A Lot of Wishcasting, Very Little Business

Seth LaReau on his blog ‘Trail Waves’ ponders “must-have” livestreams at WSER Golden Ticket races:

Cocodona delivered 125 hours of livestream coverage. The Canyons 100K, with six Golden Tickets and a stacked field, got none. A business-lens look at why, and how to fix it for the future.

Seth writes very eloquently on the business side of our sport but a few big things he’s missing in this article. So, I’ll help him out. Under his business explanations on why UTMB didn’t do a livestream for Canyons he argues:

The argument: Livestreams are expensive and cost significant resources that UTMB doesn’t have.

The reality: Thanks to the WSER Foundation’s Form 990, we know what it costs to broadcast Western States each year (2025 total: $104,113). At less than 2/3 of the distance, Canyons shouldn’t cost more.

The real reality: would the trail world be okay with UMTB JUST live-streaming the 100K? If UTMB would do a livestream for Canyons they wouldn’t do it just for the Golden Ticket chase – a Western States series. They’d have to do it for the entirety of the weekend, not just the 100K race. The 100M race kicked off on Friday at noon, last finisher completed the race in 35hrs. The 25K, 50K, and 100K all fit into that same timeframe. So it’s not 2/3 of the distance, but ~20% longer in broadcasting time than the WSER race which has a cutoff of 30hrs and livestreams the entire race. Further Seth is suggesting here that UTMB should increase the entry fee for all runners of every distance but then only livestream the 100K? If you add the cost of the livestream to JUST the 100K it’ll be $140 per big, yeah, that’ll fly.

UTMB cleared $500,000+ in registration revenue from the Canyons weekend. More than enough to support a livestream.

You’re asking a company to just “easily” justify a 20% expense hit on their revenue… what world are we living in?

Adding $100,000 in livestream costs to the entry fees of the ~1,800 starters would increase the cost for every bib by $55. Aravaipa might be able to absorb that cost at $2,000 a pop for an entry fee to their 250 mile event, but Aravapia is also using their own company ‘Mountain Outpost’ for the livestream, so there are other factors to consider of how this expense gets calculated on which P&L line item.

Seth continues his argument:

UTMB decided that the benefit of a livestream at Canyons wasn’t worth the dollars, time, and logistics to put it on.

The real reality: I believe, based on various sources UTMB offers the livestream to every event location and asks the local tourism office to pay for it. Why did Auburn, the Endurance Capital of the World not pony up?

For anyone watching the Cocodona livestream you noticed the ’sponsor mentions’ directly via logo placement and during the broadcast in continued earned media mentions of Sedona and Flagstaff. (Both Sedona and Flagstaff are listed as sponsors on the Cocodona website.) Clearly Aravaipa has figured out the tourism angle for funding their events, this hasn’t worked yet for UTMB in Auburn, California.

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Now to Seth’s potential solutions:

1. UTMB builds livestream into its race business model

UTMB has livestreams built into their business model. UTMB is offering a livestream to every location in exchange for some favorable coverage as a tourist destination. Some pay, others don’t. Seth argues here that UTMB should build the livestream for a WSER series into their business model – essentially arguing that UTMB should just pay for another organization’s product.

2. HOKA earmarks sponsorship dollars for broadcast

I mean, sure. HOKA could do that, but the contract is written with WSER and not UTMB and runs through 2029.

3. Drop UTMB races (except CCC) from the Golden Ticket schedule

I love LOVE the idea that everyone is talking about Big Alta as the solution here: a fairly new event – that until this year didn’t even have 100K race – and therefore isn’t even eligible as a Western States qualifier yet. And Big Alta also hasn’t had a livestream before. I’m sure Daybreak/Freetrail would love to just cut $100,000 out of their revenue for this expense. The Big Alta 100K had ~270 starters, 840 in total for the entire event (according to UltraSignup results page for the event). That would be $120 added to every runner’s entry fee, close to doubling it. Daybreak/Freetrail tried a livestream at Gorge Waterfalls once, and hasn’t done one since. Why?

I’m pretty sure if WSER would just change their schedule of races and announce your race organization as the host of a Golden Ticket race you wouldn’t mind taking on the extra $100K to provide a livestream. Oh, Big Alta is sponsored by Salomon? Yeah, I’m sure they’d love to pony up the dollars for a HOKA Golden Ticket race. That’s just not how it works in our sport’s brand partnership landscape. It would be nice, maybe, but it’s just not a reality.

4. Contract Mountain Outpost (or equivalent) for the broadcast

Yeah, let’s contract with the only other real competitor Mountain Outpost = Aravaipa and let them handle the livestream for your event. Again, brilliant solution right here. And again, that contract should probably be between WSER and Mountain Outpost and not UTMB and Mountain Outpost.

This also doesn’t solve the Chianti issue?

Every Western States Golden Ticket race should have a livestream. UTMB should prioritize it. HOKA (or future presenting sponsors) should require it as part of sponsorship agreements. Fans should speak loudly in support.

Somehow everyone is pulled into this responsibility but the very organization and people who make the decision on what races will be Golden Ticket races?

No mentioned of Western States and what they might be able to do here… to, you know, their race series?

Like, they could – in true nonprofit fashion – send out an RFP and let races apply. But would that create better races? I’m not sure. If the RFP includes the demand for a livestream (since the race org is on the hook for this and not WSER or HOKA) I wonder who would actually apply. Probably only Aravaipa could actually stem this requirement.

The team behind the decision Dylan Bowman, Topher Gaylord, and Craig Thornley aren’t mentioned once in the entire article either. They are the ones selecting the races as Dylan just mentioned again on the latest episode of Rest Day on the Free Trail podcast. Dylan made some interesting points about the challenges to the racing calendar to get elites to show up at a certain event so we actually do have a great race that might be worth following. But Dylan too dodged some obvious questions in that conversation.

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Would it be nice if all Golden Ticket races are live-streamed?

Sure, and most everyone is in agreement here. But so far the solutions suggested are all making the case on why it isn’t happening and not why it is inevitable that it should. And the business-lens of ‘Tail Waves’ didn’t take us any further. In fact it just reiterated that what we have in our sport is a lot of wishcasting and very little understanding of the reality of the business behind it all.