We are all well aware that the kiteboarding world freestyle tour is currently in the hands of the riders under the leadership and guidance of the KRU (Kite Riders Union) or WKL (World Kiteboarding League) as they are now known.
Having spoken to the WKL at length we know they have some very promising and ambitious plans including the much demanded ‘Live Video’ and reduction or abolition of riders entry fees.
The list is long and continues, but in summary they are doing, and wanting to do, good things for the riders and the public image of the sport and drag it out of the turbulent position it currently finds itself being pulled in different directions by different acronyms.
However, there is a catch. Funding it.
This year the tour has given away the commercial right to the ‘Clean Ocean Project’ as a proof-of-concept and to avoid false promises and returns in negotiating an unfinished product with commercial sponsors, …an applaudable and honest approach. That said, tour stops need to be paid for and the upcoming stop in Cabarete in July which is pencilled as the next possible stop, has a price.
Today this appeared in our news feed.
Kite Riders’ Union – Support the WKL Tour!
Yes. …the world tour has gone crowd funding – and this is what they have to say about it…
Please Help Support the World Kiteboarding League 2016 Tour!
The Kite Rider’s Union (“KRU”) needs your help to operate the first World Kiteboarding League tour stop in Cabarete, DR, in July, 2016. KRU is a Netherlands Foundation made up of the top kiteboarding freestyle pros and was established to give the riders a voice in running the tour, to get the tour and the riders the media attention they deserve, and to give the riders a fair share of revenue generated by the tour.
2016 TOUR: For 2016, KRU is organizing the World Kiteboarding League pro tour for freestyle, big air and wave events, and we need your help to organize the kickoff 2016 tour stop with a freestyle competition in Cabarete, DR, with the participation of the primary sponsor of the 2016 tour: Clean Ocean Project.
WHY SUPPORT THIS? Professional Kiteboarding is a growing, exciting sport, but at just over a decade old Kiteboarding remains a niche sport, and consequently the riders struggle to earn a living as professional athletes. By operating the 2016 tour under the World Kiteboarding League banner, KRU will be able to ensure that the riders will have a say in how the tour is run and will receive the full benefit of all sponsorships and other income from the sale of commercial rights associated with the tour – benefits they have been denied in previous seasons under different tour operators. But this year’s tour will be a challenge as each event costs as much as $100k to operate, and because it’s a brand new organization operating its first annual tour, KRU is still developing its base of sponsors and other revenue streams and therefore we need your help!
Sponsorships: If you are interested in providing a large sponsorship for this event (i.e., exceeding $25k), please contact our liaison at [email protected] to discuss in more detail, since we can feature your logo on the flags, lycras, scoreboard, etc. at the event. Please also note: although donations by US citizens to nonprofits are generally tax deductible, because this event is being conducted in the Dominican Republic for the primary benefit of a foreign Foundation (KRU), we are unfortunately unable to provide charitable donation receipts for US tax purposes.
Funding Shortfall: We have set a goal of $50,000 in fundraising by the end of the month in order to ensure that we have the funds to operate this event, so please understand that if we fail to achieve that goal we may need to cancel or postpone the tour stop., in which case all net revenue raised will be used by KRU for the rest of the 2016 season tour.
There ends our factual report on the current state of affairs. However what follows is purely our opinion on said state of affairs.
Is there any aspect of our sport that is not up for crowd funding?
We have seen media outlets crowdfunding for salaries for staff, riders crowd funding in order to pay their way to competitions, of course new products and concepts trying to get into production, plus existing brands crowd funding their new collections.
There seems very little these days that we are not prepared to stick our hands out and ask others for a bit of a helping hand, and this brings about a very important question.
What affect does this have on our sport and crowd funding in general?
This is the important question and our personal gripe with what we deem to be the over usage of crowd funding …it has two very profound effects.
1. It desensitises the ‘crowd’ to the concept as a whole. We become so used to seeing these campaigns that we learn to ‘filter’ them as we do to so much of the digital content we see on a daily basis. While of course this is not an issue for us as individuals it does have a huge effect on the number of projects being backed making crowd funding a harder deal to be successful at and adding a reputation ‘make or break’ into the package.
How can you be expected to make a choice between supporting someone with an illness who needs money to save their life versus a business which might be for the greater good of those involved but with a little less life and death.
Of course you shouldn’t and don’t …what you do with your money is a personal choice …but this is a point that we encourage you to think about and discuss amongst your peers.
2. The reputation ‘make or break’. This is the one that interests us the most from an external perspective, the mere creation of crowd funding project has the public effect of saying ‘We do not have enough money to do what we want, if you fund us then we will, however without your money we will not be able to’.
That is a big risk to take as no amount of good PR can make up for a massively underfunded project and the subsequent effect on the reputation of the project.
So what happens next?
We want to say that we wish the WKL all the best and really hope that with the support and involvement of MaiTai they are able to get the funding they need to do what they have proposed as it really is the best solution and direction that we have on the table for the sport at the moment.
We just hope that this choice of raising capital was a wise one that does not do them more harm than good.
A final thought?
Where is the money in kiteboarding? With brands struggling with production costs, the tour seeking public help, leading media operating on a shoestring, riders not getting paid …where is the growth and direction of our sport heading?
