OK, maybe I'm way off base here and missing something but World Triathlon Corporation, owner of the Ironman and Ironman 70.3 brands, announced the launch of the
Ironman Executive Challenge XC. The program targets
top-level executives and provides its members with the opportunity to compete at the following
sold-out events in 2009: Ford Ironman Coeur dAlene, Frankfurter Sparkasse Ironman Germany, Ford Ironman Lake Placid, Ford Ironman Louisville, Ford Ironman World Championship (by qualification only) and Ford Ironman Arizona.
The mission of the Ironman Executive Challenge (XC) is:
"To provide the ultimate Ironman experience for the world's top business leaders."
I will now enter my Dana Carvey 'Grumpy Old Man' persona, the embittered old man figure with white hair, glasses, and a sour sneer.
In my day, we didn't have fancy ways to bypass sold out triathlon events just because you had money coming out your ass. We trained hard by running over rusty nails and big bags of broken glass! If you wanted to do a wind-trainer exercise on your bike, you had to step outside in the middle of a hurricane! You would get your workout in, but you would also get a sharp piece of wood driven clean through your skull--'Look, I'm a human head kebab!'--that's the way it was and we liked it, we loved it!So, during a period when most of America is revolting against the the degree of the executive banking worlds’ brazen audacity to take bonuses comes another perk for the people who dwell at the top of the builing. At a time when the normal American Joe is putting heat on every board of directors to step up to the plate and prevent wasteful expenditures of corporate funds on outsized executive bonuses and other perks comes a benefit that really hits home to triathletes.
And this one makes me mad as hell.
Now, it's been a long day of traveling and meetings so if I misread this story and its intent, I'm sure some good soldier will point it out to me. But I sort of think WTC really timed this annoucement very, very badly.
2 comments:
I agree with you. I don't think WTC really understands how people feel about executive entitlement these days. Maybe they should be allowing these 'open slots' to be filled by people who raise a bunch of money to charity (ie, what the Boston Marathon does) or for military personel who couldn't sign-up because they didn't know if they were going to be overseas or not.
I think this looks really bad.
But it appears to me to just be a particularly smelly example of the Community Fund policy, where you can enter for an additional $1300. I understand they do something reasonable with the money, but I have to believe they will do the same with the Executive slots. In fact, it seems to me that the only reason to do this is to attract people whose egos need to be massaged into coughing up the money for the Community Fund slots.
Post a Comment