Competitor drops support for elite athletes immediately - runblogrun

I ran the PDR (1:09) in the early '80's as well as the Philadelphia Marathon (2:24) which is still held in November. I remember when Mark Curp (I have a bad memory) ran a 1/2 Marathon WR in the early 80's at the PDR. Did he run 60:27?---

Competitor Group should invest in elite athletes.

Using CGI's logic, should all colleges and universities cancel all sports except profitable ones (Football) because they dont make money on that particular sub-division of their business of educating people for a profit?

I would be suprised if CGI is prepared to prove it will re invest all the money (over 7 figures as they say) into promoting fitness and their "brand" of running. Since they said "over 7 figures" does that mean they spent at least $10M (which is where 8 figures starts)?

Another thing: They made a big mistake by not keeping their commitment to those elites who are scheduled to run the Philly Half in less than 2 weeks! That stinks.

30:45X-C1978 wrote:

Using CGI's logic, should all colleges and universities cancel all sports except profitable ones (Football) because they dont make money on that particular sub-division of their business of educating people for a profit?

College sports are not at all comparable to Competitor's situation. You cannot use their logic like that.

Whom are you to tell people what logic they can use or not use?

So basically private equity operations are actively dismantling the sport and redistributing the assets in a way that will make road races more "fun" for the average participant who's just running to finish. People training to compete (no pun intended) don't bring in any profit and therefore don't matter at all. The silver lining for me is that I'm going to start reading Toni Reavis' blog that I just learned about. There's some really cool stuff on there.

Great insight. Thanks for this.

Well of course. This is not the first race to drop the elite category and it won't be the last.

This has been rumored for years. Even before the buyout. The races generate a LOT of revenue...Elite Racing was formed with good intentions but the whole ship started to go under when they expanded so quickly. The head guys used to be quickly accessible but now forget about it.

Oh well I lost all desire to watch or participate in anything having to do with R&R series a long time ago.

(although Portugal half was great in 2011 and Madrid was awesome last year).

I can see this elite trend happening to a lot of other races. I hear the soft grumbling and snippy remarks about another Kenyan winning the race from selected organizers and media types. So much for the meritocracy.

The Kenyans or East Africans have been used as pawns as races scrambled to achieve recognition over the last 20 years. So having a host of Kenyans, even if they were B,C or D grade carried a certain cache. And it made everyone feel kinda good to award prize money to a needy hard working African. But that glowing effect has worn thin.

And since no one cares who wins the race or what the times are (mass audience..and in many cases most of the running staff/organizers)this elimination of the elite category was inevitable.

Again, I see this as the start of a new American trend.. First smaller races then who knows? I wonder when NYM and Chicago will go this route? They will lose gold label status but who cares as their bottom line will increase. Perhaps when the current tv deals expire?

I will repeat this. The explosion of participation in marathons at first seemed glorious but the glow quickly faded, especially amongst those that used to hustle out to obscure road races in the 70's and early 80's. On site registration, multi-tasking workers who knew your name or face.. Races were the price of a matinee movie and just as fun.

I keep thinking how perhaps Avery Brundage (who was considered archaic by the early seventies) was right when he said money ruins sport.

The one thing I don't understand is these races depend on a large number of volunteers. Why should someone volunteer for a company that is lining its pocket. If they suddenly had to pay people to work the water stations, finish lines and expos they would be out of business tomorrow.

What about the sponsors of the Rock and Roll series? Brooks has been doing a pretty good job of supporting elite running, between Hansons and the mid-distance team they just set up. They're a big Rock and Roll sponsor, and it would be nice to see them do something. I think Powerbar sponsors a pretty good number of runners too, and they're a Rock and Roll sponsor. It's a big event and seeing as the sponsors all care first and foremost about their bottom line, they certainly won't pull funding altogether, but a little pressure wouldn't hurt anyone.

Ritz ran Philly last year and was thinking about running it again this year. Too bad.

One needs only to look at the Steamboat (CO) Marathon to see how far elite races will fall without top runners. As soon as Steamboat stopped bringing in elite runners, the winning times shot up. I believe last year's winning time is 20 min off the course record and perhaps a half dozen runners under 3 hr. Having viewed the demise over the last decade (as a competitor and volunteer), I really have no enthusiasm for the sport of road racing as it stands now. The racers have turned to runners and most are joggers.

otto wrote:

runasfastasucanforaslongasucan wrote: I also remember when John Hancock took over Boston and they paid appearance fees for Japanese runners to come over. I believe a couple ran just under 3 hrs for a training run and was paid about $30k.

Some good points, thanks. I just have difficulty believing the above because it is so un-japanese. Can you show some evidence?

I think it was Takeyuki Nakayama that I went by near mile 18(?) at Boston in 1991 and I went 2:56 that day. I remember a discussion on TV or in the paper that he was injured but had to finish in order to collect his appearence fee.

My memory has a lot of miles since then and it possibly could have been a different runner as Nakayama is not shown in the results booklet...or he did DNF and not colect. The memory of Nakayama wearing the face of his watch on the inside of his wrist reminds me he was the guy

I've not gone through all of the postings, but this announcement shouldn't come as a surprise. Businesses and corporations follow a very simple formula for success: increasing revenues while reducing costs.

I've never participated in a RNR race. It's not my thing. I could give a rat's a$$ about bands along the course, a medal, what is in the goodie bag and whether I get a tech t-shirt. (don't get me started on 10,000 people paying $60 for a Hot Chocolate 8K). I can't think of a single instance where I've made a decision to run a race based on the amenities offered by the organizer. But I suspect I'm in the minority because I know these races are wildly popular.

Jack and Jane mid-packer don't care about some Kenyan they've never heard of winning a race. However race organizers know that Jack and Jane mid-packer cover the costs, post pictures on line, tell their friends, etc., so they're going to focus their attention on them - which frankly, makes good business sense. The money that was spent on the elites can now be spent on getting another band, a bigger medal or more cheer teams at mile markers. This is what the masses want - and that's what they're going to get.

The reality is the money spent on the elites added nothing to their bottom line. It was an expense that was no longer justified. These races are going to sell-out / be at capacity whether or not the organizers bothered to recruit elites. It may be an issue to the true fans of the sport, but for the majority of the running public, they won't bat an eye.

Fred Gwynne wrote:

The one thing I don't understand is these races depend on a large number of volunteers. Why should someone volunteer for a company that is lining its pocket. If they suddenly had to pay people to work the water stations, finish lines and expos they would be out of business tomorrow.

I agree entirely. A for-profit-business model that relies on people donating their services makes no sense. MLB doesn't expect people to volunteer at ticket booths, as ushers, or to sell concessions, so why should Competitor.

Do the people donating their time to RnR races know that they are just donating labor to a private equity firm so that it can get a bigger return on its investment?

Competitor is really just taking advantage of the non-profit, volunteer-driven ethos of races to be able to rake off the value that volunteers donate for free into higher returns for investors.

jx10 wrote:I can see this elite trend happening to a lot of other races. I hear the soft grumbling and snippy remarks about another Kenyan winning the race from selected organizers and media types. So much for the meritocracy.

The Kenyans or East Africans have been used as pawns as races scrambled to achieve recognition over the last 20 years. So having a host of Kenyans, even if they were B,C or D grade carried a certain cache. And it made everyone feel kinda good to award prize money to a needy hard working African. But that glowing effect has worn thin.

THIS!!!

St Pete's was just cancelled:

http://tbo.com/article/20130903/ARTICLE/130909865

So was Pasadena:

http://runrocknroll.competitor.com/pasadena/important-information-about-rock-n-roll-pasadena?icat=rnr-website_marquee_read_more&icamp=ROCK-%5C%27N%5C%27-ROLL-PASADENA%3A-IMPORTANT-INFORMATION

Some truth in this. Especially because so few races bother to engage elites in PR and promo ops. Local media is almost always clueless too. But, take the elite competition out of a race, and you get just another fun run/ turkey trot hobby jogger fun fest. Enjoyable maybe, but also completely forgettable. The real choice in growing a noteworthy event is not whether to have elite competition or not, but whether to handle the elite competition correctly or not.