Earlier this week I shared that the REBEL Renegade Games, or the African Semifinal, was charging athletes to enter the spectator area. While the tickets were discounted and only about $25 for the weekend, it is the only Semifinal that is doing this to my knowledge.

Following this, the organizers of the REBEL Renegade Games reached out and shared why they were doing so and their reasoning was crazy to me.

Did you know that the $300 athlete registration fee ($600 for teams) goes directly to CrossFit, Inc. and the Semifinals run independently (Africa, Asia, Latin America & Oceania) see none of that money? I didn’t.

So I reached out to a couple people who ran Semifinals the past couple years to get a better sense of how these Semifinals can make money. What I found out is crazy…