Competitor drops support for elite athletes immediately - runblogrun

A half marathon in one of the country's most disgusting cities? Non story.

d9d9 wrote:

A half marathon in one of the country's most disgusting cities? Non story.

They're dropping elite athlete support for all of their events.

Fuhk their corporate bs. They've been trending this way for the past several years. Really too bad, but better to clearly understand they are no longer in the business of promoting the competitive end of the sport. Others will fill the void.

Terrible decision. Another nail in the coffin for professional runners trying to scrape by, minimize expenses, and continue to develop post-collegiately.

They need to immediately change their name to Non-Competitor Group.

What about comp'd entries?

Well, duh. The vast, vast majority of people don't care at all about the head of the race. Who, exactly, changes their purchasing decisions based on whether some company flies in a 2:16 marathoner to run Philly or not?

Very simple....

Let every City Council who has not just allowed Competitor to operate its business on their city streets but also provided financial backing to its efforts know that you disapprove.

Do not be confused that Competitor can not put on races in these major cities without their support and their original pitch to these cities was both a) a major sporting event drawing publicity, and b)an event that will put people in hotels.

Do you live in one of these cities? Even if you don't send an email to the Mayor or City Council:

Arizona Jan. 19, 2014

Brooklyn, NY Oct. 12, 2013

Chicago, IL Jul. 20, 2014

Cleveland, OH Oct. 6, 2013

Dallas, TX Mar. 23, 2014

Denver, CO Oct. 20, 2013

Dublin, Ireland Aug. 4, 2014

Edinburgh, Scotland Jun. 29, 2014

Las Vegas, NV Nov. 17, 2013

Lisbon, Portugal Oct. 6, 2013

Liverpool, UK May. 25, 2014

Los Angeles, CA Oct. 27, 2013

Madrid, Spain Apr. 27, 2014

Montreal, Canada Sep. 22, 2013

Nashville, TN Apr. 26, 2014

New Orleans, LA Feb. 2, 2014

Nice, France Feb. 16, 2014

Oslo, Norway May. 31, 2014

Pasadena, CA Feb. 16, 2014

Philadelphia, PA Sep. 15, 2013

Portland, OR May. 18, 2014

Providence, RI Sep. 29, 2013

Raleigh, NC Apr. 13, 2014

San Antonio, TX Nov. 17, 2013

San Diego, CA Jun. 1, 2014

San Francisco, CA Apr. 6, 2014

San Jose, CA Oct. 6, 2013

Savannah, GA Nov. 9, 2013

Seattle, WA Jun. 21, 2014

St. Louis, MO Oct. 27, 2013

St. Petersburg, FL Feb. 9, 2014

Virginia Beach, VA Sep. 1, 2013

Washington DC Mar. 15, 2014

What a shame. I'm already entered in my state's upcoming crap (rock) and don't roll (roll) race. But after this year, I will not be giving the greedy ("competitor") group any money. Instead of Philly, I'll drive up to DC for the Leesburg 20k or Charleston for the 15 miler there.

andre nozick wrote:

What about comp'd entries?

article says they won't be honoring them. I guess this means the competitor grand prix is off. Wonder if their elite athlete coordinator Matt Turnball still has a job.

salty biscuits wrote:

http://www.runblogrun.com/2013/08/competitor-group-cgi-eliminates-any-and-all-support-of-elite-athlete-fields-in-north-american-events.html

Wow. Jaw on the flow kind of wow. What a shame. This isn't happening next year, it's happening NOW.

"RunBlogRun has confirmed that elite athletes for the Philly Half Marathon, which is to be held on September 15, will not have their appearance fees honored nor their travel. While prize money will still be in place, no further support of such developing elite athletes will be supported."

what about the prize money at competitors other events besides the philadelphia half marathon, like carlsbad 5000, if there is prize money the top runners will find a way to get there, friends, family etc. for a while female runner belaynesh gebre would get to a race by a greyhound bus ride it for 3-5 days to get to the race, not have money to eat several days before the race, hope and pray to get enough prize money to get to the next race and home and be able to eat. this is an extremely tough lifestyle/occupation to depend on to get money.

one positive benefit of this is we will return to the days of bill rodgers, craig virgen, herb lindsay,mike musyoki, joan benoit, kjell erik stahl, doug kurtis and currently yuki kawauchi.

our runners will have to race every week or 2. to stay above water financially, going to be a major change for jerry schumakers group who believe in racing as little possible, though some of his guys might be good enough to get some prize money by racing like its a hard tempo run.

"While the sources went to great pains to communicate that the age group grand prix will be continued, the sources also noted that the support that CGI, formerly Elite Racing, Inc., gave to the front end of the sport in North America is gone immediately."

Virginia Runner wrote:

andre nozick wrote:

What about comp'd entries?

article says they won't be honoring them. I guess this means the competitor grand prix is off. Wonder if their elite athlete coordinator Matt Turnball still has a job.

These guys have been crooks since the Mike Long days. I think I have refused to deal with them since 1996. If they're out of the elite game for good, it's best for the sport.

mike long was a great man.

the people who replaced him, never measured up.

TheGarbageDisposal wrote:

"While the sources went to great pains to communicate that the age group grand prix will be continued, the sources also noted that the support that CGI, formerly Elite Racing, Inc., gave to the front end of the sport in North America is gone immediately."

Virginia Runner wrote:

article says they won't be honoring them. I guess this means the competitor grand prix is off. Wonder if their elite athlete coordinator Matt Turnball still has a job.

that is the age group grand prix, not the elite grand prix, a different entity that was to have prize money. I could care less about the age group grand prix. They'll fly people who spent a bunch of money travelling to competitor group races to San Antonio every 2 years for another slow race.

Wow. Just wow. All of the big US road races (not marathons) like Bix, Falmouth, Gasparilla, Crim etc pay transport and lodging for elites AND even top masters elites. If theses races can do it and be profitable, there is no reason competitor can't. I think competitor may have jumped the shark with its RnR product. I know that they have had trouble keeping numbers up at a lot of their races and have had to look to half marathons to make their takeover of marathons viable.

This will be a disaster for elite running in the US. There will be a few big races and then nothing else but a few B team Kenyans doing tempo runs with a hard kick every weekend for a few bucks. Boycott competitor group now.

moron wrote:

Well, duh. The vast, vast majority of people don't care at all about the head of the race. Who, exactly, changes their purchasing decisions based on whether some company flies in a 2:16 marathoner to run Philly or not?

more than you might think.

This is just private equity doing their thing...short term decisions to drive valuation.

Calera Capital bought CGI in late 2012

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Issues/2012/11/30/Finance/Competitor.aspx

The model for PE is to 1) cut costs that have minimal short term impact, 2) increase revenue buy selling into existing distribution channels or bolting on accretive assets, 3) sell to another PE firm after expanding EBITDA but before the core business fails.

Calera hopes to flip CGI to someone else in 3-5 years and make a killing. Down the road, someone will be left holding the bag...but long term view and support of running / athletics isn't part of their mission / strategy / ethic. Calera really is just about making money - they really don't care what happens to sport in the long term.

I think it is bad business, and building loyalty / social capital is the a good way for Calera to expand EBITDA (and it isn't that expensive). Seeing this move to drop support of elites makes me hope CGI craters under their mis-management so Calera can take it on the chin.

Competitor is making an error. The fans and other runner do like and are interested in the elite side of the race, but only mainly the elite Americans who can and will engage with them and be personable.

The correct move on their part would have been to move to American only prize money (or the host country the race is held in) and only pay fees and cover travel only to American runners who will meet some level of promotion for the race (such as expo appearance, autograph session, media availability, etc).

Then they help American (or host country) elite runners and get the bump they want from the fan/participant and media side.

Isn't Frank Shorter one of the original founders? Wonder what he has to say.