So here’s something that kinda bugs me about your commentary. You seem to never be able to keep it down the middle. Like 100% he’s “spending money”, but why you can’t credit that the PTO is at min putting together a professional league for the next 2-3 years to give itself a chance, is beyond me. Like I do not think in a million years this is going to be long term successful. But I’m not going to then shit on them because imo they are pretty much doing everything they can to take the best product to market. Again the PTO “success” bar is so hard that it’s likely not going to make it because imo a 3+ hour triathlon race imo just isn’t going to push through an already very busy sports worldwide sports culture. But to the PTO’s credit- they are doing the steps necessary to put it itself in a position of success. So if this fails, it’s because the “general public” won’t buy in…not because they “penny pinched” or they lacked the funds to make it work…or they didn’t get talent to the races. And so imo that deserves a ton of credit and I don’t know that it’s just 1 billioniare doing this as a tax write off at this point and investment structure anymore. That was 2-3 years ago, not now.
ETA: It can end up a failure and that not necessarily mean it was a “negative” for the sport. Like shit on them for many things if you must, but atleast give them some credit for “going for it” and putting their best pro tri series forward with real investment and help for the pro’s. It may not make it long term (which is my guess/thoughts) but at least they have got the investment and capital an abiility to what broadcast into what 1/2 the countries in the world. So not every angle has to be shitted on them imo.
Honestly, I’m a huge fan of triathlon. I watch tons of races. I post way too much on this forum My biggest issue with the PTO and why I may be unwilling to “credit” them is they continue to maintain this level of being an “athletes advocacy organization” which it is 100% not. Shed that completely and we’ll see where I land.
But also?** My wife raced PTO USO Open Dallas**. I’m very cynical as you can tell. I saw how much they spent there, and then I do the math. It just doesn’t make sense to me…because I work in this space. Where the start up organization I work in spends a boatload of money. But there is a shot we succeed. We’re selling tickets, sponsorship, merch, broadcast rights. There are no tickets for the PTO 100, as Dev says, the spectators are actually amateurs that race at the same time as the pros. Just like Super League, I don’t get it from a business perspective. But at least SuperLeague understands that where they will make their money is mass participation. Does Renouf understand that? (I hope so, he ran a race registration platform)
As a pro?
The Amateur Race or are we now calling them side races something else so we can bifurcate and obfuscate to support whatever point of view we have?
I think the PTO simply went about it the wrong way to get into the fold. No one is ever going to be able to stand/represent the “pro field” because well there just isn’t enough money to properly act as an player repgresentation group. I mean they’ve culled the “advantages” from basically the start from what the top 100 to the top 50 to now basically their own series group only. So if that’s the biggest beef cool.
But I think beyond that this attempt at and actual success or failure is not really attached to that “hatred”. Who cares if they don’t sell tickets, they are now going to have a broadcast product in what half the countries in the world. That’s there avenue for sucess- a triathlon product will NEVER have “ticket sales”, so that’s not even necessary (unless they go to an 100% on site track type of facility).
When you say you work in this space, what space is that? Start up businesses? You seem very closed minded if that’s the case, or your trying to bring your “field” sport experience to this, which this sport is never going to be an “in person” experience. LOL it’s raced in front of miles and miles of open road, the broadcast is THE product, so I think you get caught up on the details that don’t matter and then peg their pelt to the wall on that justification.
So all I’m asking- I think it’s ok to bring a cynical mindset to it, and dissect every detail (I’ve thought their time line of dragging their feet hurts the “insiders” viewpoint on how it’s being run; so I’ve “hated” on the PTO from time to time for their decision making). I just don’t know that every PTO detail is negative that you seem to put on it. Like your hung up on the fact that it’s 1 big investor, yet not realizing they are moving forward with a viable product; so at that point who gives a fuck who or how much the 1 investment is. They’ve taken an idea and making it a reality.
I just dont think your “experience” is necessarily creating valuable discussion points. When you talk about ticket sales, that’s irrelevant in a sport like triathlon unless they go to on site track facilities only. Go look at the London Olympics, I believe they had 20k “paid spectators” and nearly 2million people accessing the triathlon for “free” on the side of the road. So I think they are doing exactly what you want- they are selling broadcast rights, they are getting more sponsors and they are getting the “branding” (T100 race series vs PTO 100 race series name, etc). But you refuse to give them 1% of credit ever, and that’s the part where if you want to talk about your own experience and judgement- you are failing imo as much as you think PTO is.
We’ll have to disagree. Working in start up sports and challenger leagues gives me a perspective on the runway.
But when it comes to everything that comes out they are incredibly disorganized.
Yes. Their broadcast is available in 120 countries. Yet WB Discovery is small investor and won’t even think of putting it on its own platforms in the US. Think about that for a second.
Getting something available is actually incredibly easy once you’ve got the transmission bit down. Yes it’s a success. But what’s important here is what is the runway to ad sales and broadcast rights sales for survival.
You may think ticketing is irrelevant, which is fine. But ticket sales is still 1/3 of NFL revenue. It’s even more for the MLS and more for the NWSL (a start up).
My whole point of that is the economic model of triathlon requires mass participation to sustain it. PTO says a bunch of stuff but has never permitted a race to solely benefit the pro race. They have piggy backed off of other promoters. And now they’re licensing it to RDs, but unwilling to go do it just for 40 athletes. So what does that say about their model of creating a professional racing product.
Dunno, I’ve just looked at the business model and don’t see it. If they last 5 more years we’ll see how it goes.
More money to the top and no money to the bottom has also been one of my issues. Force a bunch of pros to qear your logo and pay them 0.