Blue Devil's Demise

In article <[email hidden]>,

John Hardt said:

Sadly, it was announced today that the Blue Devil IM has been permanently
cancelled. The race director's explanation is provided here:
http://www.set-upinc.com/dukebluedevil/.

I just don't get why everyone needs to do the "brand name" races. I'd do
a generic, but it's actually cheaper for me to do a WTC race because
there's one (Wisconsin) close to me.

I had planned on doing Pineman this year before we moved, but that got
cancelled as well (and they ran 1/2, 1/2, 3/4, and full ironman-distance
races).

So, can you legally say "Ironman-Distance Triathlon" on the event
T-shirt if it's not a WTC race?

--Harold Buck

"I used to rock and roll all night,
and party every day.
Then it was every other day. . . ."
-Homer J. Simpson

"Harold Buck" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

John Hardt said:

Sadly, it was announced today that the Blue Devil IM has been permanently
cancelled. The race director's explanation is provided here:
http://www.set-upinc.com/dukebluedevil/.

I just don't get why everyone needs to do the "brand name" races. I'd do
a generic, but it's actually cheaper for me to do a WTC race because
there's one (Wisconsin) close to me.

I had planned on doing Pineman this year before we moved, but that got
cancelled as well (and they ran 1/2, 1/2, 3/4, and full ironman-distance
races).

So, can you legally say "Ironman-Distance Triathlon" on the event
T-shirt if it's not a WTC race?

I think my 2004 BD shirt says "iron distance". Small letters, no "man". I
think that's all they can get away with.

I'm bummed because I had a blast at the Blue Devil. It's cancellation,
combined with Pineman, means that for those of us in the Midwest the only
thing that is left is IM Wisconsin and IM Lake Placid and they come with the
requisite 12 month signup lead. (With only about 200 participants last
year, I doubt the Chesepeakman will make it long-term).

John

In article <[email hidden]>,

John Hardt said:

I'm bummed because I had a blast at the Blue Devil. It's cancellation,
combined with Pineman, means that for those of us in the Midwest the only
thing that is left is IM Wisconsin and IM Lake Placid and they come with the
requisite 12 month signup lead. (With only about 200 participants last
year, I doubt the Chesepeakman will make it long-term).

Well, it might if it picks up the people from those other races.

Do you think the same thing would have happened in running if someone
had the word "Marathon" trademarked?

--Harold Buck

"I used to rock and roll all night,
and party every day.
Then it was every other day. . . ."
-Homer J. Simpson

"Harold Buck" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

John Hardt said:

I'm bummed because I had a blast at the Blue Devil. It's cancellation,
combined with Pineman, means that for those of us in the Midwest the only
thing that is left is IM Wisconsin and IM Lake Placid and they come with
the
requisite 12 month signup lead. (With only about 200 participants last
year, I doubt the Chesepeakman will make it long-term).

Well, it might if it picks up the people from those other races.

Do you think the same thing would have happened in running if someone
had the word "Marathon" trademarked?

Uh... probably. Hey Harold, how'd you like to go into business with me? We
could start the World Marathon Corporation (WMC)...

John

Now that the m-dot brand has begun to drive the few remaining independents
from ultra distance racing, they have set their sights on half-iron
distances with their "70.3" series. Can you trademark a number?
I'm worried they will kill off my favorite Gulf Coast Tri with the competing
race in Orlando. I also worry about the few remaining independent iron
races - for example the Great Floridian and the Silverman. I hope the
Silverman has a roaring great success its first year and am looking forward
to hearing about it. The few independent races are all that's left for
those of us who may not be able to plan a year in advance - IMFlorida 2006
sold out in three hours.
Just my 2 cents.
JJB

"Harold Buck" <[email hidden]> a écrit dans le message de news:
[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

John Hardt said:

Sadly, it was announced today that the Blue Devil IM has been permanently
cancelled. The race director's explanation is provided here:
http://www.set-upinc.com/dukebluedevil/.

I just don't get why everyone needs to do the "brand name" races. I'd do
a generic, but it's actually cheaper for me to do a WTC race because
there's one (Wisconsin) close to me.

Well here in Europe the situation is quite different. The biggest event in
Europe (Quelle Challenge Roth) is on ironman distance, but is not
sanctionned by WTC. And the same goes for the hardest Ironman distance
triathlon in the world, the Embrunman, in France. And nobody cares about not
having "Ironman" written on its T-shirt. We don't like to mix business and
sport like US people do.

That will probably mean that triathlon in the USA and in the rest of the
world will drift apart, more and more US triathletes going to WTC events,
which are clearly focussed on the US (and AUS, NZ?) market (only people in
the USA can understand the meaning of "70.3", "mile" meaning nothing for the
rest of the world) while the rest of the world will go to ITU sanctionned
events.

Strange to see that it was USAT which convinced ITU not to sanction WTC
races. They must feel more pressure to survive...

-- Olivier

"DrJoe" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Now that the m-dot brand has begun to drive the few remaining independents
from ultra distance racing, they have set their sights on half-iron
distances with their "70.3" series. Can you trademark a number?
I'm worried they will kill off my favorite Gulf Coast Tri with the
competing race in Orlando. I also worry about the few remaining
independent iron races - for example the Great Floridian and the
Silverman. I hope the Silverman has a roaring great success its first
year and am looking forward to hearing about it. The few independent
races are all that's left for those of us who may not be able to plan a
year in advance - IMFlorida 2006 sold out in three hours.
Just my 2 cents.
JJB

My humble opinion is that the Great Floridian and Vineman will live on for
awhile if only because they both have a long history and (consequently)
decent size fields. Most other non-WTC, iron-distance races are probably
holding on by their fingernails and are probably doomed.

The one thing I've never understood though is this: if the WTC has such a
stranglehold on IM races and they sell out every race they hold in mere
hours 12 months in advance, why only six races in North Americ? Why aren't
they introducing more? Simple laws of supply and demand say that if you sell
every bit of something you make you should either raise the price or make
more of it. Why not an Ironman Ohio, Ironman Peoria, or Ironman Wherever.
Seems pretty obvious they could sell out at least a couple more races per
year if they wanted to.

John

In article <[email hidden]>,

John Hardt said:

The one thing I've never understood though is this: if the WTC has such a
stranglehold on IM races and they sell out every race they hold in mere
hours 12 months in advance, why only six races in North Americ? Why aren't
they introducing more? Simple laws of supply and demand say that if you sell
every bit of something you make you should either raise the price or make
more of it. Why not an Ironman Ohio, Ironman Peoria, or Ironman Wherever.
Seems pretty obvious they could sell out at least a couple more races per
year if they wanted to.

Yeah, but they must feel there's some value in keeping the demand high.
I think they want to make sure they never have a race that doesn't sell
out, and if they open up a few more, maybe AZ and CDA wouldn't sell out
(since those are really slow to fill up--relatively speaking--as it is
right now).

--Harold Buck

"I used to rock and roll all night,
and party every day.
Then it was every other day. . . ."
-Homer J. Simpson

"Harold Buck" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

John Hardt said:

The one thing I've never understood though is this: if the WTC has such a
stranglehold on IM races and they sell out every race they hold in mere
hours 12 months in advance, why only six races in North Americ? Why
aren't
they introducing more? Simple laws of supply and demand say that if you
sell
every bit of something you make you should either raise the price or make
more of it. Why not an Ironman Ohio, Ironman Peoria, or Ironman
Wherever.
Seems pretty obvious they could sell out at least a couple more races per
year if they wanted to.

Yeah, but they must feel there's some value in keeping the demand high.
I think they want to make sure they never have a race that doesn't sell
out, and if they open up a few more, maybe AZ and CDA wouldn't sell out
(since those are really slow to fill up--relatively speaking--as it is
right now).

Good point. Although in the case of IM Canada I would argue that it's slow
to fill because there are 3 other IM's within about 250 miles of that race
(IM Coeur d'Alene, Bigfoot, and Grand Columbian) the former of which is
their own race. It's always seemed to me like they were competing with
themselves on that one. It made more sense to me geographically when Coeur
d'Alene was held in Salt Lake.

John