$2.2 million in 10 minutes...

That's the approximate amount of money that roughly 2,500 age-group triathletes handed over to the World Triathlon Corporation at noon today to secure their slot for the inaugural Ironman U.S. Championship.  This 104.6 mile tri will be held August of 2012 in NYC and New Jersey.  What's also amazing is that is was just announced last week...talk about impulse buying!  When it was announced, there was so much negativity about the event.  From the swim in the Hudson to the fact that is mostly takes part in NJ, there was much commentary about why this event would fail, let alone sell-out.  Now, one week later, most of the negativity is around how fast it sold out and who wasn't able to get it.

There's also the talk about the price: $895 + the registration fee.  This will make it the most expensive Ironman to date...but you know what, people paid it!  The fear now is that b/c WTC was able to get this fee, where do they go from here??  Do they increase the fees of other events?  Do they try for $1,000 next year for IMNYC??  Who knows...but what i do know is that WTC is a for-profit corporation who almost has a monopoly on their product.  Yes, other events are now popping up, and the ones that stick around tend to be of high quality...REV3 comes to mind.  But the advantage that WTC has is Kona...the Holy Grail of every triathlete.  By being able to give out Kona slots at their events, they can continue to ask for a premium on their races.

As they saw today, if people are willing to pay over $900 for an event, they are certainly not asking too much.  I'm sure they will never lower the entry fee, but at some point, there will be a cost for raising the price too much.  They made that mistake last year with their "Ironman access program."  For a $1,000 membership, you were allowed to register for events one week in advance.  This received so much negative publicity, that they quickly dropped the program.  Maybe $1,000 was a little steep for advanced registration, but where is that break even between charging too much (& pissing people off) and charging too little that events sell out in minutes, if not seconds??  Who knows this answer, but as long as triathletes keep spending $$ companies will capitalize on it...and if you don't like it, don't register; but i guarantee someone else will.