Clearwater 5150 fails for lack of interest
I registered for this race months ago as a finale to my 2011 triathlon season. I knew it was struggling because there have been lots of deals in the local tri-space like get Clearwater and Saint Anthony's as a $250 combo package. But St Anthony's has suffered declining numbers the past 3 years due to continual problems with the swim leg. With Des Moines as the 5150 championship, the Clearwater event was destined to be predominantly a local race. Apparently, it's too late in the season for even the Tampa Bay community because I just received the following notice from WTC:
Dear Athletes,
The 5150 Clearwater Triathlon, scheduled for Nov. 12, 2011, has been postponed
until 2012. Paid registrants will receive a full refund of their entry fee
(including the Active.com fee) within six weeks.
Due to low registration numbers, we felt that it was in the best interest of the
participants, the City of Clearwater and the 5150 Triathlon Series to postpone
this event. We are committed to the 5150 Triathlon Series and look forward to
delivering great race experiences in our 2012 season.
We appreciate your understanding. If you have any general inquiries with
regards to the cancellation of this event, please contact Clearwater@5150.com.
5150 Event Management
Comments
I'm pretty sure we can say the 5150 series has been a colossal failure at this point. Three or four events cancelled and issues at some events. The only events that seemingly worked were the existing events the attached their name to.
Paul,
The Cornfield Mafia have booked their flights to FL to deliver a beatdown for badmouthing IA.
Assuming the Galveston 5150 actually happens this weekend, there were only two events carrying the 5150 brand name that would have actually happened. More races were cancelled than were not. That's no way to grow a business. All the other "5150" races were existing races like NYC Tri, DC Tri, St. Anthony's and Hy-Vee. The two real 5150 races will have had a combined registration total of about 750. I just don't seeing them sticking with it long with those weak numbers. Maybe in 2012 to see if things pick up (they won't) but not any further.
You also couldn't get me to Iowa for anything. Don't take offense, Dan. All the midwest flyover states are included. :-)
The Houston Tri held four weeks ago was a sell out. The only olympic distance race that doesn't do really well in the Houston area is the Clear Lake Tri because it's poorly organized... like changing to a new bike course this year that was 28.4 miles and no I'm not kidding about that.
@ Scott - I heard the same thing a year ago...that WTC had a contractual obligation to produce a race. Guess they didn't meet it. But Clearwater didn't deserve the World Championship...not just because of the flat bike course...but because the local business community didn't support it. They want something that brings tourists who buy kitch. Triathletes would rather shop at the expo.
@ Bob - Interesting numbers! However, with the four majors at the core of the 5150 series, I think they want to keep them linked ... sort of like Lifetime Fitness series. But if St Anthony's drops/truncates the swim in 2012 (they have the last 3 yrs in a row) it may die for lack of interest. St Anthony's has already lost more than a 1000 entrants due to these problems. A few years back it sold out in hours; now it doesn't sell out at all.
This is the first year that I haven't raced Hy-Vee. It's definitly more expensive then our other local Oly's, but well worth the extra cost. It is nice that Des Moines is pretty centrally located in the US, but I agree that there's not much here.
Dan - Things will change next year. The Des Moines 2011 race is the first qualifier for the 2012 race. Everyone that placed top-10 in their age group can race in the Age Group Elite race next year. Since I didn't do Hy-vee this year, I'll probably head down to Memphis in May, which I've heard is also a great race, but took a bit of convincing to get my SO to sherpa. I owe him a Cardinal's game if they are playing at home on our way there or back.
@Daniela - if you're looking at the Active.com site (as opposed to the actual 5150/HyVee site), the price displayed is the current price. Whoever configures the site has to tell it to display later dates and prices as free text...depending on how you set it up, the automated thing won't show the price changes.
@Paul... You're right... Des Moines itself is hardly a "destination", however decent a town it is. That said, we do have a pretty thriving triathlon culture here. Minnesota is even more competitive, despite being further north and having a more limited season. (Maybe just more people....)
The way this developed is that the HyVee grocery chain brought in the big bucks. Its locations are pretty much all midwest as far as I know, and its headquarters is in West Des Moines. The HyVee professional race has been the top paying triathlon event in the world since it started. While it was ITU, it paid $200,000 to the male and female winners. Last year, they dropped it to $151,500 if I remember, but they paid 30 deep. HyVee is also associated with several other races in the midwest, though I am not sure if those are the same deal as this or just local sponsorships.
If you look at the IronKids site, you'll see a pretty ridiculous number of their races are in the midwest...again, for the same reason...HyVee sponsorship. The IronKids championship was also held in West Des Moines last year, a stone's throw from the HyVee headquarters.
Iowa has been well-served by several local races before this. One Des Moines area Oly race (Big Creek) was around 30 years before the competition with HyVee and HyVee's shifting dates killed it last year. (They hope to stage t in 2012, but we'll see.). We have a number of reasonable locations for a 70.3 race, but the state has been well served by another local half-distance race (Pigman, in August) that consistently runs with fields of only several hundred...so we'll see if WTC tries to jump in on that bandwagon. While they put on great races, I have mixed emotions about them stomping out good local races. There are several "local quality" halfs in Minnesota, and a couple WTC events in WI, plus the new Rev3 half.
An interesting question I've wondered about is if whether there is room for another midwest full IM. DSM is, as you note, hardly a "destination", but Hy Vee's CEO really wants to make a splash in triathlon. Who knows.
I have enjoyed every HyVee pro race I've watched, but the whole 5150 aspect is a very mixed bag.
@Paul - I agree that 5150 will probably never be as prestigious as USAT Age Group Championships. Partly because Des Moines does not make for a good destination race, and there's no chance to qualify for a "Worlds" event. What they do have going for them is the prize purse, which will bring in some of the pointy end age groupers, but mainly ones that are within driving distance.
FWIW, prior to 2011, the Des Moines Hy-Vee race was a GREAT race. I did not do it this year, but heard from friends that did it this year and have done it in the past, that this year severly dropped in greatness. No expo during and after the race, lame post-race food, etc. I don't know if last year's weather had to do with it, or if it's from it becoming a 5150 race. I hope they change back a lot for 2012.
I'm in for Kansas City 5150!
They have a heck of a price increase scale...
5150 Kansas City Triathlon:
$50 until 12-1-11
$75 until 12-15-11
$85 until 12-31-11
$95 until 2-15-12
$105 until 4-18-12
$125 until 5-15-12
Kansas City Sprint Triathlon:
$40 until 12-1-11
$60 until 12-15-11
$70 until 4-18-12
$85 until 5-15-12
Locally, we've always had St Anthony's as our premier olympic race. WTC bought it as well and the locals noted that the expo was diminished this year. I thought it was similar in quality to past years. However, St Anthony's has been suffering a serious decline in numbers over the past 3 years and it has nothing to do with WTC. Due to unlucky weather conditions for 3 years straight, the race has either canceled or curtailed the swim. So it's been 4 years since St Anthony's was even a legit olympic and folks are getting tired of it. The local rumor is that St Anthony's will have to drop the price for 2012 if they don't want to face continuing decline of a formerly great race.
Finally, I find it strange that all you guys know that KC is now a 5150, but WTC hasn't bothered to post it to the 5150.com list of events. If the news is out, it's out. What are they waiting for?
@Paul - I did debate on whether to sign up or not. Part of me said screw them, but then after reading through the slowtwitch forum (http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=3647905) and seeing the responsiveness from the RD, I decided to sign up. I am frustrated that the 5150 site does not have KC listed as a race. I posted the question to the 5150 facebook page mainly to see if they’d even respond. No response yet, just a link a friend posted to the slowtwitch forum. They did respond to a question posted by Andrew Weaver the day after mine. Their lack of quick response on keeping people informed is annoying.
@William – I don’t think Big Creek being cancelled for low participation was solely due to the date change of Hy-vee. In 2010 the just about double the race entry fee. I figured it was because they were the regional qualifier for Age Group Nationals and would go back down in 2011. The fee stayed the same. I’ll do the race in 2012 for $50-60, but not $100.
In 2008, Iowa did have another half distance, but I think only 78 people race. That was the only year for the race. Part of that was probably from scheduling it the weekend before pigman. I heard it was to piss of Snitko, but the rumor has never been confirmed.
I do wonder how the HITS tri would have gone over in Galena. I know it’s not Iowa, but it’s right on the border.
The KC race deal is pretty good with those lower prices for early entry.
And yes, I can't remember the name of the other half you're talking about...but that it did exist. If I recall, it was on the books for longer than just one year, but had weather/water or some other kinds of issues that had it in trouble.
I don't know Snitko at all, but Pigman is so popular...what's teh motiviation to irk him?
I also did Hy-Vee that year which was cut short due to storms rolling in. They did have the big expo. As we were walking to transition to pick up our bikes after the race, the sky let loose. There were a lot of people still out on the course and they made them stop. Me, my SO, and another guy huddled under the overhang of a semi-bed wrapped in trash bags to keep warm. When it let up enough, my SO headed out to get the car. While he was gone, me and SEVERAL other people including some security guards filled up bags of expo goodies. There was no one at the booths, and people were grabbing boxes of kashi bars, luna bars, cliff bars, hormel pepperoni, twirlers, wheaties, etc. It was crazy! I easily brought home over $200 worth of stuff. Later when the booths had workers at them, they still had enough stuff to hand out, there just wasn't all that many people left to give to.
The other HIM was Dutchman. It used to be an oly, then they switched it. I think it was part of the new Flatland Multisport Series (not sure if that even exists as a series any longer).
I wish I remembered more about the Snitko thing. He kind of rules the state with the HOA series, which will soon fail if it retains TriHawks as it's race finale after the issues it's had this year and the past few years. This year is the worst I've seen TriHawks...horrible prize (only first in each age got anything), no ambulance on site (bad bike crash), iffy weather (was misting when the race started and was really cold)., and just not very well organized. I wish our new club (Iowa HEAT) could take it over and bring it back to life.
Yeah, not sure if Flatland exists or not, but Big Creek and Copper Creek were part of it. They also have (had?) a kids race.
Was TriHawks run by the U of I club? Sometimes those student clubs have a hard time running events in the long run. (Not just triathlons...)
The CyMan was nominally run by students for a few years until the guys who ran it got sick of doing it for free...then they started Hickory Grove (same site as old Cy Man) and Bluff Creek... ah, the intrigue! :-)