RAGBRAI Organizers Split from Register

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keepngoal

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I'm pretty confident the RAGBRAI staff worked FULL TIME on RAGBRAI and events associated with RAGBRAI.
Agreed. I suspect there will be a play in the courts about this....
Or does the Reg not make a deal out of this at all.
 
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ForbinsAscynt

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This King story just keeps getting better. Register is a dumpster fire but this ragbrai split is just odd imo.
 
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Tri4Cy

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I have to believe there is much more to it....but that might have been the final straw.

It depends. Maybe having two rival rides thins the crowd out for both and makes the roads and ride a bit more navigable. Or maybe the Reg just shutters RAGBRAI and there's still one bike ride across Iowa, it's just called something different. Whatever the case, it's all on the Register. They're doing a fine job of digging their own grave.

I've been hearing for a couple of years (from someone who works closely with the committee) that RAGBRAI as we know it was likely going to end soon. Potentially after an upcoming anniversary year. The logistics of trying to provide for 30,000 who demand water, shelter, power for their iphones, etc is just becoming too difficult to manage. Obviously details were not known at the time but ideas had been floated. They and I speculated that it may be broken up into a couple different rides. One that is more the "VIP" you pay us for the organization, logistics, etc and another which will be more of the old school self supported type ride.

That being said, I'm guessing that there was at least SOME sort of idea of what they would like to see happen. The Carson King situation was likely the catalyst to put this together so quickly. While I'm not surprised to see this, the timing was unexpected.
 

alarson

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I do find anyone talking about 'first amendment principles' when theyre talking about what their employer allows them to say publicly is generally not the brightest bulb.

You'd think someone who worked for a newspaper would know the first amendment only applies to the government.
 

NoCreativity

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Then go read something else. It's an interesting story about a pretty big Iowa event.

It "was" an interesting story. The Register is a bunch of idiots who made a bad PR move. Carson handled it very professionally, admitted he made a mistake and that he didnt condone his behavior when he was 16. That should have been the end of the story, and it actually was for both parties involved, but the public has made this a complete dumpster fire now.

Btw, nobody outside of our state cares about this, and if they do they think Iowa is a bunch of idiots.
 

isukendall

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Just spit-balling here, but have to think these folks were looking for a way to start their own ride and are capitalizing on timing, media coverage, etc. Probably way less overhead cost if the ride, registration all goes through them.

They've said ALL proceeds will go to Iowa charities, FWIW.
 

alarson

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It "was" an interesting story. The Register is a bunch of idiots who made a bad PR move. Carson handled it very professionally, admitted he made a mistake and that he didnt condone his behavior when he was 16. That should have been the end of the story, and it actually was for both parties involved, but the public has made this a complete dumpster fire now.

Btw, nobody outside of our state cares about this, and if they do they think Iowa is a bunch of idiots.

Seriously. This should have barely been a story.

The register did a rather routine background search. Probably just ran a tool that pulled all his tweets, plenty of ways to do that. They included a line about what he'd said in a column that was overwhelmingly positive and meshed the negative tweets in language that indicated this isnt how he is today.

But people had to freak the **** out as if the editor of the register went out and murdered someone. Seriously, this isnt a story. Anyone still freaking out about it or demanding blood from the register for something that should be almost a complete non-issue is, quite frankly, an idiot.
 
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NoCreativity

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Seriously. This should have barely been a story.

The register did a rather routine background search. Probably just ran a tool that pulled all his tweets, plenty of ways to do that. They included a line about what he'd said in a column that was overwhelmingly positive and meshed the negative tweets in language that indicated this isnt how he is today.

But people had to freak the **** out as if the editor off the register went out and murdered someone. Seriously, this isnt a story. Anyone still freaking out about it or demanding blood from the register for something that should be almost a complete non-issue is, quite frankly, an idiot.

Well said, completely agree with everything you wrote.
 

Cycsk

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Do the big outfitters have multi-year contracts with the Register? Exclusive agreements?
 

isukendall

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I've been hearing for a couple of years (from someone who works closely with the committee) that RAGBRAI as we know it was likely going to end soon. Potentially after an upcoming anniversary year. The logistics of trying to provide for 30,000 who demand water, shelter, power for their iphones, etc is just becoming too difficult to manage. Obviously details were not known at the time but ideas had been floated. They and I speculated that it may be broken up into a couple different rides. One that is more the "VIP" you pay us for the organization, logistics, etc and another which will be more of the old school self supported type ride.

That being said, I'm guessing that there was at least SOME sort of idea of what they would like to see happen. The Carson King situation was likely the catalyst to put this together so quickly. While I'm not surprised to see this, the timing was unexpected.

All of this makes sense. Bold part is interesting. I ride with what is essentially a self-supported pirate team. And while we make jokes about "The RAGBRAI Race" and avoiding the masses, I don't think the infrastructure (e.g. vendors, entertainment, law enforcement) would be there for separate ride that was "self supported" style. It is definitely bigger than it needs to be, but I think if you cut it in too many pieces, it would have it's own additional challenges. As it is, it's supposed to be a s*** show.
 

isukendall

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Btw, nobody outside of our state cares about this, and if they do they think Iowa is a bunch of idiots.

Respectfully disagree, this is about much more than RAGBRAI. Right now you have a dozen Democrats in Iowa 24/7, trying to get on a ballot. This issue really boils down to 1st Amendment rights, political correctness, media relations ("fake" or not), forgiveness, doing the right thing, and "Iowa Nice". It's actually extremely complex and intertwined if you think about it, and the timing with the 2020 election makes it especially intriguing.

Long shot, but if moderators are on top of their game, it would be an extremely interesting topic to bring up in the Democratic Debates tonight if put into the right question.
 

Urbandale2013

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Aside from the logistics I think this is the sign that the Register is dead. I just don’t see a way it survives this whole situation. We’ve known the whole deal wasn’t real popular with Register Alums but now they can’t even keep people employed.

Hopefully this will be a catalyst that creates a local qualified newspaper. I want a paper to support and have for a while but haven’t had any interest in supporting the crappy Register.
 

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