Trailmix Asks Where the Fans Are

Matt Walsh on his Substack ‘Trailmix’ asks the question:

UTMB is Growing but Where are the Fans?

He supports this headline with data suggesting their revenue is up, but their viewership on Youtube is down. Matt therefore suggests their fanbase might be shrinking.

This assumption hinges on the single data point he got off of public Youtube numbers, even though UTMB officially announced the following:

• Three times more engagement on social media than previous years.
• A 20% increase in viewers of UTMB Live. 

The Youtube numbers Matt references:

UTMB’s livestream viewership for the week was down 16% YoY to 1.9M, just above 2022 numbers.

A few things:

• UTMB closed comments on Youtube and funneled folks to the comment section on UTMB Live. Did the fans follow them there? Or is one only considered a fan of UTMB if one’s trackable on Youtube?
• The new media deals UTMB announced across the world streaming their content on TV/online streaming providers could also have something to do with a drop in Youtube viewership? Are DAZN content watchers considered fans?
• If revenue is up it surely must come from runners signing up for their races across the globe and not just from sponsor deals and price increases. Are their runners considered fans?

So, I can agree with Matt that YouTube spectators are down year over year. And yes, that could have had something to do with top athletes dropping early from the race and top athletes not racing this year. Last year clearly was an outlier with everyone (every American) hoping for Jim to finally crack the code and for Courtney doing the Triple. But I would very much stop short from equating Youtube spectators to fans and lead with the question that UTMB’s fan numbers are down just because of that one single data point.

I think there’s a point to be made here, that just like with any global sporting event like the Olympics, the World Cup, or the Super Bowl, the attraction and attention for each edition hinges not just on the strong brand of the event, but also on the story lines of the athletes. And while for these aforementioned sporting events there’s no alternative and they are the pinnacle for each respective sport, for trail running there are other events. Not anything even remotely as big as UTMB, but runners can still choose. And of course UTMB is aware of this and needs to ensure that the top athletes carrying the story as much as the organization itself are taken care of and want to run UTMB each year above any other event. People tune in for the stories and some of them the organization can create, but most of them are generated organically. For now we still tune in to follow the runners and not the event itself. In the same vein as I follow specific teams or athletes in other sports and if they don’t compete I lose interest quickly. Makes me probably not a good fan, I admit.