I would be fine if the ATC did not have an elite team or a master's team. The ATC has about 30,000 members paying let's say 35.00 each for a total of 1,050,000.00 dollars annually in yearly dues (let's call it 1 million due to families getting a discount etc.)
When they just had the competitive team (Open + Masters) maybe 40 individuals were reimbursed 600.00 per year or a total of 24,000.00 (less than 2.5% of membership dues) in return, the competitive team members were asked to volunteer at 2 ATC events per year and wear ATC singlets during races as well as ATC shirts during the awards ceremony to promote the club. The masters' team won several national championships and individual championships. The ROI with the master's team could be questioned but I do see the value of having a team as the cost is minimal (no hired personnel to run the team / you coached yourself and filled out your own reimbursement and submitted it)
The elite team costs a good bit. They brought on 2 full time coaches, strength and cond. coach, performance coach and a few more staff related personnel. They built a very nice state of the art training center (weights etc.) and are paying runners to run while compensating them for travel/meals etc. I have no idea what that is costing the club, but I would venture to guess north of 400K a year or more than 40% of the revenue from yearly memberships. I 100% do not see the ROI with the elite team. Virtually nobody knows who these runners are as distance running is just not a mainstream popular sport in the USA with TV contracts etc.
It will be interesting to see the future of the elite team in Atlanta as I did not think it was a good idea when they formed the team and I still see it that way. With that being said, having the team or not does not affect me as I am no longer a ATC member.