Posted by Grant on 29. January 2010 01:02

The buzz this week in the sphere of the AR World Series has been Australia's announcement about hosting the 2011 edition.  Based on many I've spoken to, November 2011 sounds like the perfect time to pay a visit to Australia, so we'll have to see what comes of that.  Let's not forget that some are already visiting Australia for their May 2010 race!  It will be fun to see how that goes -- and I think I can comment publicly here that Untamed will be a part of the coverage of the May 2010 race . . . but that's all I will say for now.

A couple people have commented (or, in the case of Stephanie Lajoie, "tweeted") that Untamed New England should be on the 2012 radar screen for hosting the AR World Championship.  That's very flattering, but I happen to know that the 2012 World Championship is between a couple locations (neither of which I can comment about) -- and, in my opinion, the World Series leadership has nearly made up their mind. 

I will offer that we did not put a proposal in to bring the World Championships to Untamed New England . . . so I don't feel the least bit slighted.  The fact is, most races in the World Series are funded through significant tourism dollars from the host destination; in some cases, national tourism money subsidizes the race.  To do a race the "right way" involves substantial costs -- far more than can be financed just through entrance fees (unless you want a $10,000 entrance fee per team -- but as we've seen with PrimalQuest, that isn't a guarantee of financial viability either).  To put it bluntly: we at Untamed New England don't have the sponsorship or tourism connections (regional & national) to land $200,000 in seed money to get a World Championship race off the ground.  A 3 day race is the absolute max we can do to the standards we're comfortable with. 

We are building, however, and each year we forge new relationships and improve our operations.  You can see evidence of this on our Untamed New England sponsors page -- and there is more to come!  Even in this lousy sponsorship economy, we won a nice operations grant to cover some of our expenses in 2010.  There's a quiet momentum developing in northern New England around the Untamed race.  Who knows where we'll end up?  For the moment, our sights are focussed on producing the best 3-day race possible in northern New England and we'll see what develops for the future.  

I agree, the idea of a World Championship in New England is an exciting one and it's flattering to suggest we could pull it off.  There's no question the terrain in New England is world class, and the host venue of the Balsams is probably the finest in the whole World Series.  Hosting a race, however, requires much more than just awesome terrain and a great resort; a World Championship demands so much more and it inevitably comes down to spon$orship money. 

Let's talk in a couple years, after we've further established the brand in New England, developed a bigger cadre of experienced staff, and unquestionably demonstrated the value that our race brings to a region. 

Unless, of course, you are in a leadership position at a big corporation looking to put their name on a signature event . . .