Mark Flotrack » CALLING OUT LetsRun!

Flotrack: You care to release the number of people who've signed up?

TEAR IT DOWN!!! TEAR IT ALL DOWN!!!

calm the FRUCK down flotrack..
when voicing opinions and concerns is better to keep a clear, calm, assured tone of voice. Dont go ranting all pissed off calling out another brand for creating controversy. Like yall said, its the way they conduct business, so dont take the bait. Not only are you hurting your image, but allowing the viewer into your vulnerable side. Remember that Manners are the key to professionalism. I'm with you on this Flotrack, but please dont do this to yourself again, not in this fashion.

I'd pay as much as $20 a year but I won't even consider it at $20 per month. I'm guessing they won't have too many takers at $20 per month.

There's points on both sides.

Flotrack needs to profit if people want better content, and they also need to be taken seriously by meets and buy the rights to broadcast a meet if they want to provide better coverage.
At the same time, $20/month is indeed quite pricey. I pay the same for Fox Soccer 2-go, which gives me every Premier League game in HD online. Unfortunately Flotrack is not up to par with them (yet?). Lack of knowing what I'd be paying for (never too sure what meets flotrack's going to cover, but I know often Flotrack doesn't know either. I remember stanford pulling the rug out, or Texas Relays giving rights to LHN).
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. Another way could be say, weekend passes (for big weekends with lots of meets), etc.
Another really useful feature would be to get notifications for races on say, my "watch-list". I don't care about the 60m prelims, but the invite mile? Oh hell yes. Do track meets stay on posted schedules? LOOOOOL. But you have guys there, so when they're about to run a race, ping that race out and anyone that has it on their watchlist gets a notification (email, tweet, SMS, whatever) that it's about to come up.
Ultimately, to make Flotrack Pro profitable, I think you need to offer more flexible payment options, and more features that people don't consider to have been free this time last year. The quality of coverage has been steadily improving, but it's not something that appears outright to viewers (you don't notice little progressive changes until you compare it to 2-3 years ago). Make a serious HD upgrade, especially with these indoor meets and the low lighting. Mt. SAC is always great, but the video quality is always terrible. Do something like that but where the athletes don't look like they're running in a dark room and we're talking!
Love you guys, keep doing what you do!

$3.95/month. Problem solved.

No way it should cost as much as Netlifx.

It's glaringly obvious that this video was made with the sole intention of promoting FloTrack Pro. Wejo a rather insignificant post about FloTrack Pro, and now Mark wants to debate him? What a loser. Debate him over what? Mark, you aren't moving the sport forward, unless forward means even further onto the sidelines as one of the hardest to watch sports.

You've jumped the shark FloTrack. You made a bad decision about pricing and exclusivity, and now you are on the defensive listening to reason. Calm down and think before this site declines any more.

The problem with both LRC and Flotrack is that they are run by juvenile's posing as adults. The entire running community knows the problems with LRC.

Personally, I have stopped visiting Flotrack because most of the videos are canned crap. Also, they don't understand the idea of how to sync with twitter (don't have your pages set to autoplay, people may be at work, or want to "open in a new tab" and not have their ears blasted out.
But mostly it is the lack of professionalism.
You guys gotta get out of your own echo chamber.
You should read the comments in this section...realize your immaturity is off putting, and delete this video, leave an apology and then rethink things.

I am all for flotrack PRO I just simply can't afford it. So I have all of the other videos to watch which I am pumped for. I do think for the live broadcasts that they should cost however much the ticket price is to get into the meet, but I am also not the one making a living off this site. When I have the extra money to spend you can guaruntee I will have a PRO account because nobody else is going to provide the content that flotrack provides. So as Joe Dirt would say "Keep on Keepin' on"

Wow, you guys just embarrassed yourselves. Who is the midget with the shirt that is too tight? I find myself irritated just looking at him.... He fails trying to style his hair like Draper.... just looks like a dork.

How can anyone take this site serious after this? You talk about bringing the sport out in to the spot light... well sorry, but it's not going to be done by a bunch of runner wanabee clowns.

1. I'll buy a year subscription every year until I die if FloTrack can post a schedule of the meets they'll be covering at least a few months in advance. But I know that will not include Stanford, Washington, and Penn...which sucks. Or Olympic trials...or Olympics...so maybe not.
2. Answer YOUR FANS! It's been said a million times but you call out LetsRun instead of answering solid questions your people have. Unprofessional. How is a skype debate NOT hiding behind a computer screen? You called him a hippie Mark...when FloTrack is based out of Austin
3. Not everyone who goes to FloTrack is a UT fan. So stop making half of your videos about the UT team.
4. I can predict it now. You guys will charge the UIL Texas State meet to FloPro. That will pretty much FORCE parents to pay if they want to watch their kid race online. Unless they go to the stadium. I will put legitimate money on that. Not just the Texas state meet, but all the high school state meets. I HOPE YOU SEE THIS AND RESPOND TO IT SOMEONE FROM FLOTRACK.
Ryan Fenton is the only smart person on this website. Thank God he isn't in on this video.

First off - LetsRun.com is a joke. The site is an absolute mess of regurgitated articles. The 'World Famous Message Boards' are exhausting and almost never worth reading. Flotrack fills a niche that no other site does with any sort of consistency. They seek out and interview the World's best track and field athletes and coaches on camera. There is no comparison between Flotrack and LetsRun - it's not even close.

They have sucked you in, and it would make a lot more sense to simply ignore what they posted. Flotrack does not need to defend itself in response to a post from a site like LetsRun.com. There is also no comparison between what Universal Sports provides and what Flotrack does. Universal Sports is an entity of NBC, Flotrack is on their own, there is no comparison and Universal Sports is never available in Canada.

I completely understand the decision from Flotrack to post their content on a subscription basis. Those who suggest they only want to make a profit and have no wish to grow the sport are foolish. Flotrack does grow the sport. Other sites post on race results, athlete Q&A's and other mundane content. Flotrack gets into the weight rooms, the tracks, roads and trails to see how some of the best athletes live and train. They post informative debates and concepts that directly relate to how the sport is growing. This is a grass roots site and the creators are passionate fans of the sport. In order for Flotrack to continue to progress with the quality of their products and services they need to try and turn a profit. In the end, if the consumer has access to a higher quality product and even more resources then it is for the greater good of the sport.
Flotrack staff do not have professional broadcast training with regards to play by play and interviews. However, they still do a far better job than any of the hacks put in place to commentate the Olympics, World Championships or major marathons.
Flotrack's price point may have to be adjusted if the model isn't working. That's for them to decide. We don't know their subscription numbers or if it's working or not. If it is, then they have a good thing going. Regardless, Flotrack shouldn't bother getting into debates with faceless sites like LetsRun.com

When Dathan Ritzenhein broke Bob Kennedy's 5000m AR in 2009, which site got so much traffic it crashed?