New Pittsburgh event is a Big problem for Arnold and Columbus.
Bodybuilding Industry is Watching Closely as Jim Manion’s Event Gets the Attention of Top Sponsors and Athletes.
Arnold Schwarzenegger has been organizing the Arnold Classic since 1989, but most of the attention lately has been on what Jim Manion is building in Pittsburgh with his inaugural Pittsburgh Power & Fitness Festival, a major IFBB Pro League championship event.
Arnold has talked about a prize money increase. At the same time, Jim Manion will include open bodybuilding as a headline event, with $100,000 going to the open bodybuilding winner and big prize money announced in other divisions as well.
While there might be a big gap between Columbus and Pittsburgh now, it’s expected that the Manions will not take too long before they build something big, posing a major threat to what Arnold’s team is doing.
Up until now, the Arnold Sports Festival has been the number two event of the year, trailing the Olympia Weekend, which has a prize fund of over $2 million per year for all the athletes and the prestige of the Olympia title.
While some people on the inside at the Arnold Sports Festival allegedly want to believe they have the best event, they fail to admit that not only are they number two, but they soon could fall behind Jim Manion’s revamped Pittsburgh event.
The Arnold Sports Festival cannot be compared to the Olympia Weekend for many reasons. One reason is that all Pro League events qualify athletes from every division for the Olympia Weekend, while the Arnold Classic is an invitational, one of many Olympia qualifiers, and only supports a few divisions.
While Brian Powers, Executive Director of World Championship Events Inc., is allegedly always trying to compare the Arnold to the Olympia, he and Arnold should keep an eye on the Pittsburgh event in hopes of holding on to their spot as the number two event.
Some of the top bodybuilders in the world have already decided to skip the Arnold Classic, and compete at the event in Pittsburgh. This is a dangerous trend for Arnold.
Arnold Schwarzenegger might be one of the most popular bodybuilders in the history of the sport, but the majority of pro athletes see Jim Manion as the “Father of Bodybuilding”, a person that helped athletes make a living from bodybuilding.
The Pittsburgh Power & Fitness Festival is Building Something Big.
Jim Manion is one of the most powerful men in the bodybuilding industry. Manion has been the President of the NPC since the early 80s and eventually became President of the Pro League, having total control over NPC amateur and professional events.
Manion also has his own event in his hometown, which is known as the Pittsburgh Pro. Up to 2024, this event catered to amateur and professional athletes, but open bodybuilding was never included as a main event.
The best bodybuilders in the world would guest pose at the event, but that’s as far as it went.
Professional bodybuilders know the importance of their appearance, as it keeps the big boss, Jim Manion happy.
In 2024, it was announced that the Pittsburgh Pro would be revamped in 2025 to the Pittsburgh Power & Fitness Festival.
The new event will include more professional bodybuilding and fitness events, which also include a substantial increase in prize money. Strongman, Powerlifting, and Martial Arts events will also be included, meaning this event will be very similar to the Arnold Sports Festival.
Another important addition to this event is Men’s Open Bodybuilding, which will also be a 2025 Mr. Olympia qualifier, just like the Arnold.
A prize fund of $100,000 will be won by the Open Bodybuilding winner, which is a substantial prize, for the first edition of this event.
Jim Manion’s grandson, NPC/Pro League vice-president, Tyler Manion, has been promoting this event heavily, making sure that it will be a success.
Several sponsors have allegedly left the Arnold Sports Festival and have now shown their faith in Jim Manion, and decided to pump money into his event.
Another secret weapon that Manion has is Bob Lorimer, Arnold’s former partner. Arnold worked with Jim Lorimer, Bob’s father, for over 40 years, but between 2020 and 2021, Arnold severed ties with the Lorimer family and replaced them with Brian Powers.
Bob Lorimer has made it obvious on his social media, posting several messages to support the Pittsburgh event, ignoring it, and showing absolutely no support for Arnold’s event.
Sources close to Evolutionofbodybuilding.net, report that Bob Lorimer will oversee Pittsburgh’s expo.
Arnold will surely not be happy seeing his former partner working with Jim Manion, the same person Arnold has to allegedly pay substantial sanction fees to use Jim Manion’s athletes for his event.
Arnold Schwarzenegger – The Arnold Sports Festival
Arnold Schwarzenegger promotes the Arnold Sports Festival. This event was one of the biggest in the industry a few years ago, with events taking place in the USA, Spain, England, Brazil, Australia, Asia, and Africa.
After the split between the IFBB President Dr. Rafael Santonja and NPC/Pro League President Jim Manion in 2017, the Arnold Sports Festival was sanctioned between the two federations.
At first, IFBB President Dr. Rafael Santonja organized the Arnold Sports Festival in Europe, Africa, and Brazil, while Jim Manion sanctioned the events in the USA, Australia, and eventually the UK.
After a few years, the promoters of the Arnold Sports Festival Brazil switched over to Jim Manion, and the Arnold Sports Festival UK was created in 2021, leaving Dr. Rafael Santonja with the Arnold Classic Europe and Africa.
After the pandemic, the events in Africa ended after 2022, and the event in Australia was never organized again, leaving Jim Manion with the USA, UK, and Brazil events, while Rafael Santonja continued to organize the second-biggest Arnold Sports Festival in Spain.
The Arnold Sports Festival UK was a nightmare for Arnold Schwarzenegger. After having two events in 2021 and 2022, cracks started to allegedly appear in the relationship between the British promoters and Brian Powers.
Between 2021 and 2022, Arnold Schwarzenegger cut ties with the Lorimer family, his partner from the first events he organized in the late seventies till 2021.
Arnold went on the create a new company, World Championship Events Inc., and he hired Brian Powers to take over from the Lorimers.
Allegedly, former Arnold Sports Festival partner Bob Lorimer signed a non-compete agreement, to not organize any bodybuilding event or expo for several years, which allegedly came to an end in 2024.
In 2022 the Arnold Classic UK promoter Stephen Olexy, was removed, which resulted in the event not taking place in 2023, to finally return in 2024 under Brian Powers, Global Executive Director of World Championship Events Inc.
Read More: “Arnold didn’t show up” – Former Arnold Sports Festival UK Promoter
Fast forward to 2024, and the only events that remain are the USA, Brazil, the UK, and Spain.
Allegedly, the Global Executive Director for the Arnold Sports Festival, Brian Powers, is very close to NPC/Pro League President Jim Manion, who sanctions the Arnold Sports Festival USA, Brazil, and the UK. Unfortunately, the second biggest event, the Arnold Sports Festival Europe, which is heading into its 15 year in 2025, and is sanctioned under the IFBB, is allegedly not given the promotion it deserves by Brian Powers on all of the Arnold Sports Festival’s Social Media channels.
Heading into the 2025 season, there is a great possibility that the Arnold event in the UK will not be organized, leaving Arnold Schwarzenegger with only three events, which will be in the USA, Brazil, and Spain.
Read More: 2025 Arnold Classic UK – No dates on 2025 contest calendar
Arnold will not be happy with Bob Lorimer supporting Jim Manion
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jim Manion, cannot organize these events alone; they need help from experienced promoters who have vast experience in organizing bodybuilding and fitness events.
As mentioned at the beginning of this article, Arnold Schwarzenegger worked closely with Jim Lorimer and then his son Bob Lorimer since the late 70s.
Between 2020 and 2021, Arnold Schwarzenegger shockingly severed his agreement with the Lorimer family, ending over 40 years of work together, by allegedly buying them out.
Arnold immediately hired Brian Powers to take over the reins to organize his events. Brian is an accountant by trade, who has never promoted a bodybuilding event before.
It was rumored that Bob Lorimer would create another event in Columbus, Ohio, but what not many people did not know is that Lorimer agreed to stay away from the sport as a promoter for several years.
According to sources close to Evolutionofbodybuilding.net, the relationship between Arnold and the Lorimer family is allegedly completely severed.
Bob Lorimer’s recent actions made it more evident that he forgot about his former event, the Arnold Classic, after he published several posts praising the Olympia Weekend in recent years.
Lorimer has also praised Jake Wood for increasing the Mr. Olympia prize fund in 2024, never mentioning Arnold’s planned increase in prize money a few months before.
It seemed that Bob Lorimer was out of the industry for good, until Jim Manion launched the 2025 Pittsburgh Power & Fitness Festival.
Jim Manion would need the best people in the industry to work behind the scenes, especially if he wants to challenge the Arnold Classic to become the second-biggest event in bodybuilding and fitness.
Allegedly, Jim Manion hired the services of Arnold’s former friend and partner, Bob Lorimer.
The rumor that Bob Lorimer is working with Jim Manion was strengthened, when a press release that was sent to all the media about the Pittsburgh event was signed by Matt Lorz, Bob Lorimer’s Communication Director at his former company “Classic Productions”.
As it looks, Bob Lorimer allegedly hired his former team, who were allegedly released from their duties at “Classic Productions”, between 2021 and 2022.
How will this affect the relationship between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jim Manion?
Jim Manion allegedly hired Bob Lorimer, Arnold’s former partner, to organize the 2025 Pittsburgh Power & Fitness Festival, an event that can easily rival or surpass the Arnold Classic USA in popularity with athletes and fans.
The move by Manion to allegedly hire Bob Lorimer, is a sign that he wants to eventually surpass the Arnold Classic USA.
It must be noted that the events are just over two months apart, and a short 2-hour car ride between Columbus and Pittsburgh. The 2025 Arnold Classic USA is scheduled for February 27 to 2nd March, while the 2025 Pittsburgh Power & Fitness Festival is scheduled for May 10-11th.
As it looks from the outside, Jim Manion and Bob Lorimer, allegedly have better relations with Jake Wood, Dan Solomon, and the Olympia Weekend.
Regardless of how Arnold and Brian Powers feel about Jim Manion, love him, or hate him, if they want to use the athletes that compete within the NPC and Pro League, they will have to continue paying Jim Manion substantial sanction fees, to use his athletes.
If Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to cut away from Jim Manion and his organization, due to the alleged partnership Manion made with Lorimer, his only other option is to affiliate his events with the IFBB and IFBB President Dr. Rafael Santonja or just shut down the event forever.
Legends fade and new stars shine – Can Arnold Schwarzenegger continue to stay on top?
The majority of younger athletes have no idea who the bodybuilders were from the 70s, 80s, and 90s.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is still popular, but look at the age group that adore him, they are all between 40 and 60 years old.
You never hear about young athletes talking about Arnold Schwarzenegger, but they prefer to talk about Chris Bumstead, or even some social media stars, that never stepped on a competitive stage.
This is why it’s becoming a challenge for Arnold to keep his name relevant in modern-day bodybuilding. While Arnold will always remain a legend and one of the best ever, unfortunately, it does not work like that for the younger kids.
The Pittsburgh Power & Sports Festival will be launching in 2025, and it’s already establishing itself as the event that could surpass the Arnold Sports Festival in just a few years.
At 77, how long will Arnold continue his event?
Tyler Manion is young and full of energy, the ideal person to continue to expand his grandfather’s fitness empire, and the new Pittsburgh Power & Fitness Festival.
