Why is growing the sport important?

Triathlon Forum
1

Numerous times a day on here I see people posting about how to grow the sport. Certain rules are bad for growing the sport. Expensive bikes are bad for growing the sport. blah blah blah

My question, why are so many so concerned with growing the sport?

At the end of the day it’s a niche hobby, why are so many people concerned with its growth? I get that IM needs to show growth numbers as a private business but the obsession of some folks here on growing the sport is a little odd to me. What’s preventing you from just enjoying swimming biking and running?

Perhaps it’s just the niche aspect of these forums being the 1% always improving types. But it just seems to me that such a focus on growing something that very clearly has a limited growth cap is a little unhealthy. Is it not okay to be happy with the size of the sport as is?

2

some of us got into it from local races and training groups that are now struggling.

the loss of that is, at least for me, the loss of my interest in the sport. being the one weirdo in my area that trains alone for some thing i have to fly to is very unappealing.

3

Because with more of us, there’s more infrastructure, investment, etc.

And some of us like to keep the lights on around here…

4

growth brings in more competition, rather than just shooting fish in a barrel. having competition usually makes you strive to improve

5

some of us got into it from local races and training groups that are now struggling.

the loss of that is, at least for me, the loss of my interest in the sport. being the one weirdo in my area that trains alone for some thing i have to fly to is very unappealing.

That’s kind of it for me too. Remembering the height of the local races, and missing that. In those days, the local races were the sport, and IM was the the Olympics of our sport we watched on TV. Now IM is the sport, and the local races are pretty much gone. We have one local race left, that struggles to get a turn out. I’m over the cost and travel of the IM events I’ve done, and really can’t see training my ass off for one local event, that might get 50 folks, and if I’m lucky, there might be someone else in my age group. I’ve gone back to the local running scene for my dose of community, and continue to cross train for overall fitness. But my interest, and concern for triathlon as an organized sport, has pretty much died.

6

The only other sport I follow is amateur wrestling. Constantly hear the “grow the sport” thing there as well. As long as there are races for me to race, I’m good.

7

The direction the sport is going, pro triathlon will be on life support, like Xterra, in 5 years. Nobody cares one bit about short course tri other then those racing ITU, they are seen as entry level events or training events to just about everyone else, especially to those who are not into triathlon.

8

i like this. it seems like an obvious question, but once you make people put the “why” in words, its interesting to see, im already very intrigued at some of the responses.

i think to me its as simple as this…if you aren’t growing, then you’re declining. and perpetual decline leads to “extinction”. either literally, or to a point where it equals complete irrelevancy. perhaps on different time scales, but gradually races get discontinued. training groups disappear. swim/bike/run/accessory companies stop caring and making products for our discipline. etc. and before you know it, triathlon as we’ve known it is basically a thing of the past. i agree most with the poster above that said decline would lead to being the only person you know who “does” triathlon, and the nearest race you want to do that works with your schedule is a cross-country flight away, you hate all your equipment, etc etc. it just severely limits our ability to participate and enjoy the activity we all love.

and to me, “stay the same” is equivalent to decline. i don’t think its realistic to say it’s in complete balance and everything is completely stagnant. it’s either growth or decline, even if it’s very small increments. and therefore, you’re either on a trajectory towards growth and survival, or decline and eventual extinction. that decline could take 5 years or 55 years. but as long as the decline is happening, that’s the trajectory you’re on.

9

I agree with those that say the local scene dying is the main product of non growth…that was where my excitement for the sport was focused…it was fun to race in biggish local races and new ones. That has faded (primarily due to Ironman for a multude of reasons mentioned on the forum many times) We still have a decent scene here in Minnesota/Twin Cities but its stagnant at a much lower level. All the things that my 35 year triathlon career enjoyed have faded or are significantly muted…and I believe I have done my last triathlon.

10

Because with more of us, there’s more infrastructure, investment, etc.

And some of us like to keep the lights on around here…

The more people that do it, the less weird it is, and more money comes in, as Ryan said

Unless “weird” is what you’re going for - money might still come in, but from a different direction. Instead of corporate sponsors, you get local - like bakeries, microbreweries, coffee shops, and tattoo joints*; which are all fine with me

  • I’m just making that up, based on who are sponsoring little 5Ks around here; no sprint tri’s or anything
11

My opinion is the growth phase of most things is over. We just haven’t realized it. Obviously new products can grow from the ground up. But existing established products? Nope.

In a product life cycle, triathlon is definitely in the mature/ management stage. Try not to decline. Steal a little market share from other activities, but no major growth is ever coming.

The primary reason is not the product, the rules, the ceos, the coverage, the pros, the prizes. The primary reason is the demographics.

Triathlon is aging, everything is aging. And the next generations are getting fewer and fewer. Combine that with intense competition, and a growth strategy would be wasted investment. No, a maintenance strategy that uses the investment not towards rapid growth that will never come, but towards slow sustainable but inevitably declining replacement is the best way to use resources from a strategic perspective.

No one wants to hear retreat while they still have fight left in them on the battlefield. But if you just found out your munitions factory is putting out half a many bullets as it used to and reinforcements aren’t coming? Time to shore up and even scale back to maintenance positions rather than dream of conquering the world.

Demographics, in the long run, is destiny.

Incidentally, the one maintenance strategy that might work… that allows you to maintain numbers without managing a decline is to tap an underdeveloped segment. Women. We aren’t getting more babies and kids that will age into triathlon. But we do have women who not only look better in spandex than middle aged men, but they don’t feel an instinctual aversion to it.

This is nothing really new, but growth is kind of a misnomer is what I want to point out. Of course, I’m talking about real growth, not little variations based on circumstances of a race opening etc. In general, we should expect steady declines, so anything that pushes against that is really great.

12

On a personal level, I want the sport to grow so that I have more choice. More races, products, competitors, training partners, Slowtwitchers-- more everything. I started out in triathlon in 2015. At that time there were two triathlon stores close to me. Now both are gone-- out of business. I miss shopping in person and chatting with the knowledgeable employees.

From a non-selfish angle, I’d like to see the pros get paid in a way that reflects their immense talent and dedication. A golfer wins the Masters, one of the four majors, and gets $2+ million, a figure considerably more than the entire prize purse for Kona. I’d like to see that discrepancy diminish, which is much more likely if the overall sport is growing.

13

And the golfer looks at a retired football player that signed a 375 million contract with fox and thinks golf is getting screwed.

And that football players x-wife has pictures of herself and makes more that the football player.

People sure put weird values on different skills/traits.

14

Nobody cares one bit about short course tri other then those racing ITU

You should travel outside the USA once in a while.

15

Numerous times a day on here I see people posting about how to grow the sport. Certain rules are bad for growing the sport. Expensive bikes are bad for growing the sport. blah blah blah

My question, why are so many so concerned with growing the sport?

At the end of the day it’s a niche hobby, why are so many people concerned with its growth? I get that IM needs to show growth numbers as a private business but the obsession of some folks here on growing the sport is a little odd to me. What’s preventing you from just enjoying swimming biking and running?

Perhaps it’s just the niche aspect of these forums being the 1% always improving types. But it just seems to me that such a focus on growing something that very clearly has a limited growth cap is a little unhealthy. Is it not okay to be happy with the size of the sport as is?

Yes…I have noticed this growth obsession is a little odd too. The most recent things I have seen is that we have to give free bikes to youth afterschool programs to grow the sport and we have to find a way to build a lap swimming pool in every poverty stricken neighborhood with a minority population to grow the sport. A lot further back was allowing wetsuits for 65+. The focus I have seen have been on spreading the sport to targeted demographics that traditionally have not had a lot of representation in the sport (i.e. senior citizens, youth, minorities, etc.). I am not into marketing or any of its related fields so I don’t know if targeting groups that are not participating is the sport is more effective than targeting groups who are participating in the sport, but I feel that the less politics that you have in a sport the better. Those who naturally gravitate to the sport are being valued less than those who naturally gravitate away from the sport. I say value everyone equally. Do the right thing for the right reasons, not for the numbers.

16

The direction the sport is going, pro triathlon will be on life support, like Xterra, in 5 years. Nobody cares one bit about short course tri other then those racing ITU, they are seen as entry level events or training events to just about everyone else, especially to those who are not into triathlon.

If you ever have a chance and $$, you should considering traveling to Europe and connecting with local athletes.

Back to topic: extremely simple for me, here in Ontario we get tons of great events almost every weekend throughout the Summer. If these smaller events disappear we would be stuck traveling to more expensive Mdot events. It is also a great vibe to see kids racing and developing into future pros through these local races. I know a bunch of middle aged dudes love keeping sports obscure so that they can place a bit better but it is more fun when there is a ton of good athletes.

Also as an spectator: watching Frodo schooling a bunch of LC guys at Kona is a bit boring. Whereas watching four young guys in Kona with SC background racing all the way into the last hour was a lot more exciting. The deeper the field, the better for show.

17

The primary reason is not the product, the rules, the ceos, the coverage, the pros, the prizes. The primary reason is the demographics.

Don’t the next couple of decades look OK as far as demographics in the U.S. IF you can get younger people to do triathlons? There were more people (117 million) born in the U.S. between 1989 and 2017 (ages 6 - 34) than were born between 1960 and 1988 (106 million) (ages 35 - 63).

Total no. of births in the U.S.:
1960-69: 38,808,409
1970-79: 33,308,985
1980-89: 37,499,430
1990-99: 39,965,970
2000-09: 41,416,824
2010-19: 39,150,000
Sources:
https://www.infoplease.com/...and-birth-rates-year
https://www.statista.com/...d-states-since-1990/

As others have written, I just hope there will remain enough interest to keep the local short-course tris afloat for the next decade or more. I’ve been there, done that re: IM and other long course tris.

18

We haven’t seen participation in triathlon from the younger age groups in the same way we saw back in the 80’s. Its slowly shifted to an “older, richer, Ironman focused” sport and I just don’t see it changing…to many things youngers would rather spend time and money on…

…and regarding the post about getting more women involved, they fueled the Triathlon boom in the early 2000’s when women % of field increased significantly in local sprint triathlons…ushering in a boom of local sprints…but it didnt last and after 2012 we started seeing the decline of local participation including women till it reached a very low local level…

19

Well, take a look at Duathlon. At one time it was as popular as triathlon. Actually could find more Du races at one point (and various distances) than triathlons. With the swim being one of the primary reasons people give for not doing a Tri, the Du seemed like a great product. There was a little effort on the part of USAT to promote them, but I only see a handful around. If you only want to do one or two triathlons a year then growth doesn’t matter, but there will only be one or two triathlons for you to do.

20

As somebody whose last tri was over 10 years ago and I’m looking to race again, there are maybe 1/3 of the races now than there were when I stopped.

I bummed at the demise. It’s most likely due to reduced attendance.