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Scott Riff's - Why Don't the Masters Athlete's Matter??? · Clydesdale Media Podcast

• 0:02
  what is going on everybody it's been a long time since scott's got on the on the horn here and got ready to riff but i got a riff tonight and i know you're all thinking it's about the new crossfit games logo well you're wrong we're talking about why nobody cares about the masters let's riff welcome back to scott riffs wow come on where has crossfit missed the mark
• 0:35
  And I want you to listen closely because she does something very tricky here that really pissed me off.
• 0:44
  You are not presenting accurate facts.
• 0:47
  You are manipulating what you're presenting to suck people into your narrative.
• 0:55
  CrossFit takes notes or gets out of the way.
• 0:59
  One or the other, because this train's moving forward because of people like you.
• 1:06
  time i'm too much of an alpha at times uh to want to uh conform too much and i would rather be all of me what's up everybody good wednesday night i'm here to talk about some masters talk
• 1:31
  If you've been following the show for the last couple weeks, we have been talking with all of the champions from the Legends Championship that were just held at the beginning of December in Tempe, Arizona.
• 1:47
  But this is going to be about Masters overall.
• 1:50
  And first, I want to thank all the organizers for allowing us to have access to tell great stories.
• 1:59
  Masters Fitness Collective or Masters Fitness Championship was a great time to hang out, get stories, get close to the action.
• 2:11
  They did a really good job of improving how that event went off.
• 2:18
  We then go to Legends.
• 2:20
  I thank the event organizers.
• 2:24
  Joe and Bob for giving us full access.
• 2:27
  We had access to the floor.
• 2:29
  We had access to Athlete Village.
• 2:32
  We were able to tell some stories.
• 2:34
  We're able to continue to tell those stories.
• 2:37
  So in no way am I saying that I'm not appreciative of what these events have done for us in telling the story of the Masters Athlete.
• 2:50
  But where I think that we have gone awry is we go to Masters Fitness Championships.
• 3:01
  They have all these athletes out there.
• 3:04
  They all pay registration fees to get there.
• 3:07
  They all travel to that location.
• 3:11
  And I have been a part.
• 3:13
  I've been at every MFC since its inception in 2020.
• 3:17
  I even worked it as a judge a couple years.
• 3:22
  So I've been behind the scenes as well as doing media coverage for them.
• 3:27
  Every year that Masters Fitness Championships have gone on, the podium have received prize money.
• 3:38
  That was not the case this year.
• 3:41
  And I know that Legends is getting a lot of stink for it right now.
• 3:44
  And we'll talk about that in a moment.
• 3:47
  But Masters Fitness Collective also did not pay their podium athletes who won or did well enough to podium at MFC.
• 4:01
  They did give the athletes a free pair of shoes, a nice cooler bag, and some other swag for winning, but there was no cash prize.
• 4:14
  And so then we moved to Legends.
• 4:17
  You go to Legends.
• 4:18
  It's in a brand new facility.
• 4:20
  It's gorgeous inside.
• 4:22
  Easy access to a pool.
• 4:24
  Easy access to two other fields of play where the athletes can move about pretty quickly.
• 4:32
  Thing goes off really well.
• 4:34
  Like I said, we were treated exceptionally there.
• 4:37
  I think the athletes were treated well there.
• 4:41
  The only bad thing I've ever heard come out of an athlete's mouth is the lack of a dedicated warm-up area for them and the ability to cool down and warm up for events.
• 4:55
  They also, since their inception, have always had a cash prize purse for podium finishers at Legends.
• 5:07
  And the reason that I say it that way is...
• 5:10
  When you do something every year since your inception, there is an expectation that that is going to continue.
• 5:19
  Both MFC and Legends last year had a streamed event out to the world through YouTube.
• 5:30
  They were done differently.
• 5:32
  They were done in different ways.
• 5:34
  But both of those events eliminated that expectation
• 5:40
  very large cost from the budget of what they're doing.
• 5:47
  And that is a decision they have to make.
• 5:50
  They made that announcement prior to the event happening.
• 5:54
  But what it does is it takes away the exposure that the athletes get to be in front of people like sponsors to help them pay for their trips to these events.
• 6:08
  I just talked to Lynn Watt this morning, who traveled all the way from Scotland to Arizona to compete at Legends.
• 6:19
  She didn't have that expectation.
• 6:22
  This was her first year at Legends.
• 6:25
  So she looked at it as a girl's trip with her friend to go to Tempe and do that.
• 6:31
  But that is an expensive trip from Scotland to Tempe in order to compete.
• 6:38
  Lin is also a games.
• 6:42
  She is a games athlete competed in 2021 so she's also one of those people that can draw people to your event.
• 6:52
  So my beef isn't necessarily about not paying the prize purses to the athletes.
• 6:59
  My beef is that it was never communicated to the athletes who made all these travel plans to travel across country, around the world.
• 7:10
  There were people from Japan, there were people from Holland at this event.
• 7:15
  They made those travel plans and not knowing that the possibility of the prize purse for the podium not being there, I think was the mistake that the event organizers made.
• 7:29
  If they would have made this decision and announced it earlier,
• 7:35
  they probably would have lost some of the people from attending that event knowing they didn't have a way to recoup their expenses either through a stream or through prize money.
• 7:51
  But I feel like that was misguiding the athletes and what might be to come at those two events.
• 8:05
  I do think that if you're going to be one of the elite competitions, you should have a prize purse of some amount.
• 8:13
  That should be in the budget from the beginning and that you figure out everything in that budget to make sure you can pay for everything.
• 8:23
  I found some of the stuff at...
• 8:27
  legends especially it looked awesome but what good does it do to look awesome if you're not going to be on a stream and you again you're not broadcasting it for anybody so to make it look awesome is great for the the fans that were there but you're not broadcasting it out to anybody
• 8:55
  And with that huge cost savings of not streaming, where did the budget money go to?
• 9:01
  And I apologize.
• 9:02
  My internet is dipping a bit as we speak, but it's coming back.
• 9:07
  So what I want to finish up with is then we go to Wadapalooza.
• 9:18
  Wadapalooza, the Masters athletes go to Wadapalooza, they pay the exact same entry fee as an elite athlete.
• 9:31
  So if you are Jeff Adler, you're paying the same fee as Jason Grubb to go to the event.
• 9:44
  When you get there as a Masters athlete, though, you are categorized as a community athlete.
• 9:52
  So you're not even considered elite, even though this is the batch of people that probably just competed at the Games, probably competed at Legends.
• 10:03
  then they get there and they are considered community athletes, meaning that they have no coaches access to the warm-up area.
• 10:13
  None of the Masters athletes can have their coach with them in the warm-up area because they're considered a community athlete.
• 10:21
  The only people who get to have their coaches with them are the elite athletes at Wadapalooza.
• 10:29
  So I find it...
• 10:33
  I'm blown away that you would not consider the Masters athletes that compete at Guadalupe an elite athlete.
• 10:43
  And they should get this.
• 10:45
  They're paying the same to play.
• 10:46
  They should get the same benefits when they're there to be able to have that coach back there with them to prep them for the competition.
• 10:58
  What scares me is CrossFit has split off Masters.
• 11:04
  They've been put in the hands of legends.
• 11:07
  And I think Bob and Joe were amazing.
• 11:11
  This is one hiccup in the process.
• 11:15
  But it does give me an uneasy feeling going into the games next year.
• 11:20
  not knowing how the athletes are going to be treated when you don't budget the prize money for these athletes you are putting them on the back burner compared to everything else that's going on during that competition the athletes should be raised to a level that is more meaningful than that
• 11:45
  they are who drew draws people to your event.
• 11:50
  They're the ones paying the entry fees, you know, and I, and I did do some quick math on this and with entry fees and, uh,
• 12:02
  The qualifier and the registration fee, I mean, that's over $200,000 based on the number of athletes who signed up for Legends.
• 12:13
  And that is a very conservative number.
• 12:18
  That doesn't count sponsorships.
• 12:19
  That doesn't count...
• 12:24
  the vendors who were there in person and what they paid.
• 12:28
  I don't know what they paid for the facility.
• 12:30
  I don't know a lot of these costs, but I do know that there's some significant money changing hands back and forth throughout this process.
• 12:41
  I don't have those numbers for MFC.
• 12:45
  But again, I think that prize money should be put into the budget before you lay out what's going to happen with the event and you adjust accordingly to make sure that there is some prize money for the athletes at the end.
• 13:01
  If not, you're going to end up not having any athletes show up at these events.
• 13:09
  Let's hope Wadapalooza pays out to their Masters athletes this weekend.
• 13:15
  They just won't be able to celebrate with their coach as their coach will not be allowed back in the warm-up area with them.
• 13:22
  And I've been to Waterpalooza.
• 13:24
  The section roped off for the warm-up area is massive.
• 13:28
  Now, I don't know what it means for where the equipment is.
• 13:31
  And I get why a person in the community event, like a scaled athlete like myself, who should not have a coach back there, that would be a disruption on top of everything else that's going on for those elite athletes.
• 13:49
  But these Masters athletes that dedicate their lives to competing and have gone to the game several times.
• 13:57
  I know my friend Rudy Burgers going down there, two-time CrossFit Games champion, does not have a coach's pass for his wife to be able to go back and warm him up prior to events.
• 14:09
  And I find that to be ridiculous.
• 14:13
  Um, with that, that is my riff for tonight.
• 14:18
  It's good to be back.
• 14:20
  And maybe I'll have to come on again and talk about this brand new sleek logo that the CrossFit Games have released for the upcoming season.
• 14:32
  With that, hope you enjoyed it.
• 14:35
  We will see you all next time on Scott Riffs.
• 14:39
  Bye guys.