new Lottery for Kona (Page 2)

Although I think it is nice of WTC to reward loyality, it makes me not really want to do any of their races anymore.  Right now the lottery chances are what? about 5%.  "so you are saying I have a chance"

Over the years that will decrease as more and more people reach that magic 12 number.  The 12 will just give you a new lottery and wont be a guarentee as more people reach it.  I know I will never be fast enough to qualify and if it takes me 12 WTC races at $600 a pop and that is just for the entry fees.  Add in travel, food, hotel...it goes up to about $1500-$2000 each race.  Multiply that by 12 and you can buy your way into a chance for Kona with a mere $24k.  e-bay might just be cheeper.    No thanks.  I will focus on Rev3, Great Floridian and other independent races from now on.  I have done a few WTC races and the support is nothing special and sometimes it is down right terrible with running out of nutrition, ice, coke, water... for us later finishers...and I am a solid MOP racer, I cant imagine what it is like to be BOP.  Props to you.

Not a fan of WTC and now that is even less. 

As was previously stated, Kona, in its original form was a race open to all comers, the proverbial everyman.  When Valerie Silk sold the race in 1990 to what eventually became the World Triathlon corporation ("WTC") part of the contract required that the WTC continue to make Kona accessible to all athletes through the lottery program (to my knowledge this contractual obligation binds not only WTC but also its sucessors in interest).  As such WTC has, and will continue to have, a contractual obligation to run a lottery that allows the "everyman" into the race. 

While you may feel that "f you are not fast enough to make the cut, you don't deserve a day in the sun. HTFU.," Valerie Silk felt the opposite way and negotiated the sales agreement in such a way as to have her wishes respected (nice lawyering if you ask me). 

The question, therefore, is not whether the lottery should exist but whether the WTC's idea to give prefereential lottery treatment to multiple time ironman finishers is a good one or a bad one.  I believe its a good one.  I think WTC should reward its frequent customers and I think having IM verterans will improve the quality of the lottery field. 

Excellent post, KABurns. I agree completely.

People can and will whine incessantly about whatever WTC does. They provide an excellent product for which there is a very high demand. I'm a repeat customer and may just set my sights on 12 now.

What planet are you from?????

Just think of it as "Frequent Flyer Miles" for triathletes. The more you give to the WTC, the more they give back.

It would be cheaper to get in through the executive challenge.  I don't think that people are going to sign up for 12 IM's to get into Kona.  I could be wrong.

1. It would be cheaper to get in through the executive challenge. 

2. I don't think that people are going to sign up for 12 IM's to get into Kona.  I could be wrong.

1.  I'm not sure what the exact rules are for the executive challenge but not everyone is the CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

2.  You are wrong.  I've only done 1 IM and I'm already planning my next 11.

I'm from the planet that admires the distance, the work it takes to go that distance, and the people who do the work.  I don't give a rats arse about specific races or specific brands.  I suppose I race about as much as anyone, but that's not why I do this.

You're probably wrong here. 

While it would be cheaper to enter one race in the Executive Challenge program, you still have to win your XC division to qualify for a Kona slot.  At Ironman CDA this year you would have needed to go faster than a 10:36 to win the XC Kona slot for Men 40 and under.  While 10:36 is not a "normal" KQ for a young male, its still pretty fast.  Unless you're close to KQing buying an XC is not a short cut (and having to buy multiple XC slots to chase an XC KQ would probably be more expensive than 12 normal IM entries).

Yes and now it has to be a WTC event (once upon a time it was any half distance event but the language was tightened in the past few years). 

Here's a question:

With the new lottery rules, for those of you (me) who see yourself continuing to and beyond 12 would you now consider entering the regular lottery as well?  I've noticed a change of heart with the "no qualify, no Kona" crowd with the new "12" standard, saying that it's cool if you get into Kona if you've earned it with this new wrinkle.  I mean if it's okay to get in with 12 IMs wouldn't it be deemed okay to get in while working your way towards 12?  Or do you think you need to get to that magic number to be worthy?  Just wondering.

By the way, I like the new lottery idea, tried the old lottery once with no luck, I really don't care how other people get to Kona and by this time next year I'll be at 6 IMs (knock on wood)

Just FYI (and cuz I haven't seen anyone mention it in the thread), but many, if not all, of those "tear-jerker" folks are not lottery entrants, they are NBC (not CBS) invitees.  I don't know how many sponsor slots the network gets, but I have a friend who raced Kona last weekend on an NBC invite...not even an human interest story type, just someone who's a mid-level exec at ABC (and a MOP IM type...finished in 13:01) and knew someone at NBC who got him in.

Why are you bashing (seemingly) WTC for this with the "hardly surprising" comment?  That's like bashing Toyota for not giving equal treatment to people that previously bought 12 Honda's instead of 12 Toyotas.

It was probably not as priceless as you're thinking--actually don't know exactly what you mean by that. It was probably just a process of crunching the numbers. 10 was probably too low and 15 too high.

No, it will be, those types of decisons always are, in any market.  Crunching the numbers for what?  Was it for maximum $$, fairness, maximum paritcipation, I suppose I could go on and on. I think 12 is alot.  The overwhelming majority of people doing triathlon will never get to that number without injury or burnout.  And do it just for a chance to race at Kona?  My bet is that a goal of 12 IM's just to get to Kona runs more people out of triathlon then it brings in.  I don't know how it could be about $$$ only since most WTC IM's are already sellouts. Will there be more races?  If so, will that mean more qualifying spots?  I'd like to know what the line of thinking was behind the number 12.  New rules are what they are, what the supposed  "payoff" will be for the new rules is what is interesting to me.

For the record, WTC is ok in my book.

Perhaps that's all part of their (evil) plan.
Personally I think the strategy is pretty brilliant, from a business perspective.