A Valley Built on Sport Has Had Enough of It

Antonin Cotte a French strategist in sport & entertainment writes on LinkedIn in a length blog post titled “UTMB has a problem that money cannot solve.” (auto-translated):

The UTMB is no longer merely a race with sponsors; it is a group whose business is selling access—access to a legendary starting line, access to a captive audience for brands, and access to licensing rights for local organizers worldwide. This model has enabled the group to multiply its revenue and build a circuit of 65 events in just a few years.

However, a model based on the scarcity of a unique location (the Chamonix Valley) carries within it an inherent limit to growth. Unlike acquiring a studio or forming a technology partnership, this ceiling cannot be overcome with a check; it requires negotiation with local officials, whose patience—unlike the group’s revenue—does not grow by 15% annually.

The question facing UTMB Group in the coming years is therefore no longer whether the demand exists—for it clearly does, and in abundance. Rather, the question is whether a business model built on continuous expansion can survive in a territory that, for the first time in twenty years, is clearly telling it that it has reached its limit.

Clearly this issue isn’t going away for UTMB and Antonin makes a good point. UTMB, while still majority owned by the Poletti family is more now part of a bigger private equity play as Matt Trappe puts it in his blog post from today (which I get to later):

Advance Publications (and its private equity partner Okila Capital) ultimately own 45% of UTMB – a technical minority but a lot. Advance is privately held and also owns Condé Nast (think Vogue, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker). Advance/Okila bought Ironman in 2020.

So, while the Polettis still have a lot of pull in the valley they also have to answer for that bigger monstrosity behind it that’s forcing the revenue acceleration. Or better: Okila Capital can’t be hiding behind the Polettis while strip mining the Chamonix Valley. That much is clear.

But the piece that I see missing in this cry about the beloved Chamonix Valley is the reality that the valleys in the Alps are built on tourism and regular sporting events. Chamonix hosted the first Winter Olympics! How many climbing competitions, skiing events, and other activities are annually in Chamonix and the surrounding area? And, this is not me being facetious, I genuinely don’t know. Are we at a place with trail running that a UTMB event is already bigger than the Ski World Cup? Maybe these competition travel more and aren’t in the same valley every year? Maybe skiing really is already dwarfed by trail running – but if so, that would be big news, in my opinion.

Quick check on the calendar for Chamonix for the winter of 2027:

• Alpine World Cup – slalom, women on January 8–9
• Alpine World Cup – slalom, men on January 30

BTW, Audi is the title sponsor for the Alpine World Cup. Azerbaijan, the country is the “Global Destination Partner”. Do you think there are any environmental concern that are being talked about for this tour?

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Where’s the Mont-Blanc Marathon in all this?

Seems that an event with just as many runners on the trails of the Chamonix valley does not pose the same problems for the locals. So why the call to reduce the “number of participants” for UTMB? Is it because:

Mont Blanc Marathon is a trail running event organized by the Club des Sports de Chamonix, a nonprofit organization founded in 1905.

Which is a total fair differentiator, in my book. Or is it that when voices call for a “reduction of UTMB” they really are calling for a curbing of the brand activations alongside the actual races? We shall see.