his career pathway than LS can imo. At this point in LS’s career it truly is “now or never”; if you think T100 improves his chances in those goals, that’s cool.
But yes I would assume by default those guys would be asked if they wanted to do it, simply by default “professional courtesy”.
Depends how much money they offer him, im not a Lionel fan so dont know what motivates him?
Im thinking from a purely whats best for T100 business point of view, and who is going to bring interest and ratings to T100.
Oh I totally agree, as I said it would be almost professional courtesy you have to ask the biggest names if they want to be apart of your series. But my guess is that from a motivation standpoint, his goals are likely the races he’s not win yet. He’s still at a point where that can be a realistic goal to atleast go after vs a true “retirement tour” status that imo AB+Gomez clearly were in when they took the contracts (even though AB still could race at a high level).
The interesting thing about Lionel, is the last two years he targeted a couple races and it’s not worked out.
70.3 Worlds in Lahti was a disaster for his season as was 2024 Kona.
So maybe he just needs to get back to racing often and hope his consistency will occasionally put a T100 podium up on the board like Sam Long managed to. (Assuming they offer)