USAT. Into the valley

Triathlon Forum
21

“Slowman, what’s your point?”

in this instance, i don’t have a point. but i have some OpEd articles abstracted on the slowtwitch front page, and there i make some points.

as for the article you reference, there is no point, but there is a theme, extracted from the fact that USAT is being accused by quite a few commercial entities of crossing that line separating governance from commerce.

also, earlier in this thread i posted a “devil’s advocate” view in order to represent the other side of the argument.

this argument is not knew, and it’s not confined to NGBs. should we have private or state run health insurance? private or state run oil companies? airlines? newspapers?

in some cases, state-run is probably better. our post office is a good example. certain countries feel that a state-owned airline is also in their national interests. some feel that a state-run health insurance program is better than private medical care.

in general, in america we believe that governments ought to take a more limited role, and intervene only when necessary. otherwise private industry is seen as being more efficient, as it allows for market forces to guide the flow of goods and services.

in this environment, this is the article’s theme, and it is asked in the form of two questions: when is it good for USAT to leverage its monopoly status, and encroach into areas traditionally considered under the purview of private enterprise? further, is there going to be a push-back from industry, and will industry take its gloves off and no longer honor USAT’s need to keep that one revenue stream it relies upon?

pursuant to that, it’s illustrative to answer your question: “What are the revenue streams for USAT in terms of percentage?” the answer is, 90% of that revenue stream comes from licensing, sanctioning, and related. the vehicle for generating that revenue is the insurance policy, and the vig between the cost of the policy and what is charged for the policy is about $4 million. this is what pays the federation’s bills. then, excepting several hundred thousand that flows from the USOC straight to USAT’s Olympic program, there is another maybe $400,000 that comes to USAT from various sources.

so, the questions are:

  1. should or shouldn’t the federation be encroaching on industry’s historic means of paying its bills?
  2. might this encroachment cause industry to consider USAT’s means of paying its bills no longer untouchable, and bite into USAT’s insurance biz?

i don’t wish to exhibit a view, but i will note an observation: when i interview the various sides, the arguments i hear sound eerily like the things i was hearing when i was writing about USAT vs. WTC. i do then wonder, depending on how things go, how many battles on how many fronts USAT can afford to fight. i note this as a matter of business strategy, not in the context of political philosophy.

22

“So you are seriously claiming that a private entity will serve triathlon better?”

did you mean to address this to me, or were you responding to someone else? i’m quite sure i didn’t claim what you claim i claimed.

23

I like it. I’m sure the additional layer(USAT) will aid in the compliance with more difficult aspects of sanctioning. The little stuff. Multiple reps are on the line.

Things haven’t been the same since the demise of the CAT Sports Series.

24

Hello,

The issue isn’t that USAT has a magazine, but that they are using the magazine to lure advertisers (which takes them away from the “regular” magazines). They are apparently saying they have x number of “subscribers” when they really have none, just people who pay dues.

Styrrell

25

No point banning Skip Gilbert - he is not even a triathlete. This has been my concern with him from day one. He’s not interested in the sport, he is interested in the business.

Cam
Maybe I’m wrong, but this forum is one of the largest “gatherings” of triathletes online. It would be nice for Skip (or someone associated with him) to address this topic. If they are representing triathletes, they should gather input. This is their chance.

26

“or the grand prix series they are selecting an existing race in each of the 10 regions.”

i don’t have any philosophical problem with this. however, i have a tactial problem with it. first, as a californian i’m not noticing that this series has a lot of intersection with me, nor would i if i lived anywhere west of the mississippi. second, the USTS had a specific look and feel that was transferred from race to race, and i don’t see that any of this is going to happen. i don’t see any branding here.

now, look, i know that this is the “first year.” but you only have one chance to make a first impression. i’d have rather USAT waited until it was ready to do this thing right.

i’d have MUCH rather USAT put its efforts into finding that truly perfect spot to host a national championships, and i’m certainly not convinced that kansas city represents USAT’s best efforts. it’s had two years to do this. i can’t see that it’s taken even the first step.

triathlon is not t&f. it is not skiing. there is no analogy. there is no crossover. best to figure out what are triathlon’s specific, unique, pressing issues, and address those.

i want to know, right now, today, where to buy a swim buoy. i want to know this answer from USAT’s staff. i want to know how i can get this cheaper and quicker, because of how USAT has intervened on my behalf. unless, of course, private industry is filling this need for me. this is a big forum. everybody reads it. i’d like to know the answers to this question within the hour, with specificity. how, where, how much, how big, what color, and how USAT has aided in the acquisition, and helped get the price down. same with swim caps. where’s my fifty-cent swim caps?

i think these are two of twenty issues that would help make races easier, cheaper, more seemless to put on. only after USAT masters the art of the possible, and of the necessary, should it venture further. USAT should aspire to higher math, no problem there, but it should pass arithmetic before tackling calculus.

27

I would suspect that advertisers would realize that the USAT magazine’s readers would be members, not necessarily subsribers. Do you really think they care? What they care about is whether or not x number of people are going to see their ad.

28

What opening page?

29

Actually I would suspect that some advertisers don’t know. Many people currently throw away the USAT mag without a glance. I bet quite a few marketing people don’t really know what they are being sold. That said I don’t really care as well as USAT has to compete on a level field. My main problem with all of this is that in my mind what i want USAT to be doing (putting on good National championships, helping local RD keep quality up and cost down, universally good officiating) they are doing poorly at, while at the same time trying to compete with others that are doing fine in some areas.

Styrrell

30

The page where Slowman schools us on a variety of subjects.

31

this goes back to my questioning of USAT previously about the Mission Statement…which remains an ambiguous conglomeration.

kinda hard to find direction when there remains none to start with.

32

“…what i want USAT to be doing…” therein lies the rub. don’t see anything close to those items in the mission statement.

www.usatriathlon.org – “USA Triathlon’s mission is to provide excellence in leadership, structure and education for the growth and development of the sport.”

33

If marketing people pay money to USAT to advertise based on the number of subscribers without investigating how that number is determined then they deserve what they get. It isn’t like USAT is hiding this information from them.

USAT is only going to publish once a quarter, so where are the ad dollars going during the other months? To the private magazines. If those magazines do a good job selling themselves they will not lose out to a USAT quarterly. Further, if USAT doesn’t do a good job producing a well read magazine (and many have predicted they won’t) then advertisers are going to look at the lack of results for their investment and go with the lower circulation but more highly read private magazines.

The bottom line is that this new competition from USAT for advertisers should be seen as an opportunity by publishers to show advertisers what is good about their publication.

That is my two pennies.

34

Your article was though provoking and here are some of my thoughts:

  1. Of the three sports that make up triathlon, only USAT governs their amateur members as such. Only USA Cycling is somewhat like USAT but it is an umbrella with USCF, one of its associates, governing the amateurs. USA Swimming(Oly) - USMS(AG), UST&F(Oly) - RRCA(AG).

  2. Gilbert has a business model in the magazine department. USMS split with their private magazine publisher and now publish in-house. Their magazine is really pretty good, too.

  3. USAT has what Canada and Sweden have, a small, homogeneous population, and this makes governance and government provided entitlements easy and possible. This has been especially true since WTC took away their recalcitrant, irrascible and dysfunctional Ironman athletes. To back up this statement, how many of you have seen the USAT corporate logo tatooed to any part of anyone’s body?

  4. Let’s say Active offers insurance. Does this mean an RD, like those who run USAT and have you and I purchase insurance to protect themselves, not us, will say, “Sure, you can do my race without a USAT card, your insurance is good.” Ask Brad Jaeger how many USAT RD’s accepted the fact that you purchased insurance for his race and, therefore, you’re covered for theirs.

  5. I know for a fact that the Gran Prix series was well thought out as I was asked to furnish a list of races in my region at least two weeks prior to the board meeting where the races were chosen.

I think that USAT should be the USOC’s governing body and a group of RD’s should get together, form their own organization for amateurs, puchase insurance and include the cost of that insurance in their registration fees. Anyone, and, I mean anyone, who can swim, bike and run can come to race anytime and any place they want. If you finish in the top 10%, you qualify for their national championship in Hilton Head, SC.

Bob Sigerson

35

The roots of all evil lie in the weakness and unwillingness of triathletes to care about their governing body. Remind me of the percentage of USAT member that voted at the last election ?

Sure, it is always easy to bitch about the few who stick their neck out for next to nothing in return. It is also very easy to get on the board, stirr things up and then leave (a heap of chaos behind).

On the other hand everybody is happy getting ripped off by people who are in the sport for the real big money, because they apparently take care of you (and your thinking).

I don’t think there is any hope for a reasonable democratic, impartial and/or well organized national governing body. Until now, Triathlon was no really very attractive for big business. But this is over and now the ugly beast rears its head (so to speak) and we probably will go the way of all other self governed sports.

Dan knows very well that the carrot of “cheaper races” will draw a crowd. As any other good entrepreneur he also knows that after the feeding frenzy is over, satisfaction will be lasting just long enough to not directly associate this with the following headache (the athletes having no influence and say at all about their sport).

Anybody see parallels to politics and the state of democracy in general?

Really intriguing and fascinating, but very sad…

36

To clarify…they (USAT) are not at this time setting up their own races – with the exception of the international distance nationals. For the grand prix series they are selecting an existing race in each of the 10 regions (in most cases nominated by the volunteer regional board of directors and reviewed on-site by national staff,) for each distance. This is a chance to elevate the experience and offer age-groupers championship quality races, largely created and run by independent RD’s. Each race will have its own regional flavor but the quality standard will be assured. In most cases they were prior or current USAT regional championships. It appears to meet the purpose of promoting and expanding the availability of quality triathlons for the age-group athlete. USAT (as an entity) gets no apparent financial return for creating the Grand Prix series.
Care to explain the rationale behind picking the Columbia Triathlon, which is sold out, as the Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship? Not much of a championship if you can’t enter it, now is it?

37

You know what Dan, you have a lot of moxie here. Heck you were on the the 3 person committee that found and moved the Board to hire Skip and you know what it was for a change one of the really brilliant things you did on your short stint as a USAT Board member. Skip is doing a GREAT job. The magazine is not in competition with anyone, it’s a service to the membership of USAT, you know part of the that $30.00 they pay each year for an annual membership. As to publications getting upset, John Duke sat on the Board for 6 years did nothing except pass out running shoes to selected Board members and tried to maneuver the Board to use Triathlete Magazine more. He had no interest whatsoever in the future of the Federation other then what it could do for his magazine.

I was with Skip just yesterday, I don’t think from what he personally told me that you printed his portion of your interview with him, either correctly or with impartiality. To my knowledge USAT at this point has not intention of entering the race registration business. To paint the picture that USAT is declaring war on all the economic entities of the sport is a real s-t-r-e-t-c-h! True there has been research on doing on line registration but in no way has it gone beyond that.

You know I get real tired of you trying to foist the WTC/USAT dispute at USAT’s feet every other day. WTC in fact started this mess and USAT has done it’s best to protect it’s assets, resources and governance from a commercial enterprise that only seeks to improve it’s bottom line at the expense of the triathlete consumer.

You had a chance to make a difference positively when you were elected to the Board but like some others I know in the sport you chose to “Cut and run”. Now you find it expedient to sit on the side and criticize. Sounds like you are exploiting a situation here to build your site and thus make more money. Gee, what a novel idea.

Next time you write an article, try and keep your personal bias out of it and act like a real news person and do it with impartiality. If not at least have the credibility to say you are editorializing.

Jack Weiss

38

Jack - thanks for posting and for your insights. Every journalist, no matter how hard they try not to, is going to “spin” a story one direction or another. To me it all boils down to “how is USAT going to serve its members.” Slowman obviously thinks it should do so more indirectly by using the ‘trickle down theory’ (i.e. by helping out the race directors, we will get what every AG wants, which is more and cheaper races, etc). USAT is taking a different tack and going directly to the consumers (for many things, not all).

I don’t disagree with either party, really. I am very happy USAT plans to scrap its current publication (which I will admit, I only read about 1/10th of because it is so boring), and think many smaller races will enjoy being able to use a USAT resource for registration.

I’ll admit as a “basic” age grouper, I could really care less if the National Championships are held in Timbuktu (I’ll never go, I mostly only do local races). In this, I’d bet I represent 85 - 90% of AGers in USAT. USAT doesn’t fit the mold of USA Swimming where the national meets are huge, prestigious events that everyone aspires to that are held in the best facilities (ala the Univ of Texas Swim Center - sorry, had to get a props in for my alma mater). USAT age groupers are mostly doing it for fun and fitness and just want fun, safe races that are close to home. If you look at the age demographics, USAT should be comparing itself to USMS and not USA Swimming.

Man, I am rambling here. Anyway - I looked at the USAT web site and didn’t see much on some of the issues Slowman is addressing. I think it would be great if you - or someone related to USAT - would post a little more info on what USAT is planning.

Thanks again for your insight.

39

Jack,

Can you clarify something for me? It’s pertaining to who did what to whom as regards the WTC/USAT split. As I’ve been told, USAT refused to allow the foot-down procedure at a WTC race, even though it had allowed it at another race within the previous few weeks. If this is true, that’s a mighty big line in the sand.

From day one, IM has always received rule-waivers. Some of these waivers could be judged in the “potentially dangerous” category. Why the refusal on this one. Philosophically, WTC has always been accorded the respect it has earned and deserves. Picking a fight with a wealthy nine hundred pound gorilla doesn’t make sense. Did somebody just say “it’s time”?

This whole thing is one helluva distraction. How am I supposed to concentrate on my training?

40

Ask Brad Jaeger how many USAT RD’s accepted the fact that you purchased insurance for his race and, therefore, you’re covered for theirs.

Bob, not quite sure what you meant by that, but insurance that I bought covered the RD, his staff, the town, police and anyone that was involved in organizing the race, as it should. It involved making sure that we had everything covered. 400+ races - no lawsuits - must’ve done a pretty good job.

It said in the waiver, that you are responsible for not being stupid (paraphrasing) and that you have your own insurance to cover accidents that either are accidents or something that is caused by your own stupidity.

If anything happenend that was our fault or our negligence, then we would be responsible.

I just think that if someone wants to purchase the extra insurance that USAT offers to cover the athlete, then they can have that opportunity (which is a very nice benefit) But if I have BC/BS which I’m paying $350 a month for coverage, then why do I have to pay and additional $9 per race for med insurance.?