For some, the prospect of competing in a stadium with spectators numbering in the thousands is enough of a reason to dish out the expensive cost of competing.  For everyone else, Carson City's Home Depot Center had better live up to the hype! Those that live in the California "CrossFit bubble" may have a hard time understanding the reality of this time of year. The simple and plain? CrossFit is an expensive sport. 

OPT recently wrote: 

There are athletes within our community that as you know have a hard(er) time than most having the ability to afford competing or even participating in events that might change their lives.

James Fitzgerald founded a not-for-profit organization to help his athletes pay their way to the 2010 CrossFit Games. He isn't the only one who is trying to lead the charge against the rising costs of the Sport of Fitness. SICFIT recently selected eight athletes to help in a similar way. Raising the profile of a CrossFit athlete can be a frustrating, yet rewarding task. Of the major issues that these exceptional athletes face:

Issue #1
The disconnect between the importance of the sport inside of the community with the  non-existant awareness of the sport outside of the community may be the most discouraging to those seeking sponsorship.

Issue #2:
If someone is aware of CrossFit, it is likely that they know of it as the boot camp, the gym, the fitness program, or the P90x relative.  This means that the athlete spends an inordinate amount of time explaining the movement, the sport, the appeal. It is difficult to rebrand it as a sport while convincing potential sponsors that the cost of supporting you can be beneficial to them.  

Issue #3:
CrossFit athletes are in their towns' Sentinels, Registers, Monitors, Neighborhood Posts, etc. The major print media, the ones that give an athlete credibility and clout, have yet to treat CrossFit like a sport. Until that aspect of brand visibility rises, major sponsors will not have reason to invest in either the sport nor you. There needs to be a detailed expose in the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, or Boston Globe. This is something that an athlete can point to and say, "This is the type of visibility you can expect from your sponsorship."

For now, we have:
(1) Wilmington Team to Compete in the CrossFit Games
(2) Hemet Woman to Take on CrossFit Games
(3) She's One Fit Fish

Live broadcasting an event that few (outside of a micro-niche) understand will accomplish less than people would think. Internet live broadcasts can do a lot for the prestige of a media operation but in this instance, it won't help drive attention in the same magnitude that CrossFit would by gathering those spectators into a stadium. CrossFit is a sensory experience. You have to feel the energy to love it.

Can We Lower the Cost of the Games For an Athlete?

The cost of competition, hotels, airfare, and transportation should all be paid by the governing body. Many other sports with epic events help minimize or eliminate theses costs. We are not in Aromas anymore. CrossFit decided to raise the stakes and their profile along with the move to the big league. As such, this event has been ambitiously marketed like a professional sport: the stadium, the title sponsors, the pre-parties, Ticket Master's role. CrossFit HQ's live feed provider almost exclusively deals in sports/events where the performers are professional and compensated as such.  Examples: the X-Games, the National Football League, Major League Baseball, the Tour de France, and the World Cup. As I like to say, we gave up our Woodstock festival for a concert at Madison Square Garden. 

This being said, the 2010 Games is a high class event that we are all excited to watch. The issue that has arisen involves the many athletes who are having difficulty pulling together the funds to participate. The Sport of Fitness just isn't as popular and marketable outside of California. Generally, CrossFitter's pinch pennies to make the trip. There are several CrossFit stars that are on the governing body's payroll as certifiers and media personalities, however, the majority of the athletes have to find their way with their limited resources. 



The $25,000 purse is amazing in comparison to years past. It illustrates the portrait of a growing movement. But remember, CrossFit is a prolific multi-million dollar machine. The goal should be to rise above the comparisons to lesser iterations of sport. CrossFit deserves to be up there with the X-Games. So much was made of the money and the glamour of this year's event that it becomes difficult to focus on the virtuous aspects of this competition. As funny as it may sound, the World Series of Beer Pong dished out $50,000 to the winners. Just last week, the hotdog eating tournament was home to a major audience; they paid their winner $20,000 in cash and more in sponsorships. Major League Eating, for goodness sake! Eating 54 hot dogs in 10 minutes earns you about the same as brutalizing your body for three days at the peak of summer's heat. 

Can we lower the cost of the games for a CrossFit athlete? I think that we must. If the governing body can not dish out the nearly $180,000 that it would cost to transport and house the 100 athletes that we'll be watching, we need to find a way to keep winning the sport as the focus rather than just getting there to participate.

It is a privilege to participate in the 2010 CrossFit Games, sure. But we can't say that this event isn't about the money. For the athletes, it may not be. No athlete can predict that they will be lucky enough (right workouts, right order, right conditions) to win the Games and take home that $25,000 purse. This is not what moves someone to compete. We are driven by something greater. Everyone is doing this because they love it. However, if we are treating this like an "epic", "elite", and "revolutionary" sporting event, some changes can be made to broaden the sport's appeal and its audience.

The first step is making sure that the competition's athletes are ready, rested, and prepared. The second step is to move CrossFit outside the walls of its current media constraint. People that don't know or like CrossFit will like the sport when exposed to it. There has to be a bridge between this sport and the athletes/audiences of others. The third step is to utilize ALL of the talent and the networks in the community to take this great sport and community even higher. CrossFit is in a new territory, the entertainment business. After all, these athletes will be walking into a professional stadium and standing before cameras capable of telling their stories a world away.

See | SICFIT Motivation: Are You Ready?

By Web Smith | SICFIT
The Websmith BLOG