S05E139 - The 2024 Masters CrossFit Games Unveiled with Special Guest Joe Linton
Peer behind the curtain of the 2024 Masters CrossFit Games with Joe Linton @_joe_linton, one of the new visionaries at the helm of this colossal sporting event. Hosts David Syvertsen @davesy85 and Sam Rhee @bergencosmetic venture into the intricate world of planning the 2024 Masters CrossFit Games, revealing the logistics and strategy needed to stage an event destined to redefine the Masters CrossFit community.
From the announcement of the Birmingham, Alabama venue to the innovative programming that's reshaping competitive fitness, Joe's insights are a blueprint for anyone fascinated by the orchestration of CrossFit sport.
The addition of a community team division will unlock new opportunities for athletes and sponsors alike. The conversation also pivots to the discussion of funding mechanisms and partnerships needed for a premium broadcast experience, demonstrating how creativity and collaboration may elevate a sporting event to legendary status. We also dissect the delicate balance of catering to different age groups, ensuring that the competitive fire remains ignited across all divisions.
You'll have a newfound appreciation for the meticulous improvements being made to enhance athlete care and engage spectators. Join us for this compelling narrative that promises to inspire both the CrossFit Masters novice and the seasoned athlete, as we celebrate the relentless pursuit of excellence within this ever-growing community.
@crossfitbison @crossfittraining @crossfit @crossfitgames #crossfit #sports #exercise #health #movement #crossfitcoach #agoq #clean #fitness #ItAllStartsHere #CrossFitOpen #CrossFit #CrossFitCommunity @CrossFitAffiliates #supportyourlocalbox #crossfitaffiliate #personalizedfitness
00:00:05 Announcement of 2024 Masters CrossFit Games
00:09:45 Programming and Logistics for an Event
00:14:54 Masters Games Team Division Programming
00:23:37 Masters CrossFit Games Funding and Support
00:36:59 Age Group Divisions in CrossFit Games
00:42:25 Improving Athlete Care and Spectator Experience
00:51:39 Promoting Growth in CrossFit Community
S05E139 - The 2024 Masters CrossFit Games Unveiled with Special Guest Joe Linton
TRANSCRIPT
David Syvertsen
Host
00:05
Hey everybody, welcome to the Herdfit Podcast with Dr Sam Rhee and myself, Coach David Syvertsen. His podcast is aimed at helping anyone and everyone looking to enhance their healthy lifestyle through fitness, nutrition and, most importantly, mindset. Alright, welcome back to the Herdfit Podcast. I am Coach David Syvertsen. I'm here with my co-host, Dr and Coach Sam Rhee, and we have one of the most famous people and most important people in CrossFit space right now because of huge news that just dropped a few days ago, and we have on the director of the co-director of the Legends Championship, but also the co-director of the new CrossFit Masters Games, Joe Linton, coming in with us from California. Joe, what's up, man?
Joe Linton
Guest
00:51
What's up, guys? How you doing? Thanks for having me on.
David Syvertsen
Host
00:52
It's always fun to chat with you guys, a repeat guest. We had him sitting between us just a few months ago talking about the 2023 Legends Championship and that was awesome to see him come out there and show us his support, and we're going to try to just get some information out, because there's a lot of questions. I'm going to read through some of the ones that I found on social media, which I would advise you to stay away from as best you can. Let me filter that for you, because there's a lot of dumb questions on there too.
01:21
But the news just dropped that we have the date and location for the 2024 Masters CrossFit Games and we already knew that you guys were going to be running the show with CrossFit support and CrossFit's backing. But this is still going to be Bob and Joe's show and your staff. And how long was this under wraps? Because there were rumors that this was going to be right after the CrossFit Games. We knew that it couldn't go too deep into the fall. When did you guys really kind of sign, seal, deliver that it was going to be in Birmingham, alabama, august 29th to September 1st.
02:03
Last Sunday At least just a few days ago.
Joe Linton
Guest
02:08
Last Sunday is when the contract was signed and we immediately let CrossFit know so we can touch their media team, plan the announcement and get everything set up. So I think it was what Three days after Okay, all right, that's quick, quick turnaround it was officially announced which was needed. We really wanted to get that information out so that people can plan the year and get ready for it and, yeah, we're super exciting to finally get that announced officially and get the contract signed. So we know the space ran, we know the dates that we have and we can really start to get to the logistics of planning.
David Syvertsen
Host
02:50
Can I ask whether did it come down to like a Final Four? Top Three was Birmingham.
Sam Rhee
Co-host
02:56
I thought there was a second place. You were thinking about Orlando, I heard last month. Is that true?
Joe Linton
Guest
03:02
Yeah, we were trying to get with Orlando. I want to say that the original dates we wanted was the week before, so we wanted to be one week before teenagers and I believe it would then be two weeks after the pros Yep Games, and that didn't work out. So Orlando, they had like a possibility of availability but they kind of ghosted us. I want to say, I think another huge event that took on more space came in and swept up the whole thing.
David Syvertsen
Host
03:39
Okay, that's what.
Joe Linton
Guest
03:39
I think happened. Okay, it didn't work out, so that kind of got really difficult. Just because convention centers in California, the cost is insane. So we're like God we can set up an outdoor thing where we have half and half, but then soccer took like everything right away. So you really need more than just a year or eight months, six months, to sign a convention center or a place the size that we need. Got it. So we're already planning for next year.
David Syvertsen
Host
04:17
I mean it's great that you guys have. I think one of the reasons why you guys were given this responsibility is you have experienced negotiating with cities and different locations and scouting locations and you truly do know what's needed, right? I think that's a really important variable for everyone to know how you guys know what is truly needed to run a good operation with which is going to be, in terms of volume of athletes, the biggest event when you're talking about the games. Teens and the pros have a fraction of the amount of people that you guys are going to be dealing with because the amount of age groups and the increase in the amount of people that are competing. So there's a lot of variables that go into this and I think a lot of people are unaware of how much does that really weigh into scouting locations and what you guys had to really find?
Joe Linton
Guest
05:10
Oh man, it is honestly probably the most important thing. We need this space right To get through and to make this a true games test. Like you guys know, legends and the space we take up is probably less than 50% of the space that we're looking for for the master's games. Okay, we need three fields of play going on the entire time and each field needs to be 20 lanes and that's to make sure that one we hit the mark on getting a true games test. So that means something that legends kind of has always missed and that we're actually going to fix this year. But also there's some creativity. Creativity is a longer test. I think that's 20, 25 minutes plus so that'll be present at the master games and with that you need time and space. So your location needs to be 100,000 square feet plus just to get your three fields of play plus a warm up area plus an athlete village area. Then you got to take an account vendor village where people are going to eat and sit. So it's got to be big.
Sam Rhee
Co-host
06:34
Is this going to be at the Birmingham crossplex, which is like 750,000 square feet?
Joe Linton
Guest
06:42
Man, it's BJCC. I'm blanking on the what it would. Actually, I don't think it's the crossplex, I think that's. I don't think that's it how accessible.
David Syvertsen
Host
06:54
But it's that. How accessible is it for just travel? You have a lot of international athletes coming in like is it easy to get to? What's the lodging like in the area, with hotels and to some I mean, this is not as important but for spectators and restaurants, how is it easy to get to Birmingham internationally?
Joe Linton
Guest
07:17
It's easy, in a sense of like you can fly straight into Atlanta, which is the busiest airport in the world, I believe, and it's a easy, you know, straight shot, two hour drive from Atlanta to Birmingham. If you want to jump on a commuter flight, you can get into straight into Birmingham. But it's much like I want to say it's like Madison. You know, it's not like you can fly direct into Madison with every airline. You got to jump on a little commuter flight from somewhere but it's easy to get to. Now the convention center is right next to two major hotels, the Weston and the Sheraton, which we're working on deals with them to secure a room, blocks and everything already and that kind of sandwiches.
08:03
The convention center downtown area I haven't been, but I heard that there is some. Really there's a really cool street that has some kind of like a very mom and pop downtown Madison, esque or small, you know, small town. Feel that you know we're going to start working with, to kind of, you know, spread out the event from itself into the streets so that it goes like a full festival kind of like a water was, kind of like the games in Madison type of bill. Yeah, it's going to be. A lot of people are going to be surprised by how welcoming Birmingham is to the CrossFit community.
Sam Rhee
Co-host
08:40
It has. It's the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex and that's 220,000 square feet of exhibit halls, meeting space, ballrooms, has four entertainment venues stadium, arena, concert hall and theater. And then you mentioned the Sheraton in the Weston Birmingham. It's basically downtown Birmingham.
David Syvertsen
Host
08:58
Yeah, now, now that you guys have this locked in, what's the next stage for you guys as event organizers? Is it all in on programming? Because that that's going to be a big part of year one for this, and I really I hope everyone knows this that you guys deserve a multiple year shot at this. You guys are ready. There's no question. I'm sure that there are going to be some subtle and maybe even some major differences between this and running legends. That there's no question you guys deserve multiple years at this. What is your plan as organizers at this point, now that you have one of the more complex things already figured out?
Joe Linton
Guest
09:43
So it's a good question. So, programming, you can kind of program most of it without knowing exactly where you are. I mean, if you're dedicated to the space that you want, you can start programming that right away and then you leave a little. You know, you leave some space or some wiggle room to make some edits, to make some enhancements, if you will, based on where you're going to be and you know, can you be outside? You have to be full inside as it goes to a pool, as it goes to an open water setting. So you leave some space in there for that.
10:22
On logistics side, now it's like we can finally get cracking on logistics, which we have enough, we have more than enough time to do that.
10:30
It's like securing heavy machinery for a setup breakdown, you know, getting this information to sponsors, which is important to make sure that they are. They've kind of secured the dates that we've told them, but we weren't able to like tell them where we were, and so now it's like they can start signing contracts and start really getting involved in the planning for them, which is a big deal. Then, yeah, programming those most important, kind of most important thing. Right now we're working along with Boz and his team, which has been awesome. That's awesome Both for it. It's super cool, like, if you like, programming kind of nerd out on it and then knowing that you got rogue, you know rogue equipment, rogue fitness as your equipment sponsor, you know you kind of you're going to get what you want and it really opens up a lot of opportunities to you know, test the athletes and harder, funner, more exciting ways. Yeah, and I think what Boz and his team has been a really pinch me more Cool experience.
Sam Rhee
Co-host
11:32
In January you said you had finished your third draft of your programming and you were about to send it to Boz, but you said you go through like 10 to 15 drafts before you're totally done with it. How far are you?
Joe Linton
Guest
11:46
So it's cool. So the 10 to 15, what we learned, bob and I, so the 10 to 15 drafts, is like we do that on paper and we kind of talk through it and it comes out really well. And Bob's and his team, they showed us a much more scientific and, you know, built out method to like view your programming and kind of where it lies on. You know what movement is prescribed, what would you write out? What movement did you write out? And then where does it fall in the workout? And how many times are you using a domestic? They went. How many times they're using a single modality? How many times are you using a weightlifting? And then they really like slightly, show you data and we're like, oh so much, so much faster.
12:40
That's so we get to that. We get to that point. It just takes so much longer. And we're like, wow, I think this is gonna cut the need for edits in half. So right now, we're only up, we're only at five and it's already so much better. And we're like, okay, this is something that we're going to Try to replicate for legends, obviously and continue to use. Going forward with the games.
David Syvertsen
Host
13:05
That's really cool. That's like taking a game to the next level.
Joe Linton
Guest
13:09
Yeah, and it was, you know it's. I don't think that that is something that Bob and I, to be honest, ever would have got to right, like absolutely what we got is working. We're gonna continue to do working like this, we're not, you know. You know I don't want to fit anyone but computer nerds and we're not gonna be like, oh, let's, let's make a plot map and listen that, yeah, but wow, that's great, really that was really fun.
David Syvertsen
Host
13:34
That was the best part so far. You know what that's like. It's like the. It's like the. It's Super Bowl Sunday right today. And it kind of it brings me back to this whole football is you have your old-school football guys that know the game really well and there it's really being blended in with analytics now and what we would call computer nerds. And you know the, the, the teams that do it right, the teams that are playing today have really properly blend, blended that ability, that intellectual ability to take all this data and Really help streamline the process of the crossica, the football guys. You are the cross it guys, the, the. We know cross it guys. There is a way, a proper way to blend the two and that's what that sounds like, what you guys have going on a 100%.
Joe Linton
Guest
14:18
You know, it feels like what I just watched recently, a couple months moneyball. Oh yeah, that's where it all started. Yeah, like that. Yeah, that's like right there, it's like okay.
Sam Rhee
Co-host
14:27
That's so cool, that's. That means you're Brad Pitt, though, and then Bosman is the Jonah.
David Syvertsen
Host
14:32
Hill, jonah Hill, that's not nice so.
Joe Linton
Guest
14:39
You said it.
David Syvertsen
Host
14:42
The, so we're never gonna talk to Bob again.
14:44
I guess, Now you, I think last time we talked on air, I think you guys said you were gonna have some say in the semifinal. Programming is this and they're gonna have a bit more of an open and quarter final, without, without getting anyone in trouble. The programming that's leading up to the games and this process that you're going through is this all-encompassing Games, some eyes, quarters open, because if you have something that you truly want to run at the games but it doesn't necessarily relate to what's going on prior to does that, could that ruin a plan that you have for a workout?
Joe Linton
Guest
15:26
Yeah, it does it. I mean. So we already we've already dealt with this and you know so we programmed semi-finals and games. We set up our you know our initial drafts and went through a couple revisions on both. We talked to Bosman on both and like, for instance, one of the workouts that we programmed in semi-finals, we had to make some edits because it was Basically a workout that they, you know, very close to a workout that was in quarters, got it. So we're like, okay, you know, cool, make sense, yeah, yeah, but um, for both semi-finals and games, we Program more workouts than was, you know, that are gonna be used. Okay, so Just kind of to, you know, work around those instances, but like we don't nothing about the open and quarters, it's better.
David Syvertsen
Host
16:16
It's probably better than on yeah 100%.
Joe Linton
Guest
16:19
That's what I would prefer. Yeah, like, I think in the beginning of the talks, you know, and when we first started talking to Bosman last year in October, I want to say, you know they're like, oh, we'll give you some access to you know what we're doing in open and quarter-finals, and I was kind of like, do we need to? Like I'm totally fine with, like hey, we're gonna say some programming. You can be like, hey, don't use these, this is already being tested. Or hey, we're doing something similar, a different way, and we'll just make some edits.
16:46
Um, yeah, it's kind of a, it's kind of unique programming, almost backwards, right, like the Masters games, back to the open. That's what we would be used to, like legends, like we kind of program the championship and then we'll program the online qualifier to make sure that people are, you know, gonna be you know what we can test where it's now. It's almost the reverse with the Masters games are like open the games. So, um, it's a, you would think it'd be the same, but it's pretty different and um, it's exciting. I like it, you know.
David Syvertsen
Host
17:22
So what one question I have and I'm sure there probably needs to be some clarity on this with the, the announcement that there's gonna be a team division At your get at the games. Is this something that people are going to have to qualify for, or is this sign up like an open Registration type, like because I know the pros have men, women and then they have teams and they really kind of have to qualify? The same way, I'd like you know open quarter finals, show up to semi finals, qualify for it and be top. Whatever is, what is your process going to be, considering everything is online for the team division that you have noted in the in the post.
Joe Linton
Guest
18:08
So the teams are gonna be an open registration and you have to had competed in quarter finals, got it. So that just gives us, you know, that in. So the programming then for, like, the teams at the Masters games is Gonna be kind of based off of that. It's kind of like gonna be a little bit hard. It's gonna be harder than quarter finals, but not quite kind of games athlete level makes sense. It's a.
18:42
It's a community event and we're calling it a community event because we want to provide more opportunities for the Masters community to be present and to, you know, work out alongside the games athletes. You know we want to be very clear. You're not considered a games athlete. Whatever team wins isn't the fittest, you know games team in the world Got. It's a pretty community event and it's used to To get give more opportunity people can be. But it's also on the flip side, mainly get more people present, more eyeballs on the competition and that's going to attract more sponsors.
19:23
As far as revenue and it's not, if you've looked at it purely on a revenue base of what the teams brought in and the impact they make on, you know, us having to get more gear for them, us having to get more space for them. Us having to do X, y and Z Is, if you put, if you're a business man, you'd be like you know, bitch, purely in these numbers, we're not doing it right, but we, you know it can't. It will attract more sponsors, and so that's kind of what we saw legends last year with the team. We're like it's a huge strength, but revenue it doesn't make sense. We kind of a watch, but we're attracting more sponsors because we're a bigger event, right, and so it's kind of used to give them. You guys an opportunity to compete as a team. If you want to blog, set of games, be present, be active and then us to be able to go to sponsor, be like, hey, we have nearly 700 masters athletes in the same place at one time and that's just the competitors.
David Syvertsen
Host
20:16
So what's important? For people to know that if they want to participate in this, they have to partake in, participate, register for quarter finals. So if you are an athlete top 25% this year, right and you make quarter finals and you know you're not gonna make it to the next stage, you know you're not gonna make the games Maybe there's a lot of people that know they won't make these semifinals but you now registering and participating in quarter finals there. Now it opens the door for you to travel to Birmingham, alabama, and be at the CrossFit Games and participate in a competition we know and needs to be known to set again, you're not the fittest team this is not the CrossFit Games type team format but you can compete down there with teammates, if only if you make and participate in quarter finals. So I think that also opens the door to people really needing to get behind the quarter finals. Get in there, get your name in there and then who knows what can happen Can you register with people from your own gym, other gyms around the world. What's up there?
Joe Linton
Guest
21:20
Yeah, it can be any gym. Awesome, great. Your own team Worldwide doesn't have to be same affiliate Cool. I don't think that, where the master's committee is pretty big. But if you think about, like, how many gyms are gonna have that many people qualify for quarters and down to travel, it'll get tough. Yeah, yeah, so it's anywhere. Any super team you wanna make.
David Syvertsen
Host
21:45
Do you have information on what that registration will be like Like? Is it gonna be a certain date? First come, first serve? Will there be any ranking that helps you or hurts you in the quarter finals?
Joe Linton
Guest
21:56
As of right now, the ranking won't be a factor, okay, it's just gonna be open registration. It will be after semifinals is completed. Okay, to give opportunity to the people that participate in semifinals and still want to opt to sign up for it as a team. Right, we will make that date public and that'll be through the Legends website directly, not through the games website, got it? So that'll be through Legends and it'll be much like the same website we use for Legends in the past. Wow, and we'll make sure that information is out there and very present so that people can be prepared for it.
Sam Rhee
Co-host
22:40
What kind of broadcast capability will you be having or streaming for the games this year?
Joe Linton
Guest
22:46
So we are looking at all the options. You know, last year we were thinking that maybe it won't be something that's super built out, super big, just because of lack of viewership that we've seen in the past. But Bob and I just really want to figure that out. We're like, why isn't this getting more views? And so we are talks with Hamilton Road Productions, which has done our broadcast in the past, and the games, and talks with smaller companies that do a much lower level of service but still decent to good coverage. So it's going to in the next couple of months we'll figure out where that's gonna land. But everything is on the list right now where, you know, we've. I think about.
23:37
You know, six months ago we kind of crossed off the super expensive, super high end just because it'd be difficult to find a sponsor to fund that. So we began racking our brains on okay, what if we don't need to rely on a sponsor to fund it? Where did we get the funds to make this happen? And we are, we're pretty sure we found it. So, yeah, we'll let you guys know. But we are working on that, which is super important for us. We want, you know, a high level broadcast, even if it doesn't get a ton of views, or even if the viewership doesn't match up, you know, with the cost, we're like, okay, cool, well, we don't need to expect a sponsor to pay for it now. So where did we get this money? And so that's what we're trying to get very creative on that.
David Syvertsen
Host
24:23
Okay, in terms of like in the same, you know like same church, different pew that the support that you guys will have from CrossFit is great, right, whether it's the scoring, adrian and his team with the programming, when it comes to the support staff, like boots on the ground, people that show up to judge and help set up and clean up I know that's a process that you guys have really cleaned up and improved on for your own sake in recent years at Legends Championship. Are you going to have judges from CrossFit or is that on you to find? Is there some sort of maybe judge training system that if you ever want to be a games judge you have to go do the masters and teens first to you know kind of what you would call the minor leagues, really in sport comparison, right, if you want to be a major league umpire, you start off in the minors or college, right? What's that support gonna be like from CrossFit when it comes to actual physical personnel?
Joe Linton
Guest
25:29
Yeah. So that those talks now or is what we're gonna jump into the next couple weeks, but before this, I can't say that they've already told us that they are gonna help us out. They are going to. You know, you can register to Participate at the Masters games through the games website, through their voluntary portal. We're going to have access to the email list of previous Volunteers for the games. We have our own list that we're working with. Even cooler, which I'm excited about, we've already had two local gym owners reach out and say like, hey, how can we help? What can we do? How many people do you want? Which is huge, because we definitely want to have the local community involved and, if you know, if that what's cool is like, if that happens, if we can get, you know, local volunteers, local support, that's something we can count on year by year and that could be a factor on us staying multi years. So, yeah, crossfit is helping us out with organization, how to get the volunteers access to email lists and also Some CrossFit staff as well.
David Syvertsen
Host
26:39
So they are an event's help huge opportunity for the boxes down there huge, I hope. I hope anyone in within a 45-minute drive of that venue Uses as an opportunity the amount of people that are going to be down there and need I mean the games athlete themselves, like they always like to train a few days, some of them prior to like I always go out a day early to legends, I just kind of do a hotel one. I mean I would love to get to an actual box or Even the spectators that come down you know cross-haters are going to come down and want to work out be a huge business, opportunity to all and also, at the same time, a huge opportunity to simply just help the greater community out. So I hope those guys down there take full advantage of that.
27:22
Was there a debate, internal debate, because I know some people are unhappy about the fact that it is the same weekend as teens and Again, the first thing we talked about in this episode is there's a lot out of your control with where you do it. There's. It's not like you guys have infinite amount of options with, with dates and locations, and I would assume this is part of what was out of your control. Was there communication with the the guys that are running the teen side with CrossFit Was there. I don't want to say any bad blood, but is there, was there anything that like hesitation there?
Joe Linton
Guest
27:59
I mean, we didn't want it. Yeah, our original fan again was a week before. But Brock from the teens teenagers group, fully aware the entire time on the complication of what we were looking for and our dates. He was probably the first to know outside of Bob, me and Jason. Well, crossfit was made aware as well, heather with CrossFit, and even in the beginning of us kind of planning on dates, this is something that we wanted to avoid.
28:32
Me, you know, someone threw an idea like maybe it is on the same weekend and make it a whole, you know festival thing all weekend and the media will be huge for it as far as, like, social media presence. But we're like now, we really don't want to Step on their toes. So we were, they were, they've always been the teenagers on Labor Day weekend. I'm gonna like we're gonna avoid that. Okay, and then, as we started going through these venues and availability, it just it didn't work out this year, but this isn't something that we want to replicate. We'll see how it goes right. Maybe it is a huge success for some reason, but it's definitely something that for next year we are Not gonna want to replicate as of right now. Okay, so it's kind of sucks. It kind of takes away from the teenagers and or both. But maybe it's, I don't know, maybe it's bigger for some reason.
David Syvertsen
Host
29:25
I've been surprised many times in running In our events so I will say this I mean from a, from a master's athlete. I Don't think it matters. The only people I think it matters is you know it does. Do you guys have to split resource help from CrossFit because you're at the same, like two different locations at the same time? Maybe that maybe there are a handful at the most coaches that are coaching athletes on both? But I mean, I mean what, I get an assistant coach, you got plenty of time and I get it, like that's, but you can't make decisions on that. You there's probably I would say I was like I would bet there's five coaches worldwide that are coaching Someone that will be at the master's games and team games and you're not gonna make a decision on five people. You're just not now, you know the.
30:12
The other side of that is At the markets that are attracted to watching teens CrossFit in. In my opinion, it's not the same market that is gonna be attracted to watching and paying attention to the masters. I I love CrossFit a lot, crossfit sport. I've never and probably will never watch a teen competition in my entire life, unless I know someone that's there and that's not a knock just like them. I don't think that there's gonna be a bunch of 16 year olds that want to watch me work out, or a 58 year old work out. No offense to them, it's just it's different markets, why? That's why I just don't think, I don't buy that. That's a really a big deal.
Sam Rhee
Co-host
30:49
I would just say, as a casual viewer, it is nice if it was separate, just because I might peek in on the 16 year olds.
David Syvertsen
Host
30:55
I mean, there were no Ken, though I feel like well, if they're simulcast at the same time.
Sam Rhee
Co-host
31:00
I might watch the masters versus the teens, but the teens are good because, don pepper, there are a fair number of. You know Malabra, these guys were all.
David Syvertsen
Host
31:09
I'm a loss.
Sam Rhee
Co-host
31:10
Yeah, they were all teens and so you might be like, oh, who's a rising star who, at 16, might be killing it. Right. Then you could say later, oh yeah, I remember when I saw them at 16, but I know that that was just something that you couldn't avoid from a Sponsorship standpoint. Rogue is still participating as the equipment sponsor you said right. And Jason Ainsley is the person that you work with in charge of partnerships and sponsors, right? Is that true? Yeah, okay, yes, it is, and that is probably one of the biggest challenges you have.
31:43
I was at the CrossFit health summit Last week and there was a guy there who was one of the Head of one of the big sponsors for the games you always see for the open announcements they always have their name up and I won't say it, but he said he said we're sponsoring the CrossFit games again, but we're not going to sponsor the masters because quote there's no money in masters competition, and I think that that is a prevailing view that some people have. So how do you fight to overcome that when you're getting these sponsors To now not just maybe sponsor the games, but the individual and the team elite, but to to kick in on the masters side and have a presence there.
Joe Linton
Guest
32:23
So it depends on what type of sponsor. From what I've seen and the data I've received back from sponsors on how much money they made. It depends on the type of sponsor now. Is this a on-site you're present or is this a virtual? You're, you're like kind of sponsoring the broadcast, if they have one. So I would say, is that? But now we have some ideas of how to change the broadcast to be more exciting to watch, because Real quick on that, if you think about watching the same workout over and over and over and over and over, it does get kind of boring, you know. So we're trying to figure out ideas of how to make that more exciting. Now, with three fields of play, that does open up a lot opportunities to catch different workouts from different groups. But you want to be fair and everyone get on there, so it becomes difficult. So I would say a sponsor that is, you know, going, looking at numbers, looking at data on how many viewerships We've had in the past on the, on a live stream, they're gonna say, like that, you can't make money there, but I can say that very confidently that nine out of ten sponsors that are present at our event are gonna make a lot of money Depends on.
33:38
You know it's because, again, the Masters community, they have the money, they want to spend it. You know a few that pop off. You know top of my head, first form, obviously from legends thick white fitness Rx mark here they all crushed it. You know, with our bed that's awesome and you know they already come back for legends. You know especially thick ways and text me and we've been talking this whole time. He's super pumped to come back to you the Legends event because of just how much fun he had, you know, with the Masters community and he got a good ROI, which is important. So it depends on the company as well. Again, you have all Masters atweights. So if you're a company that is geared towards attracting younger people, you're probably not going to do that well at an older person event. So there are some sponsors that kind of don't make sense. So it depends on also what are you selling and everything.
Sam Rhee
Co-host
34:37
What about the elite athletes that are now in the Masters division. I know you talked about it on the Savan podcast how the Matt Frazier's of the world are not competing in the open. They're not competing in quarters. There are some that do, like Elijah Muhammad Sam Dancer. This is a star driven sport in some sense, and I know more people would want to watch them compete. Have you reached out to any of these athletes to see if they are going to be going through the open, going through quarters, going to be competing on the Masters level? Because having more of them, I think, would certainly drive the metrics in a lot of instances.
Joe Linton
Guest
35:24
It's a good question because I have reached out to a couple and spoken personally with a couple I won't say their names, but it's three actually and all three one's going to participate. The other two their body is feeling the impact that training and participating at the CrossFit Games for this long. They're starting to feel it hard and one of them, their knee, is basically gone and doctors said hey, if you keep going, you're not going to be able to walk, or you're going to have to get a forward place in or you're going to have to go through this. The other one family and career.
36:06
It's like you're not going to be participating at the CrossFit Games fully. Maybe you have to run your affiliate or step in more. Your kids are getting to an age where they need you more. So I think it's a weird transition here on. It's a weird transition for the Games athletes who can try to continue Unless you have something set up like and your body's still holding up, because I mean, you guys know, man, it's got to be super difficult to train for the Games and participate at the Games every single year for a decade plus.
36:37
So I do think that, though, with these changes, especially after we get through a year and they see what we can create, we will attract more of the people that are available to available and willing to do it. I think we're going to see a much bigger percentage next year of, you know, former pros turning into the Masters participation.
David Syvertsen
Host
36:59
Any thoughts on I hope not any thoughts of lowering an age group. Would there ever be a 30 to 34 Masters age group, or is that just no way? No, yeah, you have to have great hair before you want to be a Masters athlete.
Joe Linton
Guest
37:14
No, I'm sorry, I was never a Games athlete, but at my peak, when I was 30, 31, it's different. We're not going to make that change, I mean, unless CrossFit says, hey, we're doing it, we're doing it, all, right, we're doing it. But Bob and I were like, no, it won't happen at Legends ever. Hopefully, you know. And he's not happy with the games because I think 35 is the appropriate year to start your Masters career.
David Syvertsen
Host
37:46
I don't want to go too far on a tangent, but I am intrigued by this, this thought that just popped in my head based on what you just said. You know, this whole five year gap, this five year window of athletes, that kind of just came out of nowhere, right, like would you think that's it? Or do you ever see, based on data you have maybe CrossFit has some data as well that 35 to 44 is the division and then 45 to 54, because to me, like just making these age groups 10 years, you know, like, yes, I'm 30, I think I'm 38. And do I feel a difference? Even three years ago? Yeah, but that might not be my age. It might be that I had a kid three years ago. It might be that I've experienced some other things that have impacted.
38:32
I look at some of these guys in the 40 year old division at at Legends and I'm like, bro, they're not that, they're not that different than us in the 35 to 39 year old group.
38:42
And part of my thought there because I do know this is going to come up I was going to ask you some point you probably don't have an answer about prize pool what are guys going to, guys and girls going to get paid if and when they win. Part of the issue of funding a prize pool is that there are so many divisions and you could cut those divisions in half by making a 10 year age group. And I know the older people or the people that are on the brank are going to be upset, but you are well adept to no matter what decision you make, someone's going to be unhappy. Has there ever been a discussion about that? Because the more I think about it and trust I'm two years away from the next age group. I personally can't wait, but I would take that on the chin and be like it's probably a better move for the sport to have 10 year windows.
Joe Linton
Guest
39:34
I don't think I kind of disagree because you know what I've seen, especially when legends now that we're seven years in, and before that coaching Bob, you know to get to the games and make it multi years. You know everyone's excited for that kind of break year, you call it. You know, when you're 39, when you're 44, when you're 49 and so on, where it's kind of like you pull back a little bit, even if you do qualify, you're not going for it. You take care of your knee, you take care of your back, you take care of whatever, and then you come back the next year and it's like full force again. Yeah, so I like the five year gaps because of that. Now, when you're talking about data, as far as you know results in the workouts, there are some people that are just insane, like at legends. Last year, in one of the events Jason Grubb took first beat everybody, all the men, wow.
David Syvertsen
Host
40:34
And he's in the 45 plus. He's in the 45.
Joe Linton
Guest
40:37
He smoked the 35 year olds smoked the 40 year olds and no one obviously in his age. We're like, oh my god. So I think that, but like that, that number of people that can kind of hang with someone nine years younger right is is. I think it's pretty small. This is sparking my interest into dive into some results on like how many could actually hang and possibly podium. But I do think that the five year age group for people continually participating in the sport, for the growth of the sport, for people participating in online qualifiers you know the open corbids and semis I think the five year gap is the way to go. If you look beyond the results at the competition, you know I agree with that.
David Syvertsen
Host
41:21
There are a lot of people here that like can't wait. I can't wait until I can't wait to get to the next age group and like it being a couple years away, verse eight is is a big difference, and it does. It keeps people in the game, yeah, yeah. So another thing I would want to ask about Birmingham, back to the actual games, is I want to keep that conversation on the games, the weather down there that's one thing I've seen in the comments people commenting on. Do you have, do you want an opportunity to just give you know a decision making process about Birmingham? Is it hot, is it humid? I mean, we're in New Jersey. I know it doesn't have the hot reputation, but it gets pretty nasty in here like humidity, wise, august and September where we are, and people are asking well, how could you put the oldest, most vulnerable people in there?
42:11
Which is vulnerable, that's top 1% of health in the world. That's Agist. Will you, can you tell us Everything's inside, outside it's a mix. Don't want it to go there yet.
Joe Linton
Guest
42:25
Yeah, I can tell you that when we were choosing a location, we said if we're going outside of California, we are going to find a venue that has that can allow us to stay 100% inside. Okay, you're thinking about it. If you go outside of California, it's kind of nasty everywhere.
David Syvertsen
Host
42:43
Right, especially that time of year.
Joe Linton
Guest
42:45
Even like, not at all like California. You go like to more than California and you know there can get pretty gross. So we found a venue that we can do everything inside. Now I saw that in the comments and we were expecting it, much like what CrossFit dealt with when they end up at the Fort Worth Games. But Jason got to the Jason Grebigan he was chiming it on giving like data on how Birmingham is historically 87 to, you know like 81 to 87 degrees on average.
43:21
But you know the South does have that you know history of being super hot and super humid, super sticky. So you know it's, if it's not too hot and it's just humid, cool, we can deal with that. You know we can do something outside. We can test it appropriately for that. I mean, bob mentioned it on a previous podcast and how you know, we have found that Birmingham has a lot of cool trails, a lot of cool small open water venues, a lot of cool stuff that is built out for events. So there's that there's an opportunity there on Boston Mixing that in. So, as of right now we have planned, we have found a facility that can allow us to be 100% inside. Great, but we may change that, but we'll be able to do Because we're not going to the ocean. We won't go to the ocean, but you know, getting 440 people down to the Gulf would be probably out of the budget this year. Yeah, this year.
44:30
I can't say you're probably not swimming in the ocean.
David Syvertsen
Host
44:32
Okay, all right, sticking with taking care of the athletes, right. Do you have anything you want to announce? Are there plans in place? Do you have people trying to take care of this? In terms of athlete care, I think you guys have done in my four years of competing at Legends, this has gotten. In my opinion, has gotten better every year, so I can tell you guys are paying attention to it. Is there a next step, a next level for making sure there's enough medical care, enough recovery tools and sponsors for your athletes? Because, again, I don't want to say Legends was a lower level than the games, but there's just more eyeballs and more critique of athletes, especially that are going to be spending a lot of money traveling from Europe and Australia and South America. I know you guys have had a few, but you're going to have more international athletes. Is there any thought, planning or anything you want to announce in terms of what you're going to be doing to take care of athletes down there?
Joe Linton
Guest
45:30
Yeah, so taking care of athletes one is you know, let's talk about warm up area. It's always difficult to get a giant warm up area. It's the cost, the space. It was tight last year but as far as, even if you took out the rig, you know, some people may not know, but there was like a rig, that kind of split. Even with that taken out, that was the biggest warm up area we've ever had at Legends. So that's going to get fixed. Even next year we're actually taking up the entire space, but for the games we are basically planning to make a full competition floor of warm up area. Wow, so we're talking that's huge, like 20,000 square feet. You know it's going to be big and so, and that's what we want At the CrossFit Games in Madison, you know, when you walk into this huge, you know this huge hall, you had two rigs on either side.
46:27
Then basically, you know it mirrored throughout into the center. It was a great lifting area. You had machines. So we definitely want to treat it the same way. We want the space, we want the people to be able to spread out, have barbells available, have rope, climbs and rings and whatever we have, sandbags, whatever we're going to be using, have that available for them in the warm up area. As far as athlete care, that kind of dives into sponsorship a little bit. We are talking with a couple of groups. On one, like on the PT side we're talking to some groups and also then on the medical side there's opportunity for a few groups to be able to step in as a sponsor even and take care of the athletes at the games level of what they also get at the games. So we're actually getting help from CrossFit on that as well. But yeah, we're going to. It'll be a huge step up from even when it's.
David Syvertsen
Host
47:21
Wow, yeah, 20,000 square feet is huge.
Joe Linton
Guest
47:22
Yeah, yeah, it's going to be awesome. I'm super pumped on that.
David Syvertsen
Host
47:26
Yeah, that's huge. That's a big deal. Spectators. We want to get people to go there. I'm going to try to get some people from here, from bison, to go down. Are you going? Are you competing? Am I competing? Are you going to the games? I would bet against it, but I'm trying this year Open quarter finals, semi finals. If you don't make it, are you going to go? I would like to. I have a boss named Ashley that I have to run that for?
Sam Rhee
Co-host
47:54
Oh, don't use that excuse, come on, I will be quiet, david but I would love to.
David Syvertsen
Host
48:00
I would love to bring Brock down too. I'm just already thinking about that in my head. But yeah, if it's within the budget, so yeah, I will over a 50% commit to being there. That's a good husband answer, isn't it? Is there anything? Will you go? Maybe HeardFit podcast should go? Dude, I'm a busy man.
Sam Rhee
Co-host
48:24
I would like. We'll see. I would like to try.
David Syvertsen
Host
48:27
He's got a boss named Susan, so he's got to see.
Sam Rhee
Co-host
48:29
You know, Susan would be like he gets to do whatever he wants. He is one lucky dude. That's what she would say, and I would agree with that 1000%.
David Syvertsen
Host
48:37
If you let me stay in your five star hotel room, all right. So anyway, spectator experiences is there anything you are working on? Do you want to share about that? You go down to these cross-it competitions to watch, but are there things that you can do to improve their experience? Vendors, food, all this stuff.
Joe Linton
Guest
48:52
Yeah, I mean what's super cool and exciting. Technically we can't announce the apparel sponsor for the games master's games yet, but I can't tell you. I have received some requests for them to help out. You know source locally down there some really cool activations.
Sam Rhee
Co-host
49:15
Will Tom Brady be there? Just tell us if Tom Brady will be there. I'm just kidding TB12. The noble guy. No, I'm just kidding.
Joe Linton
Guest
49:23
Yeah, I don't know.
Sam Rhee
Co-host
49:26
No, I'm just kidding.
Joe Linton
Guest
49:28
But some really cool unique activations that like, actually I just saw a water polizer. You know there was. You know one of the barber. There was like a hairstylist and a barber there. Oh, that's cool. That's cool, you know, temporary Hanna Art tattoos and stuff like that that we've, like, you know, I've never even thought of to have that event. So I'm curious to see what the rest of the vendors can come up with, because that's always fun is when the vendors have exciting stuff to do and draw people to their booth and, from what I've seen, that is the way to increase their sales. And so it's going to be on the spectator side. It's going to be a lot of fun to be there, like I'm looking into, you know, because we know that kids are going to be present, looking into renting arcade games and having a whole set up on that, you know, stuff so that people can enjoy being there and have some fun, win some free stuff, some baffles and all that stuff and want to go back and everything.
David Syvertsen
Host
50:33
And I've always thought it's a really cool opportunity to meet, cross with people too, just like, like, like, if you want to call them famous, but I remember just last year seeing Savan at Legends, seeing Red Glaston, seeing Castro. Like you go to these events, you can really run into these people and rub elbows with people that you would never rub elbows with. And I am assuming CrossFit will be sending some of their head honchos down there just for support A but B, to be with the community and be wrapped up. And I think that's really one of the cool things about going to these. You know, like I remember when Castro was at Legends this year, like everyone's always here, you go, get a selfie, you talk with them, like that's a really cool opportunity, cool environment to meet them. And, yeah, you want to give them a reason to come back the next year and watch the next crop of athletes. So, yeah, I think the biggest message I want to get out to anyone that's watching after Joe just gave us pretty much an hour of his time on a Sunday Super Bowl Sunday really appreciate it about that is we've talked about this multiple times getting behind Legends, getting behind Masters, sport in general. It's always going to come from the people. It's not going to come from big TV contracts. It's going to come from.
51:39
If you guys want to simplify this, if you own a gym, go to a gym, get involved in the open, get involved in quarter finals. Don't be one of the people that makes quarter finals, does the workouts but does not sign up and register. I don't know what the success rate I think I remember hearing it was like under 5% of people that make quarter finals actually register. And now we have a bigger crop of athletes 25%. I want there to be over 15% of those people signed up and registered. I want that to be the minimum.
52:14
And if you guys, whether you think you're going to compete at the Games or not one year, whether you know people that are competing at the Games or not, if you care about the people that are in it and there's so much effort, I mean I'm sure there's things I don't even know about with Joe and Bob about how much effort and your staff, what you guys go through on a year to year basis. This is not a two week ramp up. This is a full time, full blown effort that if you support that idea and want to help them out, you got to sign up for quarter finals, you got to participate. It, guys, money runs everything it does, it's always going to run everything and we need the money to come in from that quarter finals. I hope everyone watching this not only participates but also registers and puts their money where their mouth is. Joe, is there anything else you want to say as we wrap this up, in regard to what the community can expect of you and anything else that we might have missed out on?
Joe Linton
Guest
53:11
Yeah, I mean you can continue to expect Bob and I, and also Jason, to continue to push and envelope on what we're providing. We will improve year by year. We're already CrossFit has already seen that, and we're already in talks for us running 2025 as well. So if it's not perfect, well, one of it never will be perfect. We will never please everybody, but we will continue to provide a better experience, more opportunity, awesome workouts. Pretty much everyone that goes to the legends has almost my phone number. I feel like now.
David Syvertsen
Host
53:54
You might need a bad phone.
Joe Linton
Guest
53:58
I'll email you my Instagram. I barely post CrossFit stuff and I got people, you know, sliding into those DMs as well, but it's important because that has what I feel like that's a big part of what has built the trust in our community as well as with me and Bob is like being able to like. Yeah, we know the guys that run legends, but where we chat all the time on this, they can ask me questions. I'll let you guys know everything possible always, you know, as long as it's, you know, legally able to be said, I will.
54:27
We barely hold secrets besides workouts. We barely hold secrets and there's just no need to open an artist. You can always expect that from us and that we are going to continue to provide the best experience possible for the competitors and the spectators, but also and the sponsors. We want to make sure that that is how you build a well-rounded, successful event for the masters. You know it's difficult, obviously, then, we've talked about this a lot, so we will continue to bust our ass to make sure that this gets better every single year. Yeah, absolutely.
David Syvertsen
Host
55:01
I was awesome. Fully, fully trust in you guys with that task and I could speak from athlete perspective. It got better every year and you guys never settle, and I think that's what athletes want Don't ever settle, don't ever get comfortable. Keep trying to provide the best experience, and I can I can definitely get stand behind that. Let everyone know that that is exactly what you guys do.
Joe Linton
Guest
55:23
Yeah, I mean, if we ever settle, I wouldn't want to do this anymore, Yep.
David Syvertsen
Host
55:26
So yep, I agree.
Joe Linton
Guest
55:28
We get to the point, that's when we retire.
David Syvertsen
Host
55:30
All right, who's going to win the Super Bowl tonight?
Joe Linton
Guest
55:34
I don't know Chiefs, I don't mind either team Chiefs, I'm from San Diego, but I'm also like a remote Green Bay fan, okay, so I'm just like it's going to be on the TV. I'm going to say I'm not going to watch it. Yeah, I'm going to get drawn in.
David Syvertsen
Host
55:51
I think that you just want to watch some Taylor Swift action tonight I got it.
Sam Rhee
Co-host
55:55
Yeah, oh, my God, all right.
Joe Linton
Guest
56:00
Well, that's going to be all over my Instagram.
David Syvertsen
Host
56:02
Yeah, all right, thanks so much for your time, joe. We'll talk to you soon. Hopefully we'll get you on between now and the games to get a little check in, update and if we ever, if you ever, want to share anything new with us.
Joe Linton
Guest
56:16
I understand guys. Thank you guys so much. It's always a pleasure to you know, jump on and chat with friends on the Masters community and everything else. Yep, thank you sir. Thank you Cool. See you guys.
