World Triathlon and PTO uniting top talent under one roof
World Triathlon and PTO are uniting triathlons top talent under one roof with the 2022 World Triathlon Multisport Championships.
The World Triathlon Multisport Championships is being hosted by Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO), alongside their flagship Collins Cup event in the Slovakia capital Bratislava, from 18-21 August 2022.
It may be this is what the future of triathlon will look like to unlock the sports potential value. When compared to sports such as golf or tennis, it is clear that triathlon is under-commercialised and needs to tell a more compelling story.
By binding together, the various strands of triathlon by uniting the sport’s top talent under one roof you start to get a strong TV product that lures in corporate brand sponsorships rather than just relaying on a business model that sells tickets to active participants and enthusiastic fans.
These types of partnerships are a means for the sport to start flexing its commercial muscles by the creation of a sort of international franchise that appeals to broadcasters to showcase the different aspects of the sport through TV coverage of the event and its build up with social media amplifying the athletes’ stories to a wider audience.
‘Follow the money’ is unlikely to apply to the current format of triathlon. Let’s be blunt, cash prizes for pro-triathletes are lousy when compared to other sports. For example, LeBron James the American Basketball player earnings last year amounted to some $42 millon which is quite some distance from a top pro-triathlete who may – if lucky – generate between $80,000 and $160,000 a year.
However, the prize pots are beginning to become more lucrative with PTO Tour prize pots for 2022 being $1,000.000 each for the US and Canadian Open and $1,500,000 for the Collins Cup, together with a PTO Race to the Rankings’ bonus pool of $2,000,000. Making a mouth-watering total prize pool of $5.5 million.
Not to be totally outdone the not-for profit World Triathlon Federation are themselves making a a total prize purse of $100,000 for the Multisport Championships. This is all good news for the future of triathlon.
Any future joint commercial Triathlon ventures with PTO, Ironman or Super League will have to show goodwill and fit into World Triathlon and its national federations – the custodians of the governance of the sport – or any such partnership projects will be doomed to failure. Triathlons grassroots and its governance is what holds the sport together.
As for the Multisport Championships itself, Challenge Family have been appointed the event delivery partner having successfully executed the 2021 World Triathlon Multisport Championships in Almere, Netherlands and for the past 5 years have delivered PTO flagship race ‘The Championship’ in Bratislava.
There will be a change in distance for the World Championship Long Distance Race. The event has normally been raced under the classic triathlon distance (3.8km swim – 180km bike – 42.2km run), but the 2022 race will be run under the PTO’s 100k race distance format (2km swim – 80km bike – 18km run).
All that triathlon enthusiasts have to understand is the only thing permanent in life is ‘change’ and we’re good to go.
