GTWS Happens And No One Watches

This year’s Salomon Golden Trail World Series has gotten a lot of ‘sighs’ and question marks before it even kicked off. Now we’re two races down – from a total of eight (including the Finals) – and folks just sort of feel ‘ho hum’ about it all. Yes, the races changed – but even Zegama – which is Zegama after all! wasn’t the barn burner one would’ve expected (even with Kilian on the starting line).

• Is the lineup of elite runners this year not inspiring folks to follow the Series?
• Is the lack of US race location turning folks off from caring about the series all together?
• Is the strategic decision to move the livestream behind a paywall resulting in a drop in engagement?

A few thoughts on this:

• Race viewership and engagement dramatically increases with good storylines around who’s racing. This can’t be discounted. And is something that’s somewhat out of the hands of the events organizers. Only somewhat though, cause if you’re not creating a compelling product to watch than maybe you’re also not attracting a field of athletes worth following. But athletes do get injured and drop from a race last minute and some storylines you can’t predict or manufacture beforehand – as hard as you might want to.
• Maybe the numbers aren’t as bad as I think they are, it’s just my US media bubble makes me not see the full picture.
• I can see why GTWS would want to partner with a broadcaster rather than just put all their races on YouTube. YouTube isn’t your partner, they are just a platform offering you distribution in exchange for you following their rules – which is not a bad thing, but a partner they are not. My guess is that GTWS is looking for a partner that can help them take the product GTWS to a new level of professionalism in how it is presented to the audience. Having their races shown on the same channel as more established sports can be considered a positive for potential sponsors and brands encouraging their athletes to compete at GTWS races as well as of course the athletes themselves.

The last point I want to make here is the obvious comparison between the huge hit Cocodona was and the sort of tepid response to the kickoff to the GTWS so far. Many have argued (Greg Vollet being one of them) that trail needs a television friendly model – tighter course, shorter races. Maybe that’s wrong. Maybe, what the Cocodona phenomena is showing us is that watching really long trail races is actually what works in this new paradigm of esports and video game livestreams. Sometimes ultra distance race livestreams do feel like watching paint dry, but there seems to be something ‘there’ that is connecting with people more so than a trail race that is short and feels professionally manufactured to fit into a traditional sport broadcast? For one: a 2 hour livestream is over before I get back from my weekend run, but a multi-day race I can dip in and out through the day as my schedule allows and it can feel like connecting with friends over a shared experience rather than just listening to pro commentators bark results at you.

Where there is a clear comparison is that in both instances – GTWS and Cocodona – the actual livestream/broadcast product is part of a bigger play. For Salomon, owner of the Golden Trail World Series – and their national series’, these races series are a marketing play. In the instance of Cocodona, Aravaipa owns the race and the streaming provider Mountain Outpost, which is also contracted to provide live-streaming capabilities for WSER and Hardrock livestreams and 30+ other races just this year alone. In both cases the livestream itself might not have to ‘pay for itself’ and become sustainable. They are seen as tools to grow the sport and grow the brands and businesses behind it, even if the investment into equipment, man-power and other expenses aren’t directly recouped.