Tracey Hannah to return?
- Thread starter aaronjb
- Start date
theres no question mark. she said she is returning
There's more to athlete marketing than speed and podiums...in some cases.
Is she tough to deal with? I don't imagine she made many friends with that exit a few years ago.
There must be a lot of hidden details because all I could find is that she said she had to quit because her sponsors weren't offering to support her.
If that's all she did and you say that's not making friends, I'm afraid I don't understand what "making friends" has to do with things.
I assume there's more to the story.
I still remember the bonus footage from Earthed I or II that showed her pinning it and riding some big boulder drops with brother Mik... smooth, fast, controlled riding.
re: why she quit (note the articles date)
http://www.pinkbike.com/news/tracey-hannah-explanation-2008.html
http://www.pinkbike.com/news/tracey-hannah-explanation-2008.html
She wasn't making ends meet, which seemed disgraceful given her results, but her sponsors probably didn't appreciate the public trashing.
I didn't see any "public trashing" in the Pinkbike article from 2008. I saw statements of fact.
A highly talented cyclist is supposed to LIE about the amount of support she receives from a sponsor? And the sponsor expects this? The sponsor knows it's sponsoring a young Aussie woman whose travel expenses will be considerable. The sponsor knows that those expenses make or break the woman's ability to continue racing. If the sponsor is actually doing a sponsorship to help the woman, how is her statement of plain fact "trashing" the sponsor? Both the woman and the sponsor know the deal. Either give her enough financial support to let her continue racing, or she'll end up not racing.
The "marketing" angle played by many here on SpankMonkey is ridiculous. So much anxiety over the theoretical. Her sponsor actually believed that NOT sufficiently supporting her would be a benefit?
Seriously?
And that she'd LIE on their behalf after not getting enough support?
That's freakin' absurd.
So much worry about "image" and its affiliated nebulous concepts. Who in hell runs sponsorship programs? A bunch of mental midgets with hollywood gossip as their strong suit?
If anyone wants to know why the US economy is in the crapper... well, look no further than the idea that someone should LIE to "save face" for a sponsor.
Image, over substance.
Image is NOTHING. I don't care what the Andre Agassi commercial for Canon cameras said. It's not "everything." It's nearly irrelevant.
But in American business 2011, smug little pimplenecks who grew up watching gossip shows like TMZ have mistaken that crap for what really matters.
Brilliant, I tell you.
Brilliant.
******************
No wonder people love Interbike. Pimplenecked know-nothings get to play at business tycoons, while wearing t-shirts and whatever's Hipster Fashion this year, further screwing up MTBs for us non-privileged, non-elite mere riders of bikes.
Looks like some unqualified people need to be culled from the business, if you ask me.
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Alpine Slug is making a lot of sense to me.
I read the pinkbike article. Boy, I'm sure the sponsors are lining up for the chance to get thrown underneath the bus.
Let me say something about sponsorship: there should be no downside to sponsoring an athlete.
I barely know who Tracey Hannah is. I remember backflips, and I struggle to remember that she married Mick Hannah. I didn't know she raced, but thanks your arrogant post pointing our her statement, I won't be forgetting her at all.
She signed contracts to race for her sponsors, they paid her a wage which she didn't say was unfair or exploitative. She did write, "I arrived home from the 2007 racing season in September, with a large credit card bill and with perhaps the false expectation that after doing as well as I did I would be getting a better deal from sponsors. A deal that might cover my living expenses whilst I train 100% and also I would be able to service the debt I have accumulated over the past years. This didn't happen."
Do you know what sponsorship is? It is ADVERTISING. The Tour De France was created to sell newspapers. Every factory team exists to sell more bicycles for the sponsor. And guess what the key component is for advertising: IMAGE. If you like the people we sponsor, you'll buy our bikes.
I have done some basic shop sponsorships, just huge discounts on gear. I wouldn't be bothered if our riders found a better deal, but I never-ever want to hear about how my shop's generosity wasn't good enough.
Here is another thing to consider:
I know a pro who raced the World Cup Circuit for a year; he even made the cover of MBA. The next season, at age 22, he worked for his father-in-law as a lumberjack.
I feel bad that was not able to afford to continue racing; he is really fast. Maybe if he wasn't married or his family were could afford to support financially him for another year. But he never went to complained about his fate.
Err, no.
You are thinking of Hannah Hannah, Mick's wife. She did indeed throw down some backflips.
This is Tracey Hannah, mick's sister. She was Junior World Champion and a World Cup winner.
Different people. Everything else you said is good to go, and probably serves your point much better anyways!
Lesson #1. Never throw ANY sponsor under the bus. As everyone's mothers once said at some point, if you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all. Burning bridges will not help a future career, that is for sure.
Hot = Marketable
She will get press. Tards like me will read it.
She will get press. Tards like me will read it.
Thanks for the correction. That's how little I know about her. But like I said, I know who she is now.
Corrected...
So a pro rider isnt allowed to turn down sponsor offers? Can a normal mortal like ourselves turn down a job that pays to little? She made a sound decision, she could have been "cool" racing the world cup, but still have a giant chunk of debt. If a XXXXX company said we will pay anything to do with racing, thats nice and all, but that wouldnt help me pay for my house or car. I agree with what she did, i only know what happened in the article, but who says she has to take a sponsors offer? What if it was just 25% off? does she have to take it. (yes im sure it was more-but its the point)
I bet her 2007 sponsors remember her statement, and the longer this thread goes, any future sponsors will know too.
i really hope sponsors arent relying on a RM thread to decide whether or not to employ her.
this is when a skin suit is needed in DH
I'm starting to regret I have blocket alpine slug because he makes sense with this one. She didn't throw anyone under the bus, just stated she wasn't paid enough to continue racing. Some sponsors may frown upon that and I understand it but that's hardly a criminal offence and since downhill is now on the raise I doubt she will have the same problems again = she won't complain about the sponsors.
She is also VERY marketable outside of her sponsor comment. How many fast girls are there?
She is also VERY marketable outside of her sponsor comment. How many fast girls are there?
I'm not sure what the problem is either. She ran her sponsors products, got great results and couldn't make ends meet. What's she supposed to say? She could have gone with the 'I want to focus on something other than racing' response but why bother lying. At the end of the day she didn't throw her sponsors under the bus, or individually name and shame them. She just said that her outgoings were more than her income and as someone who was DH champ material that shouldn't really be an issue.
Just my 2 cents
Just my 2 cents
So please explain why Cam Zink still has sponsors.
Ah wait, he is currently sponsored by Evil.
After reading the interview, Id say she didnt do anything wrong but she could have at least sugar coated everything a little bit.
From what I remember as a sponsored rider a few years ago, sponsoring is all about politics and you should choose your words carefully when it comes to describing relations with your sponsors.
Reading between the lines you can easily read she is very dissapointed in her sponsors and she feels shes entitled to much more since shes a junior national champ etc etc.
Maybe its just the way she wrote it, maybe Im reading it wrong.
But with a brother who has so much experiance in this, the interview could have done far more for her future chances.
She should have thanked her sponsors a few times and said how great they had been but unfortunatly they couldnt make it happen or some BS.
Not saying I personally agree with it.
But thats just the way the corporate world works.
She can ride faster then most of us so Im sure theres a place for her on the world cups.
From what I remember as a sponsored rider a few years ago, sponsoring is all about politics and you should choose your words carefully when it comes to describing relations with your sponsors.
Reading between the lines you can easily read she is very dissapointed in her sponsors and she feels shes entitled to much more since shes a junior national champ etc etc.
Maybe its just the way she wrote it, maybe Im reading it wrong.
But with a brother who has so much experiance in this, the interview could have done far more for her future chances.
She should have thanked her sponsors a few times and said how great they had been but unfortunatly they couldnt make it happen or some BS.
Not saying I personally agree with it.
But thats just the way the corporate world works.
She can ride faster then most of us so Im sure theres a place for her on the world cups.
Here's the component I thought was obvious: I agree with you completely, and I think she was in the right. It's why I used the word disgraceful.
Bingo. It's a small industry. She may have been treated unfairly, but instead of properly leveraging her results for a better package, she publicly raked them over the coals.
Was she in the right with her message? Absolutely. Did she handle it in a mature, professional, and productive manner? Not in the least.
She wasn't "trashing her sponsors", but its generally poor etiquette for an aspiring professional athlete to publicly disclose financial aspects of sponsorship agreements.
Hopefully she has another tiger helmet
@jonKranked: I'm piss poor and can't afford to race anymoar is "disclosing financial aspects of sponsorship agreements"?
Talk about using weasel words.
Has anyone ever saw some of the dudes (and dudettes) in this sport? Man we got the sort of guys here, that mothers cover their kids' ears and eyes when they walk by/around.
Etiquette in DH? Cmon, this sport is full of cocky and quirky people (be it athletes, sponsors, support) everybody seems a bit nuts around here. And RM manages to predict that Tracey would even show on "hard to work with" radar, just due to an interview she did when leaving the scene.
Talking about inflamatory guys - ever saw Kovarik? Win Masters? Some of those brits? Rockwell? Missy and everybody's favorite - Napalm?
Talk about using weasel words.
Has anyone ever saw some of the dudes (and dudettes) in this sport? Man we got the sort of guys here, that mothers cover their kids' ears and eyes when they walk by/around.
Etiquette in DH? Cmon, this sport is full of cocky and quirky people (be it athletes, sponsors, support) everybody seems a bit nuts around here. And RM manages to predict that Tracey would even show on "hard to work with" radar, just due to an interview she did when leaving the scene.
Talking about inflamatory guys - ever saw Kovarik? Win Masters? Some of those brits? Rockwell? Missy and everybody's favorite - Napalm?
from the article:
Dosent that just means that her current sponsors didnt want to give her a bigger paycheck. Sponsors have budgets and if that dosent have room for that bigger check they wont give it unless they see an oppertunity to get a better return than another investment.
But in the end cash is king, so right or wrong dosent matter. What matters would be for her to better her chances at getting new sponsors, so that article should have been sugar coated a bit.
But in the end cash is king, so right or wrong dosent matter. What matters would be for her to better her chances at getting new sponsors, so that article should have been sugar coated a bit.
Bingo. As a sponsor, you don't wanna hear your riders publicly stating that they don't feel they're receiving sufficient support from you. Listen to all the interviews from the world cup pits from this past season. How much sponsor ass-kissing did you hear?
Ridemonkey press release.
"even though XXXX has given me 3 times more money than i deserve and enough to pay my debt twice, i will not be racing because it would not be polite of me to accept their money and participate, i thank all my companies but i will not be racing this year"
-tracey hannah
"even though XXXX has given me 3 times more money than i deserve and enough to pay my debt twice, i will not be racing because it would not be polite of me to accept their money and participate, i thank all my companies but i will not be racing this year"
-tracey hannah
ask your mom if she'll sponsor Tracey.