I just received an Email from WTC concerning the serious damage to the roads up in Lake Placid. They are donating $5 G’s toward the rebuilding process and are asking for donations from athletes to also help.
They mention that both the run coarse and bike course are effected.
Thinking about it i can see why, both courses hug the local rivers and streams which surely overflowed during Irene’s visit.
Anyone from the area care to elaborate?
Ron W.
Was the Syracuse area hit by this too ?
I spoke to the guys at Placid Planet yesterday and they said that there has been major damage on a number of the roads that are used for both the bike and the run at IMLP.
As pointed out, parts of both courses hug the banks of rivers. All of these rivers, particularly down in valleys and at lowers levels( Keene) were heavenly flooded and inundated with water.
All things considered, IMO, it seems like WTCs donation of only 5k is rather minuscule. I would think 10x that amount would be more appropriate for an investment company their size that touts “giving back to the community” via IM foundation slots.
Seems like WTC could hit up their sponsors for this. PepsiCo/Gatorade always looking to promote their good works.
Does anyone know if there is a possibility that the race is called off?
Feel sorry for all the chaps who volunteered their time to get a spot for next year if they call the race off. What little bit extra money I have will go to the red cross to help PEOPLE!!! not so WTC can make money off a event.
I just received an Email from WTC concerning the serious damage to the roads up in Lake Placid. They are donating $5 G’s toward the rebuilding process and are asking for donations from athletes to also help.
They mention that both the run coarse and bike course are effected.
Thinking about it i can see why, both courses hug the local rivers and streams which surely overflowed during Irene’s visit.
Anyone from the area care to elaborate?
Ron W.
Oh how cute WTC wants the athletes to donate money. at 500 a person and 2500 people, maybe they could oh I dunno call it a wash and break even this year on one race or two to make the participants happy.
I already made my donation when I was charged $600/night with a 5 night minimum.
Typical Slowtwitch posters, somebody or some company tries to do some good and within a few posts people bitch.
If you havent already donated some serious cash then shut the fuck up!
Seriously. I don’t think a company should ever be reprimanded for donating $5,000 (when they could’ve donated $0) to a local community.
You’ll be hard pressed to find many other race promoters dropping that sort of fliff.
WTC, I applaud you.
Typical Slowtwitch posters, somebody or some company tries to do some good and within a few posts people bitch.
If you havent already donated some serious cash then shut the fuck up!
Attitude problem much??
Context is everything and in this case its like WTC is trying to look good by giving money to a city. The problem is they make exponentially more money than that every year on the race so it actually looks bad. If you were making 200k a year and your neighbors house just burned down and lost everything and you offered to give the family 5 bucks for food for the night it would look pretty crappy too, then asking your neighbors to pitch in cause you only want to spend 5 bucks makes it look worse. Sometimes as a business you need to do the right thing and in this case doing the right thing is breaking even or taking a loss for one race for the year, to make up for all the money the city has allowed them to make by having the event there for how every many years. 2500 x 500 = 1.25 MILLION dollars, even if they are only making a 10 percent profit margin, they can donate a heck of a lot more than 5k to salvage a race, make their customers happy AND give back to a city that from what it sounds like is on the verge of wanting IM gone from the town.
Couldn’t agree more. I did it once and won’t go back for that reason alone. No other U.S. race is that bad in that sense.
http://gallery.me.com/mirrera#100125/IMG_4764&bgcolor=black
Posted by EN’s Pat McCrann on Twitter yesterday has several pics of the area.
-I am the one with the attitude problem?
-Why, because I am willing to call out people for being asshole?
-Which is a worse attitude, calling people out whose only contribution is to bitch about a company not donating what they want them to donate?
-Good lord I am embarrassed to say I went to Drake when I see a fellow Bulldog defend that kind of attitude.
Yes, most people that say “shut the F up” to a bunch of people they don’t know would be considered having an attitude. I’ve already gone over my opinion on the donation so i’m not going to rehash that. I don’t think people are calling people out for WTC donating, but given how much they make on the race every year and asking the race participants to donate so they can still put on the race and make money from it seems a little silly. You’re embarrassed because I went to the same school and have a different opinion than you on a corporations donation in one particular case? I’m sorry you feel that way, but I think you’re taking it a little overboard.
Hey guys…I had the pleasure of working with WTC on this. The bottom line is that they are trying to do something here to help the local community. Keep in mind that there are around 70 communities that they have events at, each of which can be affected by something.
Some individuals were try to individually raise funds and it made sense that if things were coordinated through the WTC, they would have a far larger reach of athletes who could be contacted. As far as I’m concern, WTC could donate zero, but by them coordinating things we as athletes can collectively give back far more to the community of Lake Placid than an individual corporation actually can.
We don’t have access to WTC’s books, as they are a private corporation as for all we know, they are operating on fairly razor thin margins like many companies. We can all guess at the top line and bitch about them, but we don’t know their cost structure.
Bottom line is that several folks at WTC were very active in trying to get something going for the community. Rather than bitch about it, we can do our part (regardless of what we think WTC should or should not do) or just shut up and move on. $5K and doing all the leg work to communicate to athletes and setting up the infrastructure to get the collective donations to the community and set it up as tax refundable, is plenty of work from their side as far as I’m concern.
Now let’s stop bitching in here and help Lake Placid:
Yes, most people that say “shut the F up” to a bunch of people they don’t know would be considered having an attitude. I’ve already gone over my opinion on the donation so i’m not going to rehash that. I don’t think people are calling people out for WTC donating, but given how much they make on the race every year and asking the race participants to donate so they can still put on the race and make money from it seems a little silly. You’re embarrassed because I went to the same school and have a different opinion than you on a corporations donation in one particular case? I’m sorry you feel that way, but I think you’re taking it a little overboard.
Different opinion? You personally attacked me while defending people who feel that they know best what a company should donate while not doing a damn thing themselves. That’s not a different opinion, that’s just being a dick to someone who made a valid point that happens to rip on you as well.
What an embarrassment.
In fairness to WTC, their presence is a major economic injection into Lake Placid. The area makes much more off than Ironman than the Ironman makes off Lake Placid…a person paying a $600 entry fee is paying $1200 in hotels alone on race week…that’s before any other expenses like training camps on other weeks, shopping, clothing, restaurant expenses etc…so the burden of helping LP is not entirely on WTC…also keep in mind the the entire ski industry that makes plenty through the winter and needs those roads fixed. Bottom line, all business need to pitch in at this time of need. WTC is making an effort here and more importantly are instrumental in mobilizing the entire triathlon community…mobilizing all of us to help is much more impactful than anything an individual company does.
thanks
Dev
We don’t have access to WTC’s books, as they are a private corporation as for all we know, they are operating on fairly razor thin margins like many companies. We can all guess at the top line and bitch about them, but we don’t know their cost structure.
Bottom line is that several folks at WTC were very active in trying to get something going for the community. Rather than bitch about it, we can do our part (regardless of what we think WTC should or should not do) or just shut up and move on. $5K and doing all the leg work to communicate to athletes and setting up the infrastructure to get the collective donations to the community and set it up as tax refundable, is plenty of work from their side as far as I’m concern.
First of all, some of us aren’t bitching we are having a convo about it, its great that you’re trying to help out and I applaud that. But given this is a more or less open forum, I’ll have whatever discussion I want on the subject. We’re all allowed to have our opinions and express them.
As far as them possibly operating on razor thin margins, well I hope that was supposed to be in pink. When you sell out almost all of your races within a week if you are on razor thin margins you’re doing something wrong.
I hope they do raise enough money to get the roads fixed and continue having races there, that doesn’t mean I have to believe they are doing all they can do.