Mark Flotrack » CALLING OUT LetsRun!

Here's the deal. I don't like the fact that I've had to start paying to watch my friends run at meets. For something that used to be free, its a hard transition to make to suddenly have to fork over $20 to watch one meet (luckily I managed to get two meets in for this month). The only way I've had to defray the cost is get a bunch of my teammates together and we all pitch in for a subscription.

The meet commentary, in a word, is horrible. I don't know what you guys are up to behind that camera, but if I'm paying for something, I expect to get something worth watching/listening to. Whoever you had at the Meyo Invite Friday night was quite possibly the worst announcer I've ever heard. I kind of wanted to stick nails in my ears, to be honest. And last night (Alex Wilson invite, Friday night), the video stream started buffering in the middle of the 5k and multiple times during the DMR. Neither of this helps my view of you; I was really amped to watch my friend go stupid fast (for our school) in the 5k and I was also amped to see one of my friends qualify for Nationals, which he did. But, because of the buffering, I didn't get to see that.
This is what it comes down to. If you want me to pay for your services, I have to believe that what I'm getting is worth $20/mo. I really don't give 2 about all your exercise videos, run junkie videos, grass routes whatever the hell--The only things I've ever really enjoyed on flotrack is the kick of the week (sometimes) and Thirsty Thursdays with Jack Daniels. And that's only because he's the man. This little stunt of yours, calling for a skype debate, lowers my already low opinion of you. This is not professional, and for people trying to call themselves professional, for people that are taking my money, I expect some sort of quality of conduct as well.
Recap:
-If I pay $20/mo, $150/yr, I demand quality.
-I don't care about your "original" content, so don't tell me there's value in that. Not true for everyone, but a reminder that what you think is value is not what everyone else might think
-You need to conduct yourselves like the professionals you claim to be.
Constructive Criticism:
Go to a different pay structure, if you want to keep forcing people to fork over money. Just a flat fee for watching the meet--here's how you can compute the fee===>(Production Cost / Average number of viewers). That result is what you can charge for a 1 day viewing of the meet.

I love flo. But people are right - you guys are totally dodging the question. No one is denying that flo pro has good stuff, but IT'S THE PRICE that we'd like addressed. Letsrun called you guys out for charging $20 a month and you never even mentioned it in this response. I'd rather you guys admit that you either: a) overestimated the product and are sorry or b) had some kind of market analysis that justifies the price than simply putting up ads for your next meet.

Also, this is my take on the "help the sport" argument. Yes, now you'll be able to broadcast more meets because of the influx of money from pro. I imagine that a lot of people bought it because it crashed your site last weekend. You might be able to stream more meets, but as long as it's behind a giant paywall, then you're excluding people. Some kid who grew up with flotrack (ie: me) won't have the same feeling now because mom or dad don't want to spend $150 on some website when they don't know what they're going to get come spring time. Either be able to justify the price or risk losing yet another die-hard fan.

Go take an Econ 101 course.

I dislike the way that FT (and MF in particular) labels anyone with opinions different from theirs as a "Hater" or the "enemy".

Most people share their opinions here because they care and want FT to be better. Lumping those visitors with the trolls is a great way to drive people away.

Mark could've had the best business plan ever created, but this vid makes him look so foolish. He can't even articulate his thoughts. At least have a better spokesperson. If this were live, it would be a different story, but y'all even had the chance to re-shoot. And, you can make anything sound dumb with tone of voice ("Welllldon"; "hippy commune", followed by condescending snicker). At least the letsrun guys come across as more professional when interviewed. Besides, ultimately they're right. This isn't the nfl, it's piece of track and field. $20?? Please.

Dear Flotrack, it's understandable that a business might try to charge money for extra content, but, as it has been expressed a million times before now, Flotrack Pro is super overpriced. What makes it worse is that Floreani is acting a fool in this video. He shouldn't be proud of this. When a business is challenged by a website that hosts chat forums it should not react like this--it should handle the situation maturely and prove the other guy wrong. Honestly, and this is coming from a big Flotrack fan, I'm way more disappointed in how Floreani has handled this situation than the concept of Flotrack Pro itself.

Mark, I want to ask you to reconsider charging for live streams if you want to grow the sport. I can see charging for coaching series because you're putting people's intellectual property or rather their methodology that's produced success with athletes on display. I do agree with some of the comments below that in order to charge for the content, it has to be more professionally done. Maybe look at upgrading some of the equipment. I am not opposed to paying, but raise the quality and make the meet streams free.
The argument that you're growing the sport by charging for content is BS. You grow the sport by growing the number of people that become interested or participants in the sport. Not by charging for content. By charging money, you grow YOUR revenue. If growing your revenue is the objective, call it what it is. Say: We want to grow our revenue because we want to do XYZ with the money to advance the sport. People aren't stupid Mark. Again, I hope you reconsider.

So...never heard of "letsrun.com" Just checked them out and now I am even more confused why you guys would stoop to their level. They just look like a cheap site loaded with way too many words on the home page. Stay out of the mud flo.

i agree with guy below. The product and reliability is just not there for 20 a month. It is a bit arrogant to try and charge that much. That is why, I believe, the outrage. We do appreciate Flotrack and the great interviews, and races (altough sporatic and undependable).
In order to charge a monthly fee such as they are trying to pass off they must have the value for we savy consumers. Frankly $3.99 a month might be acceptable but I don't know if I would even pay 9. Besides many of the races can be found on u tube or universal sports or the live streaming that U.W. is putting on this weekend. There is nothing wrong with flotrack trying to make a profit but to take advantage of their loyal fans is a bit disappointing.

First off Flotrack.. why would you ever lower yourself to LetsRun's level? This video is a horrible representation for your company and of the Flotrack that I know. If you really want to make the running community better, you will find a solution to the mess that you have created.

This right here
"I propose an alternative option: pay-per-view. Like Universal Sports does (did?) do. I'd be happy to pay $5 to watch the BU meet online. It's less of a commitment, I could watch the meets I want rather than pay for a package that maybe only has one meet I want to see, and most importantly, I think you'd get a lot more subscribers, and ultimately may even get people paying more than $20/month anyway but just feel better about how they spent it. "
It seems like you guys have just set a random price for the content (I would have probably set it a little lower seeing that Netflix isnt even that high). Now that the running community is speaking, LISTEN instead of posting rants and making your company sound weak.
I am a distance runner. I will pay for the Cam Levins doc, I will pay for the BU invite, I might even pay for Leo's videos (if the price is right).. However I will not pay for throws videos, or Jumps videos, or sprint videos.. Those are a waste of my time.
Good companies listen to their market and find a solution, bad companies don't and die.

This

"Its called market segmentation, flotrack, look it up. If you are going to charge a high price, higher than any other major streaming site on the internet, you have to offer some lesser plans that are cheaper. Its the same reason why there are many different price points on most restaurant menus. It gets the wealthier people to pay more and the poorer/cheaper people or less interested people to pay less for a lesser product. If you don't segment the market the poorer/cheaper or less interested people don't buy your product at all. Its as simple as that. You have made a horrible business move here. Flotrack, you just failed business school 101."

You do realize that the whole Cam MF Levins craze started on letsrun?

Is it a bummer that some of this awesome content is now behind the money wall that is FloTrack Pro? Yes
Is it wrong or hurtful to the sport of Track & Field? ABSOLUTELY NOT!

All these whiny little babies keep complaining that they're not able to see this content because of the fee. Some of those people are truly just being idiots and should fork out the extra cash. For those like me who truly can't afford it, suck it up!
It's been a miracle to have been getting has much as we have for FREE! Just because you want it, doesn't mean it should be given to you freely. Although the delivery of this video was a little weird, the point is completely valid. What FloTrack and FloTrack Pro are doing for this sport is AMAZING! Stop whining about it and realize that this goes beyond your selfish individual desires.

Why compelled to make that video. Just let the product sell itself. If it doesn't, you're wrong. If it does, you're right. Y'all look like idiots.