On the 5th of December 2015, a cheque for USD1 million was awarded to Daniela Ryf, as the grand prize of HH Sheikh Nasser Bin Hamad’s Triple Crown award. Most commentators are saying that this is a turning point in triathlon and that it will change it, but I completely disagree with this view. What follows is why I think this is irrelevant, and how triathlon can actually change the game properly.
While it is certainly nice for Daniela to get handed such a big cheque, as well as those who are involved in her triathlon career, I do not see this in the same light as others see it. In order to explain why, I have to go back to basics; the basics of money in sports.
Sports that have “decent money” in them tend to have one of two characteristics:
1. They have a very wide reach, in the tens of millions. Examples of this category are football, tennis, etc.
2. They are seen as big betting/gambling sports. Examples of this category are horse racing, boxing, etc.
Let us just stick to the first category, since I do not see triathlon becoming the big betting sport any time soon... And, let’s take tennis as a sample reference for the sake of comparison.
On the day of the Ironman 70.3 World Champs in 2014, it was also the women’s final at the US Open. Those who finished on top at the triathlon race got just over USD100,000 while Serena Williams got handed a cheque for USD4 million.
At the end of December of the same year, 2014, Andy Murray signed a four-year kit sponsorship deal with Under Armour believed to be worth around GBP15 million (USD22-23 million), while there were some top triathletes being evicted from their accommodation for not being able to pay the rent.
The main questions that we need to ask ourselves are why? How?
The “why”: In order to answer this question we need to understand where the money is coming from. Companies pay athletes and sports teams to promote their own brands. This means that the money comes out of marketing budgets of these corporations. Therefore, in order for the money to increase, you need to make sure that the audience of the sport is a. the right target audience, b. the numbers reached are significant, and c. the message of the sport itself needs to be compatible with the company’s image.
If we look at tennis, we know that the target audience is mostly affluent, given the relatively expensive nature of the sport, we also know that the audience of this sport is in the hundreds of millions around the world, and we know that the image that tennis projects is one of relative luxury. This is why companies are willing to spend millions on tennis players and tennis tournaments, since they know that their marketing money will go a very long way. Moreover, if we look at the brands, we see companies such as Rolex, Mercedes, etc. in the forefront of the brands associated with tennis. It all needs to make sense commercially.
Now, looking back at triathlon, we would probably find a following of about a couple of million people worldwide (and I am being extremely generous with this number), with only a fraction of whom who are actually actively following the sport. Companies which are marketing through triathlon do not get any significant exposure, except in very rare occasions.
So, why would a company like Rolex waste its time on triathlon while they have tennis as an alternative? I believe the answer is obvious now. Therefore, we need to start from the position of not comparing at all! Yet, we need to think of ways to actually try and get triathlon to be worth more than what it does now.
The “how”: For triathlon to reach a position anywhere near tennis in terms of marketing worth, it simply needs to be a known mainstream sport. This means that it should not be seen as an unachievable goal, but something that anyone can do (even if they don’t end up doing it). A person who held a tennis racket a couple of times would follow religiously some of the big tournaments and they would know some of the big names in the sport. This is not the case in triathlon.
What needs to happen in triathlon is a drive towards raising the awareness of “normal” people, first of the existence of the sport, second of how they can participate, and third of who are the main names in the sport. And, the definition of “normal” people is really the key to all this, since I know a lot of triathletes who believe that their immediate and extended circles of friends and family to be “everyone”, but they are way off. The only time you’ll know that “normal” people know about triathlon is when you “regularly” open the sports pages of your normal newspapers and find triathlon news, or when you turn on a normal TV channel to follow your local and international triathlon races live (or at least highlights). Not triathlon magazines, sports publications or online feeds, but actual mainstream media.
There are several ways to achieve the above, and my team and I are working hard to achieve this, at least in the Middle East and Africa, but it is an approach that needs focus, coordination of several lines of effort, and patience, and, so far, we have all in place, we’ve already taken some very big steps towards this goal, and we are hoping that everyone should start seeing some significant results as early as 2016.
Going back to why I do not see the Million Dollar cheque that was paid as a “game changer”; it is something that one man did, which is something that only a naive person would see as sustainable. Respectful as I am of HH Sheikh Nasser’s efforts to encourage triathletes and help grow triathlon as a sport, I still have to stick by the principle of making sure that triathlon becomes a proper mainstream sport before we can even start talking about any sustainable serious money or regular big paycheques being discussed.
Congratulations to Daniela Ryf, her coaches and her team, and good luck to everyone else in triathlon to try to stand on more solid ground!
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| Daniela Ryf receiving the $1mln cheque from HH Sheikh Nasser (Photo credit Bahrain Endurance 13 team) |
While it is certainly nice for Daniela to get handed such a big cheque, as well as those who are involved in her triathlon career, I do not see this in the same light as others see it. In order to explain why, I have to go back to basics; the basics of money in sports.
Sports that have “decent money” in them tend to have one of two characteristics:
1. They have a very wide reach, in the tens of millions. Examples of this category are football, tennis, etc.
2. They are seen as big betting/gambling sports. Examples of this category are horse racing, boxing, etc.
Let us just stick to the first category, since I do not see triathlon becoming the big betting sport any time soon... And, let’s take tennis as a sample reference for the sake of comparison.
On the day of the Ironman 70.3 World Champs in 2014, it was also the women’s final at the US Open. Those who finished on top at the triathlon race got just over USD100,000 while Serena Williams got handed a cheque for USD4 million.
At the end of December of the same year, 2014, Andy Murray signed a four-year kit sponsorship deal with Under Armour believed to be worth around GBP15 million (USD22-23 million), while there were some top triathletes being evicted from their accommodation for not being able to pay the rent.
The main questions that we need to ask ourselves are why? How?
The “why”: In order to answer this question we need to understand where the money is coming from. Companies pay athletes and sports teams to promote their own brands. This means that the money comes out of marketing budgets of these corporations. Therefore, in order for the money to increase, you need to make sure that the audience of the sport is a. the right target audience, b. the numbers reached are significant, and c. the message of the sport itself needs to be compatible with the company’s image.
If we look at tennis, we know that the target audience is mostly affluent, given the relatively expensive nature of the sport, we also know that the audience of this sport is in the hundreds of millions around the world, and we know that the image that tennis projects is one of relative luxury. This is why companies are willing to spend millions on tennis players and tennis tournaments, since they know that their marketing money will go a very long way. Moreover, if we look at the brands, we see companies such as Rolex, Mercedes, etc. in the forefront of the brands associated with tennis. It all needs to make sense commercially.
Now, looking back at triathlon, we would probably find a following of about a couple of million people worldwide (and I am being extremely generous with this number), with only a fraction of whom who are actually actively following the sport. Companies which are marketing through triathlon do not get any significant exposure, except in very rare occasions.
So, why would a company like Rolex waste its time on triathlon while they have tennis as an alternative? I believe the answer is obvious now. Therefore, we need to start from the position of not comparing at all! Yet, we need to think of ways to actually try and get triathlon to be worth more than what it does now.
The “how”: For triathlon to reach a position anywhere near tennis in terms of marketing worth, it simply needs to be a known mainstream sport. This means that it should not be seen as an unachievable goal, but something that anyone can do (even if they don’t end up doing it). A person who held a tennis racket a couple of times would follow religiously some of the big tournaments and they would know some of the big names in the sport. This is not the case in triathlon.
What needs to happen in triathlon is a drive towards raising the awareness of “normal” people, first of the existence of the sport, second of how they can participate, and third of who are the main names in the sport. And, the definition of “normal” people is really the key to all this, since I know a lot of triathletes who believe that their immediate and extended circles of friends and family to be “everyone”, but they are way off. The only time you’ll know that “normal” people know about triathlon is when you “regularly” open the sports pages of your normal newspapers and find triathlon news, or when you turn on a normal TV channel to follow your local and international triathlon races live (or at least highlights). Not triathlon magazines, sports publications or online feeds, but actual mainstream media.
There are several ways to achieve the above, and my team and I are working hard to achieve this, at least in the Middle East and Africa, but it is an approach that needs focus, coordination of several lines of effort, and patience, and, so far, we have all in place, we’ve already taken some very big steps towards this goal, and we are hoping that everyone should start seeing some significant results as early as 2016.
Going back to why I do not see the Million Dollar cheque that was paid as a “game changer”; it is something that one man did, which is something that only a naive person would see as sustainable. Respectful as I am of HH Sheikh Nasser’s efforts to encourage triathletes and help grow triathlon as a sport, I still have to stick by the principle of making sure that triathlon becomes a proper mainstream sport before we can even start talking about any sustainable serious money or regular big paycheques being discussed.
Congratulations to Daniela Ryf, her coaches and her team, and good luck to everyone else in triathlon to try to stand on more solid ground!
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