Dear Flotrack haters

I don't hate the idea, I hate the piss poor quality. They don't get a pass just for trying.

RE: Bad news - Flotrack just bought the rights to the Dubai Marathon - Put it behind its paywall 1/20/2017 6:17AM - in reply to LetsRun.com

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Flo understands that there is an inverse relationship between number of viewers and the price they charge. They also understand that a pay-per-event format results in a far more volatile cash flow stream (lenders and other partners prefer a more predictable cash flow stream, all else constant). Anyhow, taking these trade-offs into consideration, Flo should charge the price which maximizes their revenue. I, for one, think Flo charges a reasonable price for the niche product they provide. However, I do think they should experiment with pay-per-event pricing as it would shed light on the demand curve for their product ($1-$5 for events like MtSAC, Griak, and Wisco, Regionals, $10 for Penn Relays, NCAAs, FL, NXN, maybe $10-$20 for indoor/outdoor nationals). They might find that a $1 charge (for example) to watch only Dubai might have generated more revenue than they expected (tho many would still grumble that it isn't 'free').

$20 a month is a lot for me.

I dont like Flotrack but the OP is advocating the right idea.

The common running interest goer needs to understand that your vieweship and interest in running sports does not monetize itself any longer. You received free content in the past because of the perfect internet market conditions where sites like Flotrack or milesplit could copy and paste in some AdSense code and simply get to work while the rest takes care of itself. The conditions are much, much different now.

0/10

Anyone who would begin a thread's subject line with "Dear" is not one of us.

No hate here just constructive criticism or cannot that be given in a PC world?

onceafastcat wrote:

No hate here just constructive criticism or cannot that be given in a PC world?

Constructive criticism is welcome in any world.

Bad advice is another thing.

onlyguywithabrain wrote:

$20 a month is absolutely nothing to pay if you actually care about supporting our sport and it's naive and ignorant for you to think flotrack can exist or continue to grow without making money somehow.

Take a breath and do some thinking and then say thank you to flotrack for existing and promoting our sport.

I have no problem throwing $20 toward supporting our sport. I have a huge problem throwing $20 per month to a business that provides both poor value and a poor product. Flotrack is a business trying to profit off our sport, it is not our sport itself.

If I had a kid whose meets I couldn't attend but could stream, or if I were a coach or professional making my living be being informed of performances then I would have a different opinion of the value.

But a significant portion of Flotrack's market, and most of the people complaining here are either HS/collegiate runners with much better things to spend $20 / month on, or just fans of the sport who don't have interest or time to spend hours a day on Flotrack to get $20 worth of viewing or value out of it.

It should be called FloCo not FloPro.

If you want to watch college track meets great. Most of us don't.

Make it so the few pro meets you have I can watch without subscribing

And let's not pretend that colleges with Facebook live youtube could pretty easily streamy heir own meets these days.

pot kettle wrote:

onceafastcat wrote:

No hate here just constructive criticism or cannot that be given in a PC world?

Constructive criticism is welcome in any world.

Bad advice is another thing.

Just checking. We wouldn't want to hurt the entitled generations feelings and force them to walk away while pouting and crying...

I am a fan of FloTrack. It is a niche market and runners, generally speaking, are pretty much tight wads. Like to see them succeed and further increase the coverage of our sport without so much 20-30 year old ridiculous banter.

IP check? 10 to 1 this is an Austin IP.

If they provided a quality product you may have a point, but they don't. Plus, the bulk of the events they broadcast no one wants to see unless you are a parent or grandparent.

The events that people do want to watch, such as the Dubai marathon, can easily be found through other sources.

Their all or nothing approach is just terrible. As has been said before Pay Per View would allow viewers a chance to purchase viewing the meets they want, without having to subsidized all that other crap.

Nah, toro caca !

I think running is just fine the way it is.

Get Flostack otta here.

But I am glad you think I am dear to you.

Let me play devil's advocate. I'll take a few or your arguments 1 by 1.

1) If colleges are so concerned about the parents watching little Jonny run, why doesn't the college get an injured runner, a tripod and a cheap camera - hell even a phone - and stream it live for free on youtube. It's not hard in the year 2017 to stream. Colleges stream women's volleyball and basketball matches all the time.

The whole "promoting our sport" argument drives me nuts. Flosports is a for profit company that just took $20 million in VC money. If you want to simply promote the sport, get the USTFCCA to mandate that every college steam the meets live on youtube for free.

Or have the college do it themselves and then reinvest that money back into the program instead of the back pockets of a VC investor.

There's nothing wrong with making a ton of money. I just hate it when companies say it's about something else than the money.

This sounds like an ad. Hmmm. FloTrack certainly saw all the negative responses, and this is what they do?

Flotrack is just the beloved free market at work. Don't wanna pay $20 for a stream? Ask Rojo to get a loan from daddy to purchase the streaming rights and broadcast here for free.

It IS the free market at work...and as you know, free markets correct themselves, partly with the aid of consumer interactions. Such discussions foster corrections. They will not remain viable - or they won't maximize their profits (marginal revenue = marginal costs) if they do not correct.

re: "$20 a month is absolutely nothing to pay"

I disagree, when I was a student, $20 was my total monthly discretionary budget. I am a FloPro member and appreciate the coverage, but I think the cost to value is low; $10 a month would be better. Perhaps they should at least have $10 student plan. Btw, there is absolutely nothing wrong with making a buck, even off of running if you are providing useful service.

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What decent college or school doesn't have a fairly large video/design department that couldn't stream their own meets in a half professional manner. Use the injured or alumni runners to help plan and commentate but let the school stream. Sounds like it would be good experience for students wanting to go into that line of business.