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Triathlon Nationals?

This past Summer of cycling in Australia has provided two valuable lessons in staging great events - timing is everything when looking to attract a crowd; and multi day race 'festivals' are successful regardless of where you stage them.

Make the product good enough and people will come. Cycling Australia (CA) selected a supportive venue, Bunninyong, aced the time of year (first three weeks of January when there's not even a whiff of AFL or Rugby to compete for spectators) and made a compelling enough case to get thousands of fans both on TV and on the course to live the cycling dream for a few moments, hours, even days. The Australian sporting media too got onboard as there was little else to cover. So CA filled the void beautifully.

What can triathlon learn from cycling's success in the struggle for main stream media attention and a national flagship race? The 2012 season it seems is a missed opportunity with Falls Creek acting as the long course titles, Geelong the sprint. This fragmentation of the races is common but maybe it's time TA thought beyond the quick buck to be gained in selling off these titles and instead attempted to put together some sort of cycling-style national titles week to capitalise on the amazing talent that Australia has in this sport at present.

So rather than just throw mud, here's some food for thought ... seize the opportunity for media exposure in the dead sporting space of November. And Noosa, we believe, is just the place for a national titles festival.

The plan: Hold the elite National Sprint and Olympic titles at Noosa in November each season. The sprint race held on Thursday afternoon/eve, Olympic distance being held on the traditional Sunday with the 5000 other age group athletes. The long course and Ironman titles we think are well placed where they are and have been.

Timing: The timing couldn't be better. November sees many of the pros home to wrap up from their season, though it's not too late in the year that they have switched off. As Australia is dominated by ball sports, November is a great time for a national tri series to stand alone with all the big ball codes in their off season. The media too already know this event. Race directors would not be selling too much to the media because this is an established race.

Course: The course too is a good one. Having an established race and course and a non drafting format makes this an attractive proposition for both current ITU racers and even the long course guys would look at it. An iconic place to race with a packed pro field and a classic backdrop would fit both a sprint and and an Olympic distance event.

Festival/crowd: One thing that made the National Road Championships so successful was the fact that every day there was something to watch and more importantly a crowd on hand to make the atmosphere. As this is the case with the Noosa triathlon (runs, swims, equation, criterium) adding two marquee events to an established week of great races should be an easy one. The crowd is already there. They are there for multiple days with many athletes and families making a short holiday out of the race.

Make it compelling: This is the trick to the whole event. The event could be the greatest in the world but if the pros don't get on board then it becomes an empty title. Watching the National cycling road race the array of talent was simply brilliant. All the roadies want to get on that course and win the national jersey. The prize money pales to what they would be used to (around $1200 for the win) but the jersey is what they are after.

We have been long time advocates of triathlon getting a national jersey or colours established that only the national champion can wear. A smart pro would have this written into their sponsors contracts that a National title would have bonuses attached making the win and jersey more than just a title. But the more pros who race it the more prestigious and sort after titles in this week would become.