S05E165 Our Take on the 2024 Masters CrossFit Games in Birmingham Alabama
Join coaches David Syvertsen @davesy85 and Sam Rhee @bergencosmetic as we explore the transformation of the Masters CrossFit Games 2024 in Birmingham, Alabama.
We'll contrast this year's experience with the previous traditional CrossFit Games and discuss whether these athletes preferred the spotlight of a dedicated event or the prestige of competing alongside elite athletes, even with less attention.
We'll dive into the logistics of event layout, drawing on insightful suggestions from others about consolidating key areas and featuring premium vendors on the competition floor. We'll also discuss the importance of family-friendly activities and tackle the safety concerns that come with them. Our goal is to explore strategic planning to ensure all attendees have an enjoyable and memorable experience.
Curious about the challenges and triumphs of broadcasting a large-scale CrossFit event? Tune in as we reflect on the broadcast execution of the Masters CrossFit Games and the invaluable role of volunteers.
We'll share our thoughts on the potential for expanding Masters CrossFit, highlighting ideas for longer endurance workouts and integrating community competitions. The financial viability of the event is a critical topic, and we emphasize the need for continued support from CrossFit and the community to sustain this vital aspect of CrossFit culture. Join us for an episode packed with insights, reflections, and forward-thinking ideas for the future of Masters CrossFit.
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S05E165 Our Take on the 2024 Masters CrossFit Games in Birmingham Alabama
TRANSCRIPT
David SyvertsenHost
00:05
Hey everybody, welcome to the Hurt Fit Podcast with Dr Sam Rhee and myself, coach David Syverson. This podcast is aimed at helping anyone and everyone looking to enhance their healthy lifestyle through fitness, nutrition and, most importantly, mindset. All right, welcome back to the Hurt Fit Podcast. I am Coach David Syerson. I'm here with my co-host, dr and Coach Sam Marie. Today's episode is going to be our review, our feedback, our experience at the Masters CrossFit Games by Legends 2024 in the beautiful city of Birmingham, alabama.
00:44
We are going to give our feedback good, bad. I don't even mean ugly, but it's not going to be hey, just praising all the bells and whistles. We want to give some good and bad because I know Bob and Joe like that and I think whoever does listen to this podcast that maybe wants to travel to the games. I have some ideas that I think could help them out and I want to discuss the future of the sport because I think overall it was a really, really positive, good experience that is going to set up I'm going to say short-term future of masters sport and I mean that by saying the next three to five years. I think these guys are going to have a few good years to run at it.
01:20
But I also think there's you have to start thinking at some point beyond Bob and Joe and legends, and is it worth the time, the investment, the energy and all the stress? So we are going to dive into that. But, sam, what was your feeling coming off the bison plane, coming back to New Jersey and reflecting on what it was like at those not not the personal stuff, not us being together and hanging out and having a good time, just like your view of the actual master games? What was like the first thought you had if people asked you hey, how was it right?
Sam RheeCo-host
01:54
uh, they thought out of the box. This was not the way I think crossfit hq would have run the masters games. If you had them run it, it would not have been this. Bob and Joe thought out of the box, amazingly executed, and they're, you know, listen pluses, minuses. But I was like this is not your previous games in that sense and that was amazing. The fact that they could actually do something creative and different, I think was they should be congratulated for that. Yeah, I mean, Bob and Joe we've had them on a few times was amazing. The fact that they could actually do something creative and different, I think was uh, they should be congratulated for that yeah, I mean bob and joe.
David SyvertsenHost
02:28
We've had them on a few times, we'll probably have them on in the future at some point. And hearing where their whole situation started from, they essentially were running a local level competition at a box in california and year by year it grew and it's really for masters and we've been a little critical of masters athletes in some ways thinking like, hey, you guys are awesome, I look up to you. A lot of people look up to you, but like you ain't them. Like you're not zellner, you're not roman, you're not tia, like they're it's like major league baseball and minor league baseball and it's like Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball. And it's not disrespectful to them, but it's the objective truth. And when they're competing at the same spot, one of the loudest complaints we would always hear from them is saying like we're a sideshow, I'm like, well, you are, like you are a sideshow. No one's traveling I shouldn't say no one. Most people are not traveling to the games to watch you, and I wouldn't either, even though I love Masters sport as much as anyone, to be honest with you. I love it, but I'm going there to watch those guys and I don't understand why there was ever a disconnect between that and reality. It's like, well, what are we going to do? Take these guys off the main floor and watch you guys. Like think about it from a normal perspective, that you want to watch the best, the best when you go.
03:54
And that's who those guys are the names I just gave, now the masters. I would love to watch them, but you have to. This is a huge operation. You have to follow the trends, the money, the views, the marketing, the sponsors, and I've always felt that there was kind of like a negative vibe, almost like an entitled vibe, from a lot of Masters athletes thinking they deserve something. They did not. And Bob and Joe Bob was a games athlete and Joe was his coach and they have a great network of Masters athletes. They have a Masters Chatter podcast that they discuss a lot of Masters activities with and we interviewed a few of them at the games.
04:30
But this, to me, was the best possible solution for them and Bob and Joe are the best possible duo to run that show and I'm so glad CrossFit gave them an opportunity to do on the spotlight and you could actually reverse it and say, hey, crossfit, now you got your actual limelight. It was all about you guys. For the weekend. You were no longer a sideshow, you were the show of that weekend. If you were a games that try to put yourself in this perspective would you rather go to the games and be part of that crew, basically like you get to share warm-up areas with the top of the games and be part of that crew, basically like you get to share warm up areas with the top of the top and be in the opening ceremony but no one really cares about you when you work it out. Or would you rather be in your own venue, not with those guys, but you are the show that weekend? What do you think is better?
Sam RheeCo-host
05:17
I think this was better. I mean, I don't know, I'd have to ask the people who competed, but I know that when I attended the games a couple years ago and I went into the coliseum and justin lasalla, who won 50 54, we talked to him yep, uh, jersey, yeah, jersey, boy um said you know, and I it was true, you'd go into the coliseum and it was empty when the masters were competing in there, when they did their lifts even the youngest competitors, the 35, 39, and everyone was just kind of focused on what was going on. And then they tried to figure it out like, okay, masters first and then the games, but it never really worked out. What I saw at this event, first of all, with everything else that was going on, was much better, and the fans were way more engaged.
06:18
Was it like 10,000 people? No, but the people that were there were fully, fully into it. And when I watched these workouts were fully, fully into it. And when I watched these workouts, I was fully into it. When I saw a 65-year-old woman front squatting like 200 pounds, I was just like, oh my God, what the heck is? This is amazing. So there were so many moments like that that I think would never have happened had they continued the way they did.
David SyvertsenHost
06:42
Yeah, so you know what happens. I think that you grow up I shouldn't say grow up you watch the games as they become a really big event from 2010 to 2022, 23, whatever and you watch it online and you see this arena full of people and it has that gladiator-type feel to it, like there's this small floor and the stands are going up on all sides and people are screaming down at you and you going up on all sides and people are screaming down at you and you, as a master's athlete that is hopeful to get there one day. Part of what you fantasize about or envision is being in that situation and hitting a big lift and the crowd going nuts. Right In New Jersey, they send the state final football games to MetLife Stadium and you probably, these kids probably, show up there and it's like you know you're going to have 80,000 people screaming your name and cheering for you and then you go out on the field. There's still like 2000 people there, but it's so empty and it feels like gloomy and weird. Right, that's what a lot of masters athletes have said. They've gone, they go there and they're like there's mom and dad in the stands, six people from my gym over there, a few masters athletes resting over there, but there's more empty seats than full seats and it's a little like it just feels weird. So, yeah, would it be cool to go play a baseball game on yankee stadium field? Yeah, but you're not getting the real experience of what it would be like.
08:00
Where I at masters this year, there year there were several occasions where, especially the more intense fun workouts you looked around and the stands were full. The stands were full, bleachers, right, and then there was standing room around the floor two, three, four, five, six people deep and everyone's like on their tippy toes trying to like see the angle and taking a fit and it got loud. It got loud. I was like holy cow, especially like the end of workouts or big lifts, and I'm like that is so much better, it's like all right, would you rather be in a college arena with it being full and loud, or in an nba arena, which is much bigger and it being a quarter full and not that loud for the environment of being an athlete?
08:47
I think you would want to go with the former. Do you think that they the venue? Let's talk about the venue itself, because now I kind of want to bleed into, all right the crowd, the environment. You have your own exclusive workout. The venue itself. How did you feel going going there? Where did you feel like you were like? At the games? Or did you kind of feel like you were at a big local comp? Big local comp, same yeah, it was.
Sam RheeCo-host
09:12
Uh, it was a ginormous convention center. It was enormous, and so when you walked in and then you had the vendor part of it and then you walked all the way down to the three separate competition floors, all off and going at the same time. It was like a ginormous local comp where there was just like a bunch of people everywhere.
David SyvertsenHost
09:33
So I've been to Legends multiple times and like that's what it felt like. It felt like I was at Legends again, except the athletes there were a higher caliber. There's just a deeper group Like these are the best of the best from around the world. Now, for anyone that wasn't down there, I don't want to give square footage because I'm not sure, but you walked in with your ticket and to the right was like an athlete resting area, right away to your left was kind of you call it vendor village that then you had to walk I would say a good I don't know 200, 300 yards down an escalator to a different floor and then that's where the competition happened and I remember thinking like it was, I think, one of the biggest things I've ever seen in my entire life.
10:14
It was like the Javits Center but even bigger, and I don't know what the finances the agreement was. But I actually one thing I would have liked and Brian Miller actually said this, I'm going to give him some shout out to this is I wish everything was just closer together in one room. Did you feel at all that things were too spread out? And I'm going to give Brian's reason and I actually agree with it.
Sam RheeCo-host
10:36
I mean, a little bit, but I think, in order to make the finances happen. Well, first of all, it's Birmingham, so it's probably a lot cheaper to have that kind of space than it would be in another big city and I thought it was nice to have all that space if it was really tight and we've been at other comps where it's been really tight I kind of enjoyed it.
David SyvertsenHost
11:02
So Brian Miller is a 10-year member here across at bison. He's married to our head coach, liz, and Brian to me. He was down there with us. Brian to me was not, you know, painting his face screaming in the crowd. He likes CrossFit but he's not like overly into the sport, like he can't probably name more than 10 games athletes, right. But he'll watch it and he's supportive. I've seen him at, you know, support Liz at a lot of her comps. He comes to a lot of our comps and just showing support.
11:34
But to me, if you want to make this something that is like really attractive to travel to, I do think he made a good point. He goes why not just put all the vendors, or at least some of the premium vendors, down on the competition floor? Oh, that's not a bad idea For the purpose of keeping everyone together in that same room, because there was a few times you're up there shopping, right, and they'd had a lot of vendors. We'll talk about that later. But it's like, all right, you got to go back down. It's like, all right, you got to go back down. It's like a five-minute trek to get back down there. I got to get a five-minute trek to go back up If you had everything there you're actively, because one thing about watching competitions that sucks, it's just a lot of downtime, especially if you don't know a lot of different people that are competing. You could be there for two hours and have to wait. So what if they put all that shopping down there? Now you're never leaving that room. So now that room always has probably three, four, 5,000 people in it. That's a good idea. So he's like why spread it out? So I wonder, if it's a financial thing, would it help Legends Cross at all to maybe rent out one less room, two less rooms and kind of jam pack it? Now you don't want to make it too jam packed, but you do like the vibe when you're like man, it is crowded in here. You feel like you're in the right spot. And Brian probably fits in with hundreds of thousands of other CrossFitters worldwide, meaning they do CrossFit for a workout in the community. They don't care that much about the sport. But if you can get those guys to go down there, because it's like a little bit more fun and a little bit more inclusive, you're not walking around back and forth, there's stuff to do, it's like a little bit more fun and a little bit more inclusive. You're not walking around back and forth. There's stuff to do. You don't get bored. You know we don't go back to the apartment for an hour. Sit down and go back. Right, I'm going to stay here because there's more vendors right here and it's very convenient. I think you get more people to come down and watch. That's a great idea.
13:16
Second thought on that would be activities. Right, what do masters? Athletes have a lot of that. Games, athletes don't age age and kids, right? Um, there was nothing to do there for kids. There's no bounce houses and which is liability, I know. There's no games. There's no face painting, there's no activities. There's no like hey guys, like you know, get a free shirt if you do 20 burpees in a minute, like asbury has done that and asbury is kind of like it's not the games, right, but they have. Like, vendors come and like, create competitions and all this stuff, you know.
13:54
So what happened was the kids that were there. They found a red ball and they found a wall and the kids are great at this. They can make games out of anything and these kids were throwing a ball off the wall. They're chasing all over the place and there was a few times. I'm watching these kids and like they missed the ball and it's like rolling towards the floor and I'm like I actually was like oh my god, these balls are gonna go right through the crowd into the workout floor. People are snatching oh my god, someone's gonna get hurt. That's the gym owner of me saying like get the kids away from this thing.
14:22
And there was actually a hiller video. Yeah, that that ball that I saw those kids playing with went onto a floor and tripped someone up on a jump rope and he was pissed. And that could have been a lot worse if that was like a lift, right, true, true, you know. And I actually remember told one of the kids play. I was like, guys, you got to be careful. This thing, like if you guys miss, that bone goes out there. You're in a lot of trouble and the kid's like like who are you? It's like a nine-year-old kid and I was like, oh my God, I feel so old right now. I'm getting annoyed by it.
14:55
This could be a much more attractive event for spectators if you created some more really inclusive fun game activity type stuff and to me, if this thing's going to keep operating. You need to. You have that's a must. You have to make it a more fun thing to go enjoy, because, honestly, birmingham's not fun. It's, it's not. It's not a fun city so people are never going to go to. If it was in austin, if it was in orlando or something like that, which I know that was the original spot for the games was orlando, people would go. For that reason alone, no one's bringing their family to Birmingham and I know part of it's cost. So if it's not going to be a fun town, you need to create the opportunity for some fun for kids.
Sam RheeCo-host
15:39
First of all, for the good people of Birmingham, we did go to a couple of really awesome restaurants and there were some great places there that were pretty cool. I think some of us went to the zoo and hung out and fed giraffes and stuff like that. So the second I don't want us to get canceled by Birmingham, that's all right. The second thing is, yes, a festival-like environment would be great. So making it more festivally, where there's more stuff I mean, you don't have to have carnival rides but definitely something to appeal to a broader audience would make it more of a destination type of event, rather than I'm here to watch two people at my gym do a bunch of thrusters, yep. So yes, absolutely, and I think you're right, it wasn't the original, the first location they chose and this is the first time and they didn't have a whole lot of sort of. But I think the feedback that you're giving is true and I bet you, joe and Bob, are looking at it and thinking the exact same thing.
David SyvertsenHost
16:44
And these guys do like to bounce around Like if I don't know this for a fact, so don't quote me on it, but I have a feeling it won't be in Birmingham next year, not because of Birmingham, they just like to move around, like I bet it could go international at some point, I bet. But the you know now that they have more time to plan this out, I bet that you know that it It'll be in a better spot for families. And you know, like I try to envision, like if I ever went and I had Brock, like we can make a little like Disney World trip the day after and like make a little vacation out of it. Absolutely Right, because we have to factor in time off from work and all that stuff. So that's something to consider that would really help out. Here's another one. I loved that. Adrian was there, dave Castro was there, don Fall was there. Amidst all these issues that's going on, a lot of the bigwigs have crossed it Sean Woodland, tommy Marquez, lauren Kalil, lauren Kalil, yep, and then a lot of former games athletes were there that are either coaching or competing Tim Paulson. It was just a really cool environment to see the who's who have crossed it. So I give them a lot of credit for showing up there. And then they had to go travel to the Teens Games in Michigan.
17:50
Here's another thought that gets people to come and want to watch. What if you had kind of like a meet and greet with the who's who in CrossFit? You know, like you hook up a Rich Froning, a Danielle Brandon, a Danny Spiegel, like some of the Pat Vellner, some of the most famous people in CrossFit, and have them. They don't have to like teach a seminar, you don't want to put them to work, but like hey, sit at a table, take pictures with people, sign autographs there you go Like have like documented times in the workout area.
18:18
So again, it gives people a reason to stay and drink the Kool-Aid. Like leave that place. Being like this is awesome, I want to bring my friends here. Or for the people that didn't go, like if we were all there, like yeah, I took a selfie with Froning, I took a selfie with Danielle Brandon, like they're like I'm going next year. Now there's payments involved, there's financial obligation, but right now I think there's a lot of division in CrossFit, especially on the sports side, between the athletes and CrossFit, and I think this is a way that can really kind of help mesh that and just like hey, we're all in this together, like, hey, I'll spend an hour just taking pictures and selfies and signing autographs, that kind of thing.
Sam RheeCo-host
18:58
I was a little surprised they didn't have that, because a lot of the athletes do have products and they are endorsing stuff that if they had shown up, they probably their faces like this, when all this stuff is going on yeah, smiling and all, yeah, and acting like nothing's happened. So it's a no-win situation. Yeah and uh. I feel like the game, the masters games, executed as well as they could have in the shadow of what had happened.
David SyvertsenHost
19:42
Absolutely, I actually think it was great to help continue to process and move on in some way To show that we're okay, right.
Sam RheeCo-host
19:52
But I think it will be better next year once people have been able to process a little bit more that this and things have progressed in whatever way they will happen. So I think this was a tough situation for them and I can't sit there and tell the athletes or CrossFit HQ that you should have done this or not. I know. Trust me, if there's a financial opportunity for the athletes next year to show up to make money, to make appearances, no doubt it would be helpful for them and it would also be helpful for the games themselves.
David SyvertsenHost
20:29
Yeah, it just changes the vibe. I think there was probably eight, I don't know maybe nine or ten vendors there. There was room for 50. They had so much room. I just think there was a little bit of a missed opportunity there. But again, year one being on your own just to have more things to do and things to buy you know, like, why didn't sam briggs?
Sam RheeCo-host
20:50
she was there, we saw her going to a taco place, like yeah, we did uh, a mexican place, and why did she like not have, like, if she had an appearance somewhere?
David SyvertsenHost
20:59
yeah, tons of people a, q, a, like, just like, hey, 15 minutes to ask questions and and feedback, take pictures like that. That stuff goes a long way, because I feel like that's what ties communities together. It's like those actual relationships and interactions with each other and not just following someone on social media.
Sam RheeCo-host
21:17
Let's kind of shift this towards the workouts, because oh, one last thing before we get there the broadcast. What did you think of the broadcast? Because if you didn't like there was one experience to be there, Another one probably if you didn't go and you just watched it on YouTube.
David SyvertsenHost
21:31
We did watch some of it from our apartment. We didn't watch every heat of every event of every age group, right, we went down there to make sure we watched Tracy and Dan, the two bison athletes that were competing down there, and we did kind of like, ooh, I want to go watch this group of athletes, I want to go watch Will Morad over there, I want to go watch you know some people that we've followed or this age group, but we did watch. We went back and took some breaks at our Airbnb and we watched it from. I thought the broadcast was good and it looked like and we've talked about Bob, bob's been pretty open about how expensive it is to run a real broadcast it looked like it was scaled back a little bit, but not to the point where it's not like they stuck a camera and just said good luck.
22:11
They had cameras on the floor up and down, left and right, they had multiple different broadcasters and I would say the who's who of CrossFit Broadcasting were there. So I thought it was good for considering the circumstances of it being the first time, and they I think they tried to scale back some of the spending there. I don't know that for a fact, that's just my speculation and I thought it was good enough that if I was watching from home, I got to see pretty much everything I wanted to. There's no way you're going to see everything of everyone. You know there's always people. Oh, you don't have my gym owner in the corner. It just is what it is. I thought it was a positive that I wouldn't expect to get much better.
Sam RheeCo-host
22:54
I was impressed because they had four announcers Lauren Kalil, chase Ingram, sean Woodland, tommy Marquez and they didn't just do like some of the events, they were there like all freaking day. Those guys are warriors, they were marathoning the whole thing and they did so many age groups and events and so for them I don't know how much they paid them, but probably it wasn't enough. But they did it, I think, for the good of the sport and they did an outstanding job. Like you said, the camera work was adequate. It wasn't like you're not listen, like Bob says, it's so expensive to have like amazing camera, like high end camera work. They did a really good job. I think overall and I don't think anyone should feel like short shifted in terms of what that coverage is Now is that broadcast experience comparable to being there? No, being there is going to always be much better, especially for the Masters games Much better. But I think I have to give those guys and the broadcast team a lot, a lot of praise for covering so much of what went on.
David SyvertsenHost
24:03
What those guys do is very difficult. The amount of names, the pronunciations, the watching the same thing over and over for hours, being on your feet, talking, trying not to be boring like that, that's a really tough task to do, um, in the same breath. And I'll get to some of the more athlete and workout stuff. They had a ton of volunteers. It was like day one. It was the first thing I noticed. It was like holy cow, there's a ton of help here, so many. So to everyone the judges, the setup crews, the support crews, the EMT people that were there, the medicals you saw those red shirts everywhere so impressed by how many people volunteered their time over that weekend. Those things only go as far as volunteers will allow them, yep. So a shout out to all those guys. That was huge.
24:53
That's another benefit of doing the masters games separate from the normal games is you do have people that want to volunteer both, but if they're going at the same time you kind of have to. It's you know you have to take these people and put them over there. Take these people, put them out there, and maybe you don't have enough support for the game. So you have to cut down the heat sizes to 10 because we don't have enough judges. Now it's like everyone like that's what I mean by attentions on you guys like all the resources are there too that I think that's another huge reason why it's smart to keep them separate that you're going to have a lot more support and those competitions will not run well without support.
25:31
Absolutely Programming not going to go through every workout If you guys want to hear about more details, you can go to last week's episode with Tracy McGee and we can dive through the workouts. I have a couple bones to pick with the programming. I will say that I think Bob and Joe are as good as anyone in the comp space at programming, because it's a really good blend of creative classic CrossFit and balanced.
Sam RheeCo-host
25:53
Why would you complain? You actually tested a bunch of these workouts before the competition, so you should blame yourself.
David SyvertsenHost
26:00
Well, because I was not programming them. I just gave feedback on a few of the workouts and they did change one of the workouts that I did, but there was nothing. I think there was nothing for the winners. Nothing over 12 minutes long. Oh, so you wanted longer pieces. That's a problem for games, not for local comps. We have a local comp coming up here in a few weeks. The longest workout is 12 minutes, but that's more local.
Sam RheeCo-host
26:27
We're old people, man. We don't have time for all these 20-minute-plus workouts, Well.
David SyvertsenHost
26:31
I think there should have been an endurance test, for example. The first event was deadlift and running and these guys flew through. We did it here at Bison. It was a fun workout. I think that would have been a great opportunity to take those deadlifts out, put them somewhere else and just make that a run row bike and just make it something that would last 30 minutes. And I know that sounds logistically hard but it's not. Especially when you have row and cross it behind you, you can get a ton of machines there. So that's one thing I think they dropped the ball on with programming is that you can be a really bad endurance athlete and have done really well there, okay, fair, so that that that's one thing.
27:10
One of those you I had with the programming. Um, athlete care. So I've been to legends. I've been to local comps and I've been in both where the warming up was a nightmare no rig, no rings, limited barbell access, one rower for 80 people. Um, you were really. We've been, I've been forced to in the past try to get really creative. Like uneven flooring. It's just weird. They had a room for the athletes only, so no one's allowed in there unless you were an athlete or coach, you had one of those bracelets on. It was enormous full rig, full squat racks, full floor and even that it still gets crowded. But it was very, very functional. And I want to give a shout out to bob and joe because that has been a complaint they've gotten in the past and they put a lot of resources into that.
Sam RheeCo-host
27:57
That's a huge deal it's great, because how many more masters athletes are there than there are competing at the games? Like it's an exponentially higher number. Times 10, almost Right, plus all the teams. Yeah, competition, so it probably was times 10. Yeah, so for them to have had enough resources to help adequately warm up all these athletes. Yep, pretty impressive.
David SyvertsenHost
28:19
And Sam just brought something up that I want to talk about next. So good transition, sam. The CrossFit Games. You have to qualify for right. You do the open, finish top 25. You do quarterfinals, you top. You finish top 200 in the world. You go to semifinals and then from there, the top x amount, whether it's based on age group, 30 or 40 people.
28:38
They make the games so like it's a pretty objective way, like hey, you kept ranking high, you get to compete at the games. They also had, at the same time, a community competition going on. It was something you sign up for, a team of four, two guys, two girls. They mix the age groups up. It was really cool. We had an athlete from here do that competition and I give them so much credit for that because I would have not done that. I've been like no, no, we don't want to f this up. Let let's keep it really clean, clear.
29:06
I think it was probably one of the most brilliant decisions and I remember thinking I criticized it right away. I was like you guys are putting too much on your plate. You're going to have to plan around them. It's a resource suck. And you still had very good athletes there. I think you had to qualify for quarterfinals to be eligible to sign up. I think that was the rule. Okay, if I told you right after that like hey, sam, I uh got the responsibility of running the games. I'm gonna invite 500 masters athletes, but, by the way, I want to invite another 200 and create a team of four competition.
29:39
What do you think? What would your reaction be? Uh, chaos, yeah, they, it ran so smooth. And what it did and I think this is really smart, I don't know if this is part of it was the thought process. It made a lot of these people that did not qualify for the games. They really felt like they were part of it and this is coming from the people that are from that culture that felt they were a sideshow. So, because they know what it feels like to be a sideshow, they threw these guys into the same floor at the same time, warming up in the same area. You're not like, imagine they put this team before in that back warehouse for the athlete warmup or no one to go watch them. No, no, they were in it and it was actually a lot of fun to watch those guys. That's something that I think CrossFit could learn from it did two things.
Sam RheeCo-host
30:28
One, is it actually increased the amount of revenue because they had more people paying registration, more people competing, more people coming to watch these people, because they wouldn't have come just to watch. For example, dan Cota, who was our member, went with someone from Empire Fitness and I forget what other box maybe Hudson River, it was like Dom and Carol, and I forget the fourth, maybe, maybe. And so, first of all, they competed with real workouts which were similar to the Masters Games workouts, like you know, adapted for teams and for them, and on equipment that was high level, in lanes and the whole environment, which was extremely high level. This was not a local comp, this was like super comp on steroids and they performed like it made them push so hard. And they performed like it made them push so hard Like I've never seen them do so well in a team's competition that ostensibly was to compete. This was like one of the best competition environments to actually be in.
David SyvertsenHost
32:00
I can't imagine a better one, short of the games, where you could actually get that sort of charge experience out of it. One of the keys to making master sport grow, get and stay popular is to give people a taste. Okay, this is what it's like, and I know a couple people that compete on teams dan's one of them. But I've other people that I know that, um, I've competed with that legends, I ran into them down there. They're like dude, I'm so pumped to like I want to be here next year, I want to do that and like that's part of keeping the sport alive for masters. Because it's very easy. You find 10 reasons a year to be like it's not worth it. It's just not worth it. My body hurts, I'm busy, I got a job, I got kids, my knee hurts. It's not worth it, right? And if you don't create certain windows, certain pockets where people will be like they start envisioning themselves doing that, if you don't do that it's gonna die out at some point. But now you just had I don't know how many teams, man, I want to say it was probably all divisions, it was probably close to 200 athletes, is my guess and they're high. They're high enough level to say like, maybe I could get there, where they could be like that that inspires them to train their butt off, because this sport is only gonna live on if can people continue to sign up and put themselves out there. And I think that was a brilliant decision by these guys and executed even better to get another 200 people to really go out there and get motivated to train and maybe compete at the games next year or the year after, two years later. And now you have these people coming back from this team competition, coming back to the affiliate. And now you have people in the affiliate that are like, ooh, I only have to make quarters to go compete there. I bet you 10 or 15 people would have done great from our gym there At least At least. So now maybe there's going to be more people from this gym that try to make quarters so that they can compete on that team before next year. And then now they're the people that are competing at the games and be like, wow, maybe I could be there someday. And that's like a constant feeder We've been talking about that as owners of a gym Like how do you keep feeding the system?
34:02
And that's a great way to feed the future of master sport. So let's wrap this up with saying, like, where do we think master sport will be in a couple years, sam? Like I don't know this for a fact. I think Bob and Joe are probably committed to at least doing this in another two or three years to see if they can get better, more revenue, increase the numbers, because, again, you're just going to constantly have more and more masters athletes enter the space as they get older and this kind of keeps the fire alive or reignites a fire for some people. To be honest with you, where do you see this? Because we've actually one of our most watched instagram reels. Is you being like, no, get it out of your head, there's no money in crossfit masters? And it's like shared a ton of times, right so? And we want to make sure we don't give a vibe that we're not into it. I mean, we're obviously very into it, we support it, but there is some objective truth like is it? Is this thing really gonna last?
Sam RheeCo-host
34:56
because there are probably some thoughts out there that Mastersport is going to be gone at some point well, Bob had said every year they lost money on Legends, right, Right, and I will say we don't know what the finances will be from this Masters Games. But I will say, if they didn't at least break even or make money with this iteration of it, I would be first of all so disappointed, so shocked, and if they couldn't pull it off financially, Joe and Bob doing what they did this year, there would no one. It's almost. I don't think it could be done Right.
David SyvertsenHost
35:29
Yeah, like if they don't make money this year, like alright, let's give it another shot next year. Like right now we're running a comp in a few weeks. I'm like still trying to figure out if it's worth it or not, and but we're going to commit to two years of doing it years in a row. Then it's like, okay, writing's on the wall. You know you want to put your resources into something else. If these guys run the games again next year, I hope they do. Uh, same system, maybe different location, which is, I'm assuming they'll do it naturally. And if it doesn't get better, whether it's the experience, most importantly the revenue, it you, I could see a folding.
35:59
Do you think they made money this year? I do, but I just I don't know enough to know what were the expenses. I know that Bob's not paying for it. Like Bob said, it was a lot of his money that he put into Legends because they don't have CrossFit backing. I think that's what he was most excited about was CrossFit was supporting them. And support to me is not just. Here are a few judges. Here's meetings with Adrian about programming. I'm assuming there was some sort of financial contribution there, some sort of financial agreement that if there was a financial loss, it wasn't, you know, a huge one out of Bob and Joe's pocket or Legends' pocket. As a team, they're still running their Legends competition in Arizona. That we have people right now two worlds down from us trying to. They just did one this morning. Yeah, we have a lot of people from the gym trying to qualify that trying to. I just did one this morning. Yeah, we have a lot of people from the gym trying to qualify. That is still live.
Sam RheeCo-host
36:48
I am curious to see if that takes a hit, though, if you were Don Fallen you were there, you saw everything. What would your plan goal feat? What would you be thinking about? The Masters CrossFit Games Find?
David SyvertsenHost
36:59
a way to make it in the green Like find a way. You can't get rid of it. I just don't. I think if you get rid of it you're actually going to lose a huge part of the CrossFit culture. You're going to lose a huge demographic and I could see someone else taking it over and taking that opportunity away from you guys. You have to find a way to make it financially beneficial enough to do it, or at least get it to break even. It's a win for me if you break even on it. I do feel that way and so you have to find a way. So if the numbers don't line up, then maybe you downsize even more and not rent out something that big. Maybe you make it something a little bit smaller and make the heats a little smaller. Make it 30 people instead of 40, so you don't have to fit all these people in. But in my opinion you have to give these guys a two-year run at it to say like, all right, can you improve year one to year two? Like that, that's a vital.
37:57
If they pull the plug on these guys right away, I think it'd be a terrible decision by cross it, because the Masters community is the majority of CrossFit people around the globe, and I feel that here too is you have to find ways to keep those people in it or pivot to a way where those guys are still in it, because if you ignore them, you're losing the majority of your base and it goes to show some of these younger people that at some point, they just don't care about you and you don't want to ever give that vibe. All right, thank you guys. That's people that at some point, they just don't care about you and you don't want to ever give that vibe. All right, thank you guys. That's that's going to wrap up our experience from the 2024 masters crossfit games by legends. Uh, we do have a good relationship with them and we do support them.
38:34
We're going to continue to support them and I want all masters athletes out there, whether you compete or not, try to do what you can to support them and the athletes that are in that fire, because it's a huge, huge operation and it only works with support of the community and I think it's as one of the most important things that anyone within the space should contribute to in terms of just sheer support. All right, we'll see you guys next week. Thank you everybody for taking the time out of your day to listen to the Herd Fit Podcast. Be on the lookout for next week. Thank you, everybody, for taking the time out of your day to listen to the Hurt Fit Podcast. Be on the lookout for next week's episode.
