AOTD, September 3, 2013

Today's Article of the Day: Competitor Group Int'l, the crew that puts on the Rock 'n' Roll race series, recently decided to cut funding for elite athletes. Toni Reavis, road running's uber-announcer, weighs in on the issue, deriding CGI's move but concluding that

[a]fter twenty years-plus of this every-race-a-universe-unto-itself system, without any regulations to control access and eligibility to win money, without a circuit of events that could be molded and sold coherently, any economy of scale that might have taken the sport to the next level was squandered, and results are finally at hand. The public has long since lost interest in the outcome of foot races. 

Competitor Group isn’t to blame for the demise of elite racing (other than for the abrupt nature of the current decision), it is only the cold-eyed messenger.

Ouch.

The really cool thing is that Scott Dickey, President and CEO of Competitor, chose to respond to Reavis in the comments section.