I think the other thing that needs to be addressed is that the product itself isn't TV worthy.
- 8-10 hours of dirt road riding isn't worth the TV time
- Event fees are already silly - $200 entry fees plus travel to subsides the Pro's purse?
So no matter how many more events they put on, other than participant revenue and possibly endemic sponsorships the money isn't going to help expand its footprint.
Look at what the Europeans are doing by trying to have shorter events that are more doing laps simply because it's good for spectators and viewers.
Go to a regional MTB race and see all the juniors racing, go to gravel races and its 30+ yo participants. The future is the kids...
Apologies, took me longer than I expected to come back here. Fully agree with you, most of these events (when I’m not in them) it’s my good mates racing and I still rarely watch it all.
Future is the kids indeed. I’m not too educated
on this, but for some reason there’s a disconnect between NICA and next steps in US racing. I reckon making a better Life Time series (or equivalent) would give those kids something to aspire to when they grow up, even if it’s just recreationally.
Finally, I don’t think mass participation subsidises pro-racing at all. I think it’s a supply-demand situation and the big races (especially Unbound + Leadville) can charge what they want.
I started to draft an article about Unbound entries getting too high titled: “$350 to race 200-miles are Life Time taking the p*ss”, but I ended up leaving it in draft form.
100% this. I want race organisers to make a profit, but I want all riders to be safe and at a fair price. $250+++ for a ‘race’ with no closed roads, few safety precautions, no signage, an sometimes no aid stations - especially in a place as rural as say, Emporia, is wild.
I guess capitalism always wins. The day Life Time bring in dynamic pricing is the day I riot. Would love to see their profit margins on the big events.
I can only speak to what I know and what I have learned from being there for organizer - elite racer discussions about the issue of road closures. I can say that in the instances I've been around for it is less about paying for road closures and more about the actual man power it takes. There is simply not enough state trained work force to close intersections in these rural places. All the money in the world could not divert services that simply don't exist. Being rural and less trafficed doesn't mean it's cheaper or simpler, it actually makes it degrees harder. This isn't me caping for high fees by any means. And I don't know anything about how Life Time operates. There is one race organizer I talked to who isn't even the one profiting from these fees who told me they would pay for the services if they could but they simply don't exist.
This is the real lesson for anyone trying to build a sports property. Life Time owns the events but not the best races - that's an ownership problem, not a talent problem. You can hold every asset and still not have a league if there's not enough content to sell to sponsors. Attention pays the bills, not the deed. Distribution beats owning a pile of assets every time. Same rule applies to athlete brands - equity means nothing without a system that keeps eyes on you all year.
Payson McElveen and Sarah Strum had an interesting discussion about what happened to (for example) mtb racing when it became more "TV viewer friendly" on the With Pace podcast this week... and the question that they sort of came away with is what would gravel racing become if you turned it into something more "TV viewer friendly" - is that just something like CX? Because you're right, 200 miles isn't very viewer-friendly, but most of the Life Time events, the Trakka, and other US-based gravel races are "how long and hard can we make them?". UCI gravel events are usually much shorter, and typically don't seem to be as crazy (although maybe the UCI Gravel World Championships in Australia is more similar to a US-type course, based on the Seven Gravel Race). I don't know if you can change the LTGP to be more TV-friendly without changing the very nature of what US gravel is.
But this is a really important discussion you opened. I think you have many valid points, but I don't think Life Time will change their business model of expanding the GP to non-Life Time events.
Tobin Ortenblad had a good IG post the other day about how local events are not being as well attended any more, while the LT events keep bringing in more and more people, and I'm very sad about that. I wish people would support the local events, if not instead of, in addition to the large corporation.
Payson and I had a chat over text this week on this topic. I’m honestly not sure on the right answer, and if I’m honest, I don’t think gravel will ever get to a TV friendly point. From racing perspective, or size of the sport. That being said, I do think doing some ‘spectator friendly’ measures (like Mid South having the pro race on Friday).
I also agree, LT won’t change their business model or expand to non-LT events. Which, honestly I fully understand. From their perspective, why change good business model?
And finally, yes - support local events. One of my favourite events is Rattlesnake Gravel and I love hopping in mid-week crits when I can. I’m a Brit, so my true favourite are Tuesday night Club 10s!
That's a really good point about the "spectator friendly" measures, like Mid-South having the Pro Race on Friday. It changes things from a cost perspective (and also may be challenging from a community perspective regarding closed roads...), but for growing the sport, I think it's great to try things and see what can work. Like Levi's Gran Fondo, with the mass participation funding the road race.
As a member of a US-based club that organizes a number of events (mainly road), I am always a fan of local racing, mid-week or otherwise! <3
The question of "TV time" in gravel racing is an interesting one and one I personally believe is often framed somewhat incorrectly. The question is not "how do we make this more like cycling disciplines that have 'died' (not my word, taken from heads) in the US?".
We have a unique situation here where what is essentially a "minor league" sport developed its own culture, ecosystem and vibe irrespective of its major league counterparts. Treating it's elite product like road racing or MTB would defeat the purpose entirely. Long form live streams are BIG business globally, streams last for days at a time - 8 hours is nothing, live chats are a component, on screen personalities, 'vibe checking'. We talk about getting more youth involved and 'what the kids are into'...well...
The point of these streams isn't the expectation that every viewer will sit and watch for 8 hours straight (more than one might think actually do this though), it's on, sometimes in the foreground, sometimes background as 8 hours of continuous self propagating advertising for an event that the most average person in the world can sign up for, that is not something that every sport has. It is a FREE (to the viewers) complete, POV driven digital record on the most ubiquitous platform that you can involve yourself in via the chats (some of the last space of live virtual community). You then watch it on the trainer in bits, it's so long and you can spend time riffing on culture rather than live calling, the men and women are the same time which is forces some people to watch women's sports that otherwise wouldn't. A stream lasting as long as it does isn't a bug, it's a feature. That's the real pulse of viral spread, we live in the post-modern world of the overload. Events that lean into this aspect and idiosyncratic eccentricities of gravel have far more watchable and scalable live streams than ones that don't. To keep it on topic, Life Time races get the biggest views and more views than I think people realize for as much criticism as the concept gets but this isn't an endorsement of everything they do or their stylistic choices by any means. I am speaking generally here, not just to one race product.
It is of course not cheap to the organizers and it's not perfect, not even close as its only been going on for about two years but as someone that is finding myself more involved in this field I talk to stakeholders almost every week (whether it be small community members or big time organizers or marketers) about how to bring this product in one form another to their race. They certainly see a value in it and every bigger race with a competitive field that has no coverage will field complaints about that. Instagram does very well to bridge the gap.
Also as a side note the global economic down turn has hurt races at every level of the sport big and small. Attendance is dropping no doubt from big races. But generally speaking the small local gravel scene is exploding in my region of the country and more people are without a doubt supporting the local grassroots races over going to the big ones. I believe Tobin is in California? I can only really speak for where I'm from in the South and in particular a more working class area but it's the exact opposite.
I agree with you that the GP needs a new owner, but that’s primarily because Life Time isn’t mainly an event company. Fitness centers drive their business, and the LTGP is barely rounding error in their quarterly revenue. They had $866 million in revenue just in the most recent second quarter. How much of that was events? There’s no way of knowing because It’s not even a line item. According to their 10-Q, 97% of their $866 million in quarterly revenue was from the fitness center business. The quandary is that Life Time can afford to pump some money into the series to hopefully drive more people to its fitness centers, but that’s probably more than an event company could ever afford, especially if they made LTF an offer they couldn’t refuse for the series.
Yep- I went digging for numbers on LTE and it’s all hidden. I fully agree with you here, LT can pump money in essentially as marketing for their clubs. That’s fine, but just means my dreams of it being a blank paper for new things is always going to stay just as that: a dream.
Yeah, and the Grand Prix doesn’t even really drive new members to the centers; the mass participation side of the events presumably does. We need a billionaire willing to fund a series purely for his or her personal entertainment. Hard for me to see a viable business plan.
My favourite case study is SailGP and Larry Ellison. Then again, I don’t think gravel is the sport where that would/ could work - it’s simply not big enough.
I think looking at what UTMB has done wrong/ right with the UTMB World Series would be an interesting take compared to gravel. I’ve paid some stupid amounts of money to do gravel events…and I’ve paid some stupid amounts of money to do ultra trail events. I don’t care much about the pros, I just want to get my $$ worth by having a really ridiculous adventures. I am still sad that TV viewing ruined mtn biking by changing it into a dirt crit. Such a pity. I hope the same doesn’t happen with gravel or trail. A few years back some of the major professionals of trail tried to organize a boycott of UTMB but they didn’t get anywhere with it because their sponsors stopped it…so I don’t see much changing unless the brands speak up. The ASO/ Life Time/UTMB-type folks sure aren’t going to change their tune. Lately I’ve noticed local events trying to change as well and it makes those of us who have supported events for decades feel a bit unwelcome…not to mention does nothing for grassroots efforts. Can someone just bring back the 24 hour mtn bike team relay races so we can all have fun like it’s 1995?
I think the other thing that needs to be addressed is that the product itself isn't TV worthy.
- 8-10 hours of dirt road riding isn't worth the TV time
- Event fees are already silly - $200 entry fees plus travel to subsides the Pro's purse?
So no matter how many more events they put on, other than participant revenue and possibly endemic sponsorships the money isn't going to help expand its footprint.
Look at what the Europeans are doing by trying to have shorter events that are more doing laps simply because it's good for spectators and viewers.
Go to a regional MTB race and see all the juniors racing, go to gravel races and its 30+ yo participants. The future is the kids...
Apologies, took me longer than I expected to come back here. Fully agree with you, most of these events (when I’m not in them) it’s my good mates racing and I still rarely watch it all.
Future is the kids indeed. I’m not too educated
on this, but for some reason there’s a disconnect between NICA and next steps in US racing. I reckon making a better Life Time series (or equivalent) would give those kids something to aspire to when they grow up, even if it’s just recreationally.
Finally, I don’t think mass participation subsidises pro-racing at all. I think it’s a supply-demand situation and the big races (especially Unbound + Leadville) can charge what they want.
I started to draft an article about Unbound entries getting too high titled: “$350 to race 200-miles are Life Time taking the p*ss”, but I ended up leaving it in draft form.
Somebody is fooling all of us gravel racers on entry fees. I am not against promoters making a profit. But give the racers some protection and safety.
I pay 3x more than when I raced road stage races - for less police/peloton enclosure staff, vehicles and on an open course/roads with way less safety.
100% this. I want race organisers to make a profit, but I want all riders to be safe and at a fair price. $250+++ for a ‘race’ with no closed roads, few safety precautions, no signage, an sometimes no aid stations - especially in a place as rural as say, Emporia, is wild.
I guess capitalism always wins. The day Life Time bring in dynamic pricing is the day I riot. Would love to see their profit margins on the big events.
I can only speak to what I know and what I have learned from being there for organizer - elite racer discussions about the issue of road closures. I can say that in the instances I've been around for it is less about paying for road closures and more about the actual man power it takes. There is simply not enough state trained work force to close intersections in these rural places. All the money in the world could not divert services that simply don't exist. Being rural and less trafficed doesn't mean it's cheaper or simpler, it actually makes it degrees harder. This isn't me caping for high fees by any means. And I don't know anything about how Life Time operates. There is one race organizer I talked to who isn't even the one profiting from these fees who told me they would pay for the services if they could but they simply don't exist.
Excellent article. Hope LTGP read it and take note.
Thanks!
This is the real lesson for anyone trying to build a sports property. Life Time owns the events but not the best races - that's an ownership problem, not a talent problem. You can hold every asset and still not have a league if there's not enough content to sell to sponsors. Attention pays the bills, not the deed. Distribution beats owning a pile of assets every time. Same rule applies to athlete brands - equity means nothing without a system that keeps eyes on you all year.
Payson McElveen and Sarah Strum had an interesting discussion about what happened to (for example) mtb racing when it became more "TV viewer friendly" on the With Pace podcast this week... and the question that they sort of came away with is what would gravel racing become if you turned it into something more "TV viewer friendly" - is that just something like CX? Because you're right, 200 miles isn't very viewer-friendly, but most of the Life Time events, the Trakka, and other US-based gravel races are "how long and hard can we make them?". UCI gravel events are usually much shorter, and typically don't seem to be as crazy (although maybe the UCI Gravel World Championships in Australia is more similar to a US-type course, based on the Seven Gravel Race). I don't know if you can change the LTGP to be more TV-friendly without changing the very nature of what US gravel is.
But this is a really important discussion you opened. I think you have many valid points, but I don't think Life Time will change their business model of expanding the GP to non-Life Time events.
Tobin Ortenblad had a good IG post the other day about how local events are not being as well attended any more, while the LT events keep bringing in more and more people, and I'm very sad about that. I wish people would support the local events, if not instead of, in addition to the large corporation.
Payson and I had a chat over text this week on this topic. I’m honestly not sure on the right answer, and if I’m honest, I don’t think gravel will ever get to a TV friendly point. From racing perspective, or size of the sport. That being said, I do think doing some ‘spectator friendly’ measures (like Mid South having the pro race on Friday).
I also agree, LT won’t change their business model or expand to non-LT events. Which, honestly I fully understand. From their perspective, why change good business model?
And finally, yes - support local events. One of my favourite events is Rattlesnake Gravel and I love hopping in mid-week crits when I can. I’m a Brit, so my true favourite are Tuesday night Club 10s!
That's a really good point about the "spectator friendly" measures, like Mid-South having the Pro Race on Friday. It changes things from a cost perspective (and also may be challenging from a community perspective regarding closed roads...), but for growing the sport, I think it's great to try things and see what can work. Like Levi's Gran Fondo, with the mass participation funding the road race.
As a member of a US-based club that organizes a number of events (mainly road), I am always a fan of local racing, mid-week or otherwise! <3
The question of "TV time" in gravel racing is an interesting one and one I personally believe is often framed somewhat incorrectly. The question is not "how do we make this more like cycling disciplines that have 'died' (not my word, taken from heads) in the US?".
We have a unique situation here where what is essentially a "minor league" sport developed its own culture, ecosystem and vibe irrespective of its major league counterparts. Treating it's elite product like road racing or MTB would defeat the purpose entirely. Long form live streams are BIG business globally, streams last for days at a time - 8 hours is nothing, live chats are a component, on screen personalities, 'vibe checking'. We talk about getting more youth involved and 'what the kids are into'...well...
The point of these streams isn't the expectation that every viewer will sit and watch for 8 hours straight (more than one might think actually do this though), it's on, sometimes in the foreground, sometimes background as 8 hours of continuous self propagating advertising for an event that the most average person in the world can sign up for, that is not something that every sport has. It is a FREE (to the viewers) complete, POV driven digital record on the most ubiquitous platform that you can involve yourself in via the chats (some of the last space of live virtual community). You then watch it on the trainer in bits, it's so long and you can spend time riffing on culture rather than live calling, the men and women are the same time which is forces some people to watch women's sports that otherwise wouldn't. A stream lasting as long as it does isn't a bug, it's a feature. That's the real pulse of viral spread, we live in the post-modern world of the overload. Events that lean into this aspect and idiosyncratic eccentricities of gravel have far more watchable and scalable live streams than ones that don't. To keep it on topic, Life Time races get the biggest views and more views than I think people realize for as much criticism as the concept gets but this isn't an endorsement of everything they do or their stylistic choices by any means. I am speaking generally here, not just to one race product.
It is of course not cheap to the organizers and it's not perfect, not even close as its only been going on for about two years but as someone that is finding myself more involved in this field I talk to stakeholders almost every week (whether it be small community members or big time organizers or marketers) about how to bring this product in one form another to their race. They certainly see a value in it and every bigger race with a competitive field that has no coverage will field complaints about that. Instagram does very well to bridge the gap.
Also as a side note the global economic down turn has hurt races at every level of the sport big and small. Attendance is dropping no doubt from big races. But generally speaking the small local gravel scene is exploding in my region of the country and more people are without a doubt supporting the local grassroots races over going to the big ones. I believe Tobin is in California? I can only really speak for where I'm from in the South and in particular a more working class area but it's the exact opposite.
I agree with you that the GP needs a new owner, but that’s primarily because Life Time isn’t mainly an event company. Fitness centers drive their business, and the LTGP is barely rounding error in their quarterly revenue. They had $866 million in revenue just in the most recent second quarter. How much of that was events? There’s no way of knowing because It’s not even a line item. According to their 10-Q, 97% of their $866 million in quarterly revenue was from the fitness center business. The quandary is that Life Time can afford to pump some money into the series to hopefully drive more people to its fitness centers, but that’s probably more than an event company could ever afford, especially if they made LTF an offer they couldn’t refuse for the series.
10-Q: https://ir.lifetime.life/sec-filings/all-sec-filings/content/0001869198-26-000042/lth-20260630.htm
Yep- I went digging for numbers on LTE and it’s all hidden. I fully agree with you here, LT can pump money in essentially as marketing for their clubs. That’s fine, but just means my dreams of it being a blank paper for new things is always going to stay just as that: a dream.
Yeah, and the Grand Prix doesn’t even really drive new members to the centers; the mass participation side of the events presumably does. We need a billionaire willing to fund a series purely for his or her personal entertainment. Hard for me to see a viable business plan.
My favourite case study is SailGP and Larry Ellison. Then again, I don’t think gravel is the sport where that would/ could work - it’s simply not big enough.
I think looking at what UTMB has done wrong/ right with the UTMB World Series would be an interesting take compared to gravel. I’ve paid some stupid amounts of money to do gravel events…and I’ve paid some stupid amounts of money to do ultra trail events. I don’t care much about the pros, I just want to get my $$ worth by having a really ridiculous adventures. I am still sad that TV viewing ruined mtn biking by changing it into a dirt crit. Such a pity. I hope the same doesn’t happen with gravel or trail. A few years back some of the major professionals of trail tried to organize a boycott of UTMB but they didn’t get anywhere with it because their sponsors stopped it…so I don’t see much changing unless the brands speak up. The ASO/ Life Time/UTMB-type folks sure aren’t going to change their tune. Lately I’ve noticed local events trying to change as well and it makes those of us who have supported events for decades feel a bit unwelcome…not to mention does nothing for grassroots efforts. Can someone just bring back the 24 hour mtn bike team relay races so we can all have fun like it’s 1995?