I first met Josh Cox early in his career at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon. Josh was part of the FILA Discovery America program. He had run a 2:13 marathon and live looked grand. Now, four Olympic trials later, a 50k American record, Josh is one of the busiest athletes on the circuit, with sponsors such as PowerBar. Josh Cox can be seen on twitter, writing about the sport and encouraging athletes.
Josh Cox wrote this piece about the Competitor Group’s decision to remove elite funding, which happened over Labor Day weekend. RunBlogRun broke the story, and some tremendous pieces by Race Results Weekly, and Toni Reavis followed.
Josh Cox’s piece, and view, is unique. It explains why he is so visible for his sponsors and why he helps them more than the average elite athlete. Cox gets it: for sponsors, how he influences sales is key in his long term success. For CGI, there was no sales reason to keep their elite sponsorship program alive.
The $1 million will hurt races around the country and athletes. But, CGI is a business and they believe that their risk taking, in the end, is better for their business.
I still believe that CGI has the right to make business decisions, and that this strategic decision is probably more about the current over saturation of events in the sport and lack of sport plan than anything else. How will other races respond? How will elite athletes and managers respond?
COMPETITOR GROUP’S DECISION TO REMOVE ELITE FUNDING
The decision by the Competitor Group, Inc. to withdraw elite funding is unfortunate and a big blow to the professional running scene here in the States. Nevertheless, their races will continue to be a place for elites to connect with runners. Granted, their events become less a sporting event and more a community one but the Rock ‘n’ Roll Series will still be a stage for elites with sponsorship ties to interact, share training tips and dialog with the masses. I am personally aware of some of CGI’s plans to reinvest in the sport and find new ways of bringing elites together with runners.
To read the entire blog by Josh Cox, please go to: http://joshcox.com/competitor-groups-decision-to-remove-elite-funding/
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Larry Eder has had a 50-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself."
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