EN opportunity: Ironman Tri Club and Team program
Saw this on ST. I would think EN fits into the definition of team and/or club. We could do some damage!
In the next week or so we will be officially launching the IRONMAN TriClub program. As a partner club with IRONMAN there are several really cool things I'd like to outline for you.
Membership drive: We are going to help you build your membership by going through our participant rosters and suggesting to athletes who are not affiliated with a club, clubs that are located in their geographical area. Once the on-line registration has been completed by the athletes racing IMFL next year, I will begin the process of suggesting club options to those athletes not on a ìteamî.
Team/Club Awareness: For all IRONMAN races (full distance and 70.3's) where you have at least 5 athletes racing we will give you a spotlight in the athlete and spectator guides for the races. At 8 weeks out from the race I will be contacting you and asking you for your race rosters, as well as a team picture and a brief description of your club.
Club Communication: We are creating a Facebook page just for the club program. We will be inviting you (the club contact) to join this closed group. The page will be one of the primary ways I will communicate with you e.g. crazy sponsor deals, race deals, special events planned for the clubs etc. Look for that invite shortly after Thanksgiving.
Club Competition: many of you are aware that we launching a club competition as part of our program. Up for grabs is a position on the IRONMAN Podium which gets you:
1) Early entry for up to 50 athletes for the race of your choice
2) 4 VIP passes
3) Two FREE 70.3 entries
4) Electronic patch that you can use on your kits, website, etc. that tells the world that your club/team made it to the podium with IRONMAN
The way you get to the podium is simply to race with us. Every time one of your athletes races with IRONMAN (Full or 70.3 distance) they will generate Age Group Ranking (AGR) points. As they earn participant AGR they are also earning those points for the club. The club pointís bucket accumulates over the season and the club with the most points at the end of the season (Top 5 clubs by club size division) get to the podium.
A club/team champion award is being added to the every domestic 70.3 and IRONMAN race. The club/team with the greatest number of AGR points (again by club size division) will have a place on our podium and will take home a podium award.
We have 4 regional championships set up: St George 70.3, Florida 70.3, Kansas 70.3 and Syracuse 70.3. Not only will be throwing an amazing party for you guys there, have at least one IRONKIDS event, but teams/clubs that send athletes to these races will generate 1.5 times the AGR points for their teams.
Race Deals: For clubs that send 15 athletes to any of our four regional championships, we will give you one FREE relay entry for your team. If you send 30 athletes you will get 2 entries etc. If 50 of your athletes register BEFORE December 15th, 2012 we will give you your own porta potty! We are also looking into offering you guys your own bike rack but we are waiting for Jimmy Riccitello (our head referee) to tell us if we pulled you from your age groups into one rack if that would give you a little bit of an advantage in the race (more to come on that)!
Finally we will be hosting a webinar on the TriClub Program as well as the AGR in early December. I will keep you posted. Again so great to meet you in PCB!!
Please feel free to call me or email with any questions you may have!
Liz
Elizabeth Kollar
Director of Athlete Development and Communications
World Triathlon Corporation
Ironman World Headquarters
2701 N Rocky Point Drive
Suite 1250
Tampa, Florida 33607
Tel: 813.868.5940 extension 3747
Fax: 813.868.5930
Cell: 310-923-0586
elizabeth.kollar@ironman.com
http://www.ironman.com
Comments
You a right I think about the EN advantage. PTC only has 150 members all of which live in SoCal and out side of Vineman we don't have any big WTC participation. EN would be able to field at least 5 athletes at just about every IM I would believe and probably most 70.3
Isn't that what I'm doing here.
Awesome, but I wonder if they will use the USAT registered version of a club. EN is a team, but not a club. Long course coaching entities like EN, QT2, or Mark Allen could field many more athletes than most USAT clubs since the latter are full of short course athletes.
FYI ... I did IM70.3 Florida twice with CAF. They had their own rack there but I had to rack with my age group to qualify for awards. I suspect Jimmy will rule the same way here.
Uh, as RACE DIRECTOR I am ALL OVER THIS! Have been for a couple of weeks.
Already in talks with Elizabeth.
More soon. Stay tuned.