I’ve spent most of my career betting on a simple idea: if you bring people together around movement, story, and shared effort, you can build something much bigger than “just a race.” That belief took concrete form during my time as VP of Sports Marketing at RODALE (Runner’s World, Bicycling, Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Backpacker, etc.), CMO at Competitor Group, and as CCO at USA Cycling, and it shapes how I see the opportunities in front of us today.
The Proven Playbook: When Consolidation Created Value
The first major platform wave proved that scale works. In 2008, Falconhead Capital executed the definitive private equity playbook by creating Competitor Group (CGI), rolling up Elite Racing’s Rock ’n’ Roll Marathon Series, Triathlete Magazine’s parent, and Competitor Publishing into a single content‑plus‑events platform.
The thesis was straightforward: aggregate road races and endurance media into a scaled operator with national reach and strong sponsor appeal. As CMO, I led the centralization of sales and marketing, leveraged multi‑city IP, and leveraged our media stack to lower customer acquisition costs. We sold an identity, the “Rock ’n’ Roll runner,” and tourism running that could be replicated globally.
This model was highly effective. We grew from roughly 14 races to about 75–80 events, becoming the largest endurance race operator in the U.S., with projected 2012 revenue of approximately $126 million and adjusted EBITDA of $25 million. The playbook worked so well that the IRONMAN Group eventually acquired CGI, folding it into an even larger global platform.
Jason Kelly’s Sweat Equity captured this moment: platforms like CGI showed how you could turn niche endurance communities into investable, scalable assets by combining events, media, and community.
The COVID Collapse and the Rediscovery of the Moat
Then COVID hit, and all that elegant logic of consolidation ran into a wall. A business built around putting tens of thousands of bodies on city streets suddenly had no product. As an industry veteran, I immediately understood that the real risk was not merely a lost season of revenue but the potential erosion of habit and identity.
Virtual races and digital challenges provided a temporary stand‑in, and many athletes embraced them, but we rediscovered, the hard way, that our true moat was the chemistry of physical togetherness, the start‑line nerves, the mid‑race conversations, and the catharsis of crossing a finish line with strangers. In conversations with race directors and sponsors, the fear was the same: if people lost that ritual, would they come back?
For large, consolidated platforms, the crisis also exposed the downside of scale: big fixed‑cost operating machines with nothing to process, and no easy way to “go small” overnight. The pandemic created an existential crisis, but its destruction also led to market fragmentation that now presents a consolidation opportunity potentially larger than the one Falconhead found in 2008.
The Bounce‑Back and the Smarter Market
Fast‑forward to 2024–2026, and the industry has completed a remarkable comeback. Industry forecasts project the global events market will exceed $1 trillion by mid‑decade, and participation events are one of the bright spots in that growth. Mass‑participation studies and operator data indicate that events have not only recovered but, in many cases, surpassed pre‑pandemic levels.
The signals are clear:
Demand is stronger: Entry levels at many marquee races are now well above 2019 pre‑pandemic levels.
New audience: Over a quarter of current participants began in 2022, skewing younger, well‑educated, and relatively affluent.
Increased spending: Participants are spending more on events and apparel, traveling farther, and registering earlier; roughly a third expect to enter more events in 2025.
These numbers confirm what I see on the ground: full corrals, younger faces, and a more intentional participant base.
However, this is not 2012 all over again. The consumer is more price‑sensitive and selective. You can no longer assume “if you build it, they will come.” You have to design why they come, why they come back, and why they choose your brand. That means:
Clear differentiation in format, story, and purpose.
Progression paths across a portfolio, not just isolated one‑off events.
Treating each event as a relationship moment in a longer journey.
Integrate with community and social groups fueling the engagement.
Those are exactly the questions we were wrestling with at CGI; today, they have become the industry standard.
The Hidden Problem: Fragmented Tech, and the Opportunity
Here lies the irony: while our business models have matured, our technology often hasn’t. Most organizers today are trying to stitch together disconnected systems: one for registration, another for email and CRM, separate systems for timing and results, and point solutions for apps and community. Event‑tech research is blunt: this fragmentation creates data silos, inconsistent participant experiences, and limited ability to personalize or measure ROI.
From my experience centralizing marketing and data across dozens of CGI events, I know this problem is not theoretical. I’ve watched smart teams spend more time reconciling spreadsheets than designing better experiences.
Today, the stakes are higher because participants expect seamless digital‑physical integration, and sponsors demand real audience insight and attribution. The investment opportunity is to back or build the unified operating system for participation, platforms that connect discovery, registration, engagement, and retention into a single nervous system.
Digital and Physical: The Integration Imperative
The profound shift isn’t just recovery, it’s transformation. The goal isn’t to replace live events with digital, but to let digital do what it does best: connect, amplify, and extend around the irreplaceable core of in‑person experience.
We’re already seeing this model in action:
New formats: Companies like HYROX are building full ecosystems that blend training content, affiliated gyms, digital programming, media, and then live competitions.
Year‑round engagement: Digital components, virtual challenges, training apps, streaming, and on‑demand content keep people connected between race days.
Hybrid models: By 2025, roughly three‑quarters of event planners expect hybrid formats to be part of their long‑term strategy, combining in‑person and virtual touchpoints.
The North Star is simple: use digital to make the live experience more meaningful, and use the live event to give the digital community something real to orbit around. The most durable businesses treat community, story, and habit as their real products; events are where those products become visible.
At CGI, we were trying to build a proof of concept for this using magazines and early digital platforms. Today, the tools and consumer behavior have finally caught up to that vision.
Where the Opportunity Is Now
We are entering a second wave of platform disruption. The actionable strategy for those who want to extend the Falconhead playbook is to back or build a coherent system across three lanes:
Platform operators ready for “v2.0” - Acquire regional, multi‑event operators (10–30 events) that have strong local brands and solid operations but are sub‑scale in marketing, sponsorship, and technology. The play is to provide capital and expertise to build a modern, data‑fluent version of the Competitor model.
The connective tech and data layer - Back or build the “operating system for participation.” These integrated platforms unify registration, communications, apps, and analytics, providing the data spine that lowers acquisition costs and permits cross‑selling. This is a critical infrastructure play, and my scars from fighting siloed systems give me a clear view of what actually needs to be connected.
Community‑first, content‑rich brands - Invest in properties that look as much like membership or media brands as “race companies.” They generate multiple revenue streams (events, subscriptions, digital products) and natively blend creator‑led content, training utilities, and live experiences. The real moat here is culture and narrative, as Sweat Equity argued.
The participation events industry has not merely recovered; it has reset, with stronger demand, a younger demographic, and structural fragmentation that rewards consolidators. Operators who combine operational excellence with integrated technology and year‑round community engagement will capture the immense value created in this reset.
The starting gun has already fired. The question for investors and operators alike is whether you’re content to watch from the sidelines or ready to get back in the race.