Transcript of World Marathon Majors Teleconference
January 23, 2006
 Editor's Note: This is the transcript of the teleconference discussing the formation of the World Marathon Majors Series.

      RICHARD FINN:  Thank you very much.  This is Richard Finn with the ING New York City Marathon talking to you from London, where earlier this morning we had a news conference here to announce the World Marathon Majors.  With me here and available to speak, and will be speaking very shortly, are Dave Bedford, race director of the Flora London Marathon, Mark Milde from the real,-Berlin Marathon, and the world record holder in the marathon, Paul Tergat.

      Boston.

      JACK FLEMING:   My name is Jack Fleming.  I will be trying to serve as moderator on this side.  We have the directors of Boston's marathon, Guy Morse; the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon Carey Pinkowski; ING New York City Marathon, Mary Wittenberg; and Olympic silver medalist Meb Keflezighi.

      Go ahead, Dave Bedford.

      DAVE BEDFORD:  Hello to everyone.  We've had quite an exciting day here.  Without completely repeating the press conference, if I just let you understand what we announced, everything we announced today was the end of a three-year journey where we've been discussing the future of marathon running, our sport of marathon running, with Berlin, Boston, Chicago and New York over a number of years.

      We, of course, have massive differences in our events.  Boston, 109 years old, London the baby at 25 years old.  One thing that brings us together is we're all very serious about our business.  This is what we do.  As well as our marathons, we organize other events throughout the year.  We believe that we are the people that represent the top echelon of marathon running.

      World Marathon Majors is a group who will continue to work on a number of activities to make sure that the interest and experience the people who run in our marathons have is of the top quality.  We will be looking at aspects like medical provision, how we deal with the media, sponsorship, timing, and other technical sides, including how our sport of marathon running is seen by the world, generally speaking.

      Until this morning, we were known colloquially as the Big Five.  We're not the Big Five any more.  We are World Marathon Majors.  We are at the moment a group of five marathons, but we are not exclusive.  As we see people out there who meet our own aims and ambitions and standards, we will clearly invite them to join us in this most exciting development in our sport.

      We also announced today the idea that we need to further promote our sport a series, World Marathon Majors Series, a competition.  It is a competition currently for elite athletes.  It may subsequently be unfurled to fun runners and club runners throughout the world, as well.  The competition is based on a two-year cycle.  The first cycle will be 2006 and 2007, starting in Boston on April the 17th, and finishing in November 2007 in New York.

      Runners will be able to score points in each of our races, and in addition also score points in the World Championships and the Olympic Games when they follow in that two-year cycle.  So in most years there will be six races:  our five, and either the World Championships or the Olympic Games - and then in one year, as indeed this year, there will just be the five of us.

      We have incidentally had significant support from the IAAF, who believe that the introduction of this project is something that will help our sport.  Runners will be able to score points in both male and female categories:  25 points if they are the winner, 15 second, 10 third, 5 fourth and 1 fifth.  We've tried to keep this concept simple so it's easy to follow.

      It also recognizes that marathons are different, times are different, but this is about competition, head-to-head competition.  Athletes will be allowed to have a maximum of four scores across that two-year period, and runners will have to have taken part in at least three of our qualifying races, our five and the Olympics and the World Championships.

      If at the end of that there is a tie, we will have a countback on head-to-head, who beat who where, in order to establish who is our winner.  If that still gives us an equal tie, we will have something incredibly democratic and safe.  The race directors of the five World Marathon Majors will have a secret ballot, moderated by an independent, who will establish who we believe is the person that satisfies and achieves the title of World Marathon Majors Series Champion.

      Of course, with all such competitions, we need to have something to hang this by.  We are a professional sport.  We are a sport that requires our champions to train hard, work hard and run hard.  We see them as professionals in the way that any other professional sport would do so.

      We announced today an initial prize fund of $1 million.  This prize fund will be split $500,000 to the top man in our competition, $500,000 to our top woman.  We are seeking a sponsor for this series.  And, indeed, we have invited AMS, who are the IAAF's marketing partners, to seek a sponsor for us for this competition, a sponsor that will add quality, strength, support and of course finance.  We are hoping that in a very short period of time we will be able to announce that our initial $1 million prize fund is doubled to $2 million on an annual basis where the top man and top woman will receive $1 million in prize money.

      We believe that this is the most exciting thing that's happened in our sport of marathon running for some time.  Certainly judging by the response that we got today at our press conference today here in London, that is certainly the case.  And that, if you like, brings everyone together I think on the same sheet of paper.  That is what we've announced today.

      RICHARD FINN:  Thank you, Dave.

      I would like to let Mark Milde, the director of the real,-Berlin Marathon, say a few words.

      MARK MILDE:  Thank you.  I think Dave had said it all.  There's not much more to add.  We are excited to be a part of this group and working together with these I would say formal five individual marathons who will stay individual, of course, but maybe experience some new opportunities in the way of how we're working together.  Berlin will be the third stage in the 2006 season, and we're looking forward to it.

      RICHARD FINN:  Thank you, Mark.

      Just a quick follow up from Dave Bedford.

      DAVE BEDFORD:  Just for clarification, we have announced today the start of the first cycle starting in Boston on April the 17th, the 2006 and 2007 cycle.  That, of course, will immediately be followed up by the 2007 and 2008 cycle.  So the second year in the first cycle becomes the first year in the second cycle, and therefore in a very short period of time, we will have an annual prize fund and annual award for our World Marathon Majors Champion of the year.

      RICHARD FINN:  Thank you, Dave.

      Now I would like to introduce and put on the line very quickly, Paul Tergat, the reigning world record holder.

      PAUL TERGAT:  Thank you very much.  Especially from the athlete's side, marathon is always a very tough competition.  We had been really waiting for this thing to take off for some time.

      One thing that we have to remember is that, being in a marathon, I have competed for many years, especially on the track.  I went to the mid road racing and cross-country.  When I came into the marathon, I realized it was a very different and difficult competition.  We have never had to have the (indiscernible) similar to what we have had in cross-country where we had cross challenge.  But when it comes to road racing and the marathon, it was a very different thing altogether.

      Now it has come up through the initiative that the directors of the London, Berlin, Boston, Chicago and New York, has given us an opportunity now to focus more, especially at the top level, so that whoever wants to win, (indiscernible) so that they can be able to compete.

      Again, we have realized that we are competing for a mission, dawning our national colors.  We also have the opportunity in terms of the points, if you win the Olympics or World Championship, it counts also, can also add to points to qualify for these prestigious competition and prizes.

      RICHARD FINN:  Thank you very much, Paul.

      I'd like now to turn it over to Jack in Boston for the race directors in Boston.  Jack.

      JACK FLEMING:  Thanks, Richard.

      We'll just go right into it.  Guy Morse, executive director of the BAA Boston Marathon.

      GUY MORSE:  Good afternoon, everybody, this is Guy from Boston, the other side of the pond, where we had an equally exciting press conference this morning, which was well-received in spite of the snowstorm that we're suffering through at the moment.

      We did have some very exciting news to share with everyone, as David mentioned when he opened.  We're in a very important moment in our history, both in terms of our events independently and also as a sport.  We take great pride in a announcing the World Marathon Majors and the World Marathon Majors Series.  We think it's just the first in many steps that are going to benefit our sport.

      Obviously, having the likes of Paul here and Meb, who will be competing for the very first points for this World Marathon Series.  Beyond that, as our relationship grows and as the series grows, we just see an incredible amount of excitement building over time, certainly these first two years.  But our intent is that this is a long-term project that will benefit not only the elite athletes and our own collective and individual sports, but also the sport as a whole.

      We expect areas to benefit including greater competition, of course, at the start, also greater support from sponsors yet to be named as we move forward.  Looking at all of the logistics of our events that are common to all of us, whether it's timing and scoring, or our medical care and feeding of the athletes, various promotions of our sport, of which this is just the first step that we announced today, and also athlete development, both at Meb and Paul's level, but also at the very beginning levels of our youth.  We are already beginning to talk about ways to collaborate at the very early ages to help with the fitness of our next generation of athletes.

      So all of these things are part and parcel to this announcement, and we'll look forward to working on all of those initiatives in the months and years ahead.

      JACK FLEMING:  Next is Mary Wittenberg, race director of the ING New York City Marathon and CEO of the New York Road Runners.

      MARY WITTENBERG:  Thank you, Jack.  Hello to everybody.  I think my colleagues before me have laid it out quite well.  Listen, there's a million dollars more in the sport today than there was yesterday.  Today we just announced some combination of our sports NEXTEL Cup, Grand Slam, Triple Crown.  On the other side, the 24-second clock, three-point line.  What's not to like?  I think we'll look back at this moment, January 23rd, as a time and a day that helped shape the destiny of the future of our sport.

      We're all thrilled to be part of it.  I think it's a perfect time to hand it to our colleague Carey Pinkowski of the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon.

      CAREY PINKOWSKI:  Just to reiterate what was so well-articulated by Dave and my predecessors here on the conference call is the fact that this has been an ongoing process and discussions first initially informally and then formally.  To come together for this collaboration with the series is exciting for me.  As a former athlete and a race director and a fan of the sport, I think this is one piece of our relationship that will elevate the sport, but also I think there's a lot of other things on the drawing board, some concepts and some ideas and exchange of information that will continue to elevate and create some opportunities in our industry.

      For me the series is wonderful, but I think there's a lot of things to come and a lot of opportunity working with this group.  For us, with the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon, it's an honor to be involved with these organizers, events and other great cities.  We've had a great relationship and we've been colleagues and friends, and I think collectively we'll be doing some wonderful things in the future.

      JACK FLEMING:  Thanks, Carey.  It was announced last week by John Hancock for the Boston Marathon that Olympic silver medalist Meb Keflezighi will be running this April's race.  He was at our press conference in Boston.  Sitting here at the table, as well.

      Meb, could you say a few words.

      MEB KEFLEZIGHI:  I'm definitely excited to be here, to be the first kickoff of the Boston Marathon of the World Marathon Majors.  Just excited.  For an athlete, it's something to look forward to and to be competitive and to bring the best athletes in the world with the five major marathons.  I think it's a great opportunity, a great idea.  I'm definitely excited.  I'm pretty sure Paul is definitely excited, and the rest of the other competitors.  Thanks for having us.

      JACK FLEMING:  That's our introduction and opening statements.  If the operator could then inform anybody of any additional procedures for asking questions, we can now begin to receive questions.  You can either direct them to one person specifically or to the group in general and we can figure out who would be best appropriate to answer.  

      Q.  I wanted to get something straight.  If it's a two-year cycle, wouldn't that be 10 or 11 races?  Am I confused, if you're running each race over two years, plus the World Championships?

      DAVE BEDFORD:  Yes, I suppose in theory there could be 10 or 11 races.  But we know from experience that marathon runners will not run all the races.  In my opening comments, I said that we will score a maximum of four marathons.  So if someone runs more than four, we will only score their top four points.

      It is clear that in creating this competition, we want to maintain the integrity of our sport where runners will not run marathons just for the sake of running marathons, but they will run marathons when they are ready and able to challenge the world's best.  

      Q.  I guess what I'm getting at, if somebody is really close in the scoring, even though they've already run four or five, they might just jump in, Berlin, Chicago or New York, to try and score.  There's nothing holding them back from running more than you probably want them to, right?

      DAVE BEDFORD:  No, absolutely not.  It may well be, for example, if all of the races but one has gone, and there are two people on equal scores, it may just be that one of those people decides to have one more crack perhaps to hopefully get that extra set of points.

      With such a new concept as this, I think we have to wait and see how it beds down.  We would expect it to be very unusual that across a two-year period anyone would have any more than I would dare say a maximum of six scores, and I think more likely three or four scores would be the norm.  But we'll have to wait and see.  This is about working with the way the sport is and not changing it significantly.

      MARY WITTENBERG:  Remember, our event in the fall, our invitational-style events, we are working now on our fields.  There is not an open invitation to anybody to just run in the competitive series.  There will be some natural protections put in place.

      Only to add, again, to what Dave said, we started with the nature of our event in coming up with this series.  The marathon is as compelling as it is because it's as grueling as it is.  Our athletes are like prize fighters.  The wear and the tear on their bodies is so significant after each race, and the competition is so stiff, that the reality of running two and certainly more than three, it's very unlikely that an athlete can perform well against the competition and their body can hold together.

      If you look back many years, it holds out that this should work well.  We're doing all we can to continue to encourage high-level preparation and smart running among our marathoners.

      CAREY PINKOWSKI:  Historically, our top athletes will compete twice a year, maybe three times a year.  What this has done, obviously, is by your question is create this connection or interest of "what if" scenarios.  I think this is the first stage in accomplishing what we're trying to do.

      As you look at the profile, we've looked at the results over the past couple years, for top-flight performances in head-to-head competition, it would be difficult for athletes to run four times against the competition that are offered in this.  There will be some strategic thought to it, obviously, but I still think it will bring out the best competition.  

      Q.  Carey Pinkowski, besides kind of what you said earlier, what does Chicago hope to get out of being affiliated with this World Marathon Majors?  You've obviously done a great job over the years in putting together some great fields to compete.  Do you look to see the fields even stronger?  Basically what do you think Chicago is going to get out of being part of this?

      CAREY PINKOWSKI:  Well, we've always had a great relationship with the four other events, obviously.  We've operated independently and had success independently.  But I think collectively not only with the series but in other areas, the race experience, operations, all the things that add to our success, I think this will create a flow of information and support and obviously improve the performances of the events and create some other opportunities for other events to observe what we do.

      I think the group collectively has a lot of strengths, and I think we can improve in many different areas.  It's a sharing of experience and operational schemes and marketing schemes, all of the many facets that go into our events.  

      Q.  Anybody on the call, where is the funding coming from in terms of are each of the individual marathons kicking in a certain amount of money to reach that $1 million mark right now?  How is it being funded right now?

      MARK MILDE:  Well, at the moment the fund stands at $1 million US.  Every race is paying an equal share.  But of course we hope with a sponsor getting into this series or getting with the World Marathon Majors, there might be even more money to distribute to the athletes.

      Our aim would be to pay $1 million to each runner, male and female, every year.  

      Q.  Paul, Meb, do you think this is going to spread the talent out among the races more?  In other words, if word gets out that there's a loaded field, say, for Berlin, you look and say, "Even a good race, I'm going to have a hard time being in the top five, maybe I'll change my plans to run Chicago where it's not as deep this year and I have a better chance to pick up some Grand Prix points there"?

      PAUL TERGAT:  One thing I've wanted to say is the most important thing is when we are planning our races, we don't plan in three months, so we always have at least six months so you can be able to know exactly what competition is going to compete.  So I want to assure you that we will be able to see a lot of top athletes, the top runners who love to compete in this series, trying to come in and more excitingly we'll all want to, but especially when it comes to a competition like this.

      Everybody will be coming in to make sure they will compete.  There will be a lot of talent that we are yet able to realize now that will be joining this competition and we'll have a lot of (indiscernible) in their future.

      MEB KEFLEZIGHI:  In terms of the racing, like Paul said, you definitely have to plan which marathon you're going to run.  Usually we never know who is in it or who is not.  We definitely want to see the best in the world.  That's the whole point.  We have five major marathons.  They're not all at the same time or all in the spring or fall.  It's just your preparation for which you want to pick your race on.  For example, you know I was the 39th guy going into the Olympics, but you believe and you work hard in what you're doing and the results will take care of itself.  That's what marathon is.  It's not who's going to be there or who's not.  You just be prepared as much as you can and let that race begin.  

      Q.  Dave Bedford, with the way that the scoring -- the way I'm understanding, each race is treated equally, including the World Championships, one of the things I see is that it's making competition the most important aspect of this series as opposed to fast times.  Is that the way that you read it, as well?

      DAVE BEDFORD:  Yes, I do up to a point.  I think it's fair to say that the unique thing about this collaboration is that each of the races within it, including the World and the Olympic Games, are all able within the competition to show their own personality.  I think that the one thing that we're trying to achieve here is the promotion of our sport and not just assuming that everyone knows automatically what's going to happen beforehand.

      We in London have a number of different things that we do from time to time, and indeed so do other races.  It was only two years ago that New York for the first time had their women running separately from their men.  This is about allowing the individual racers to have their own soul, their own personality, but all of those different spirits to come together and achieve a great success within this series.  

      Q.  Carey, one of the things you've been very successful at, speaking about the races' different personalities, I think you treat the common runner very well.  You have also pushed marathons to very fast marathons.  Do you see by pushing world records and pushing fast times, does it lessen your need for great competition?

      CAREY PINKOWSKI:  Oh, I think a lot of that has to do with the chemistry of the athletes at any given time.  We were very fortunate in Chicago to have Moses Tanui and Khalid Khannouchi meet in really great form and really went head-to-head which resulted in a world record.

      That's a tough thing to really analyze.  It depends.  There's so many factors that go into this.  I mean, the preparation, the planning of the athletes.  You know, what I've tried to do is to bring athletes from the track, the 5,000 and 10,000 meter runners.  We've had success with that.

      It just depends on what type of athletes are out there and which ones are deciding to run.  We have a great philosophy in Chicago of a balance.  We surely love to have great athletes run in Chicago and run fast.  The course provides that opportunity.  But we also have a great staff and organization and sponsors led by the LaSalle Bank that make sure that our experience, the race-day experience, is equally important whether you run three hours or four hours or five hours or six hours.  We won't change that philosophy obviously.  It's been working for us.  But obviously some of the guys that are running on the track now are very talented.  When they make their move to the marathon, it should bring some new excitement to the event.  

      Q.  Dave, you commented in your opening statement that this group of five marathons is open to expansion if a marathon were to meet your aims and ambitions.  I was wondering what the criteria is for expansion and what are you really looking for in a marathon to join this series.

      DAVE BEDFORD:  It's a good question, indeed a question that we were asked at our press conference by a fairly large Japanese contingent that were here.

      I suppose I remember that these kind of things must be dealt with by the group subsequently.  But I think what brings us together as a group is the fact that we are a series of mass participation races.  As well as being mass participation, we are male and female clearly.  We have significant elite men's and women's fields.  Yes, perhaps we have history, and not everyone has history.  As I said earlier, Boston is 109 years old, we're 25 years old.  That doesn't mean to say that someone who is one or two or three years old can't join.  What we do have, we have spectators on the course, more than five million across our field.  We have 250 million TV audience in 150 countries.  Between us we have 300,000 applicants, 150,000 participants, and most of us also run significant charity programs.

      I would say that if we were going to invite someone to join World Marathon Majors, we would be seeking people who see life the way we do and recognize that we are major cities with major races, with major press and TV interest.  Yes, of course, we would invite someone that met that criteria as soon as they were there.

      GUY MORSE:  To echo Dave's point, we are open to an addition in the future.  But like this very series that we've now announced, we're approaching this very cautiously, very methodically.  Any criteria that we develop will be developed over time in the future.  We're not looking to do anything that's going to cause us harm either individually or for the elite athletes or for the sport.  So whatever conditions we set up for future involvement are very much going to be the result of hard work on all of our parts over time and also feedback over this first series date.  

      Q.  Less a journalism question, more from the standpoint of a television partner that we are with Carey Pinkowski at the Chicago event.  I would like to ask if you've considered whether you might want to put together some kind of a video package from each of your respective races each year and supply footage to help the rest of us in the five cities do the best possible job telling the story, and in formats that work in each respective market.

      MARY WITTENBERG:  We're already on our way.  This year, we were the most recent race, the ING New York City Marathon.  We worked with each of the other races and we included in our television show clips from each of the races this year, as well as an interview with Dave.  We provided sort of a highlight and preview of our relationship going forward.  We look forward from a TV content perspective, from website content, from our race programs, to involving reports, updates from our respective races.  This is all built around cultivating a fan base that's bigger and greater than it is now.  So the more we can do to promote each other and use our (indiscernible) vehicles, we will.

      I also will add that international TV is a big deal to all of us.  We're currently seen by over 250 million viewers each spring and each fall.  Together we're also looking at markets that we're not currently in.  We want these races seen in every corner of the globe.  

      Q.  I've been looking at the points and the years.  According to what Dave said in his addendum, the year 2007 will be applied to both the 2006 and '7 span, and the 2007 and 2008 span.  Is that correct, Dave?

      DAVE BEDFORD:  Yes, that's correct.  

      Q.  That means that somebody, just figuring probably 60 points, would be pretty dominant.  If somebody bunched it up in 2007 and scored 60 or more points, he or she wouldn't have to score anything in 2008 to win both of those two year spans, is that correct?

      DAVE BEDFORD:  It's correct up to a point.  One of the conditions that people who had a press pack also have seen is that within the four maximum scores, at least one of those has to be in each of the two years of the series cycle.  

      Q.  In other words, you'd have to run or score points, you mean?

      DAVE BEDFORD:  Correct.  What you couldn't do is score points in one year only and have that -- and rest on your laurels for the second year.  

      Q.  You have to score points.  I see.

      JACK FLEMING:  Let me ask Mary to make a clarification.

      MARY WITTENBERG:  Just to clarify, we're focused on participation, that an athlete must participate in a race in each of the two years of the series.  The reality is, if an athlete is so dominant in that overlap, yes, they have an opportunity to win both years.  Then the next year in 2008, when hopefully we continue on to the future, it will again be the case.  

      Q.  On the TV question, why not just go for a worldwide television contract, something like golf or tennis has?  Right now we're watching the Australian Open every night here in the United States.  What is to stop someone from scoring in all four races in one year, then just showing up and jogging if participation is the only qualification and not scoring points in the second year?

      DAVE BEDFORD:  One of the benefits of our races getting together is that we can probably work towards answering what is clearly a sensible situation as far as TV coverage is concerned.

      The one difference that this is making, instead of being individual races in our own marketplace where we bump into people at marathon exhibitions, restaurants and bars, we now have a far more formal relationship with each other, and dealing with the television coverage issues is something that we are better able to do jointly rather than singly.

      JACK FLEMING:  Carey.

      CAREY PINKOWSKI:  You have to remember these are the top athletes.  Appearing at an event and jogging through it is not really part of their culture.  

      Q.  I'm just throwing it out there.

      CAREY PINKOWSKI:  Remember, there is also prize money in each of our events also.  There's that race day competition that has an added incentive.  For the top athletes, I don't think that that will be the case.

      Also, for the most part, our athletes that participate in our events receive appearance money, so there's incentives for them to perform, especially with the talent of athletes that we've seen in our events.

      DAVE BEDFORD:  It is clear that what we are actually very good at is putting on the greatest marathons in the world.  We have given the launch of this series our best shot with what we know.  We are bright people and we will be able as the series develops to introduce any additional rules and regulations that protect the integrity of this competition.  That is what we will do.

      We are not trying to answer all of the questions immediately, just tell you the strategy for making marathon running the greatest sport certainly in athletics and up there with many of the other world leading sports.  

      Q.  My question has to do with the fact that there are just at this point two spring marathons and many more fall marathons.  If someone starts the year very strong in one of those two marathons, they have an excellent jump, is there a thought of specifically adding any other spring marathons or do you think the fact there are just two spring ones will or won't play a role in the entire result?

      DAVE BEDFORD:  One of the things that we do not want to do here is significantly dilute the impact of the series.  If there was currently a spring marathon that we felt met the criteria that we discussed in a previous question, we would almost certainly be there.

      Remember, this is the start of a series.  There will be without doubt in the years to come other races that join.  But we believe that at the end of the day this is a two-year cycle, and there are ample opportunities for people to score points both spring, summer at major championships, and in the autumn or the fall.  We will monitor and see how this develops.  

      Q.  I'm interested in your comments on how you think this will elevate the sport of marathon running in the big picture of competition with other sports.

      GUY MORSE:  That's one of the driving forces behind our thinking, is the fact that this sport needs that sort of integrity and that sort of competition among and between ourselves.  As we said, each event remains fiercely independent, and that's important.  But we just think that working together and allowing this series and points to take place will just create much more interest, both from the spectators who are reading and watching these events, but also from the press for speculating just about what athletes are going to be competing where and what are their chances and that sort of thing.  It becomes almost a handicapping of sorts as you look to the competition.

      That discussion in general is going to raise all votes, so to speak, in the terms of interest in this series and the sport in general.

      HORST MILDE:  I think for the marathon running perhaps, only in Germany, it's a big chance to develop running in Germany because we look forward to see what happens in the US, and then five or some years later we are going on the same way in Germany.

      CAREY PINKOWSKI:  It just connects the five events.  I mean, there's some interest.  Obviously we have a great deal of exposure and excitement around our events.  It peaks around the events and then falls a little bit.  This hopefully will connect us and keep more of a mainstream or a broader based interest in the event where it connects the competition to the next stop, to the next major.

      GUY MORSE:  Just to follow up on that.  It does create an even higher level of competition among the athletes and among our events.  It also creates more intrigue.  I think it's good for the sport, more intrigue and more "what ifs" that will be very positive in that regard.

      DAVE BEDFORD:  I think Carey just about got there with that.  At the moment we are viewed as major city marathons, but there appears to be no consistency, no understanding why these things happen.  They appear to be things that currently happen in our own marketplaces.  "Isn't that amazing, they have one, too."

      I think the real strength of the series is that for the first time there is a way that major city marathons can be viewed on an annual and biannual basis as having a direct link with each other, and the person that competes in London and the result from London has a major bearing on what happens next either in the Championships in the summer or indeed in the autumn fall marathons.  I think it's that connectivity that makes this work.

      MARY WITTENBERG:  This component of working together is athlete-driven.  Sports around the world are athlete-driven.  We think our athletes are among the greatest athletes in the world.  The more recognition to our great athletes, the better.

      Right now our athletes strive to win our individual races.  They strive to break records.  This gives them the opportunity to strive to be the world's greatest marathoner and win the series.  We hope what results is that the fans and the media are watching our leaderboard and they become familiar with the names of our top athletes competing in these races in a way that our sport will benefit in the way other sports have with the dominance of top athletes and rivalries among top athletes.  

      Q.  This is really, from my perspective, elevating the city-wide marathons to the level of the World Championships and the Olympic Games, the IAAF events.  I'm just wondering if you can talk a little bit more about the IAAF's incentive to participate and your discussions with them.

      DAVE BEDFORD:  I've been heavily involved over the two years involving the IAAF in the discussions.  As you know, I sit on the IAAF cross-country and road running commission.  Although I haven't dealt with this matter in there, I've managed to use the relationships with the general secretary and Lamine Diack, the president, in furthering the rationale behind our structure.

      It is clear to us and clear to many people that the competition levels that many of our World Marathon Majors reach is similar at times to the competition situation that people meet in World Championships and Olympic Games.  We would not attempt to develop the series without the support of the IAAF.  We believe that it is absolutely right that we recognize the World Championships, Olympic Games as a major part of our sport.  And equally it is absolutely right that the IAAF recognize that we are competing at a level equal in standard to those.

      They have been incredibly supportive all the way through.  They understand the concept.  They have advised us and suggested adjustments to our thinking as we've gone through this deliberation period that brings us to today.  And I think that instead of talking about a sport that is divided with people walking away from the center, this is a great example of how professional races properly managed can work with and can integrate with the rest of the sport.

      GUY MORSE:  Just a quick point beyond that, a good example of the cooperativeness and how this is benefitting all of us, certainly Boston in particular, through this process and with the support of the IAAF involved in this new series, the IAAF has removed the restriction of Boston being a competitive race, as you know, where the finishers, the top 20 finishers at Boston, will automatically qualify for the Games.  That's a huge win for us, and it certainly shows the commitment on a broad scale of the IAAF to this effort.  

      Q.  A quick nuts and bolts question.  What will the champion be called?  Is there a formal name for like a trophy?  What to we call this person?

      CAREY PINKOWSKI:  I think it's the World Marathon Major Champion.  I mean, we set up things on the drawing board obviously.  But the design of the cup or the trophy, we haven't gotten to that stage yet, I'll be honest with you.  It will be the World Marathon Majors Champion.

      DAVE BEDFORD:  I'm sitting next to someone who hopes that the champion is called Paul Tergat.  

      Q.  It seems like this is really a marketing announcement to bring attention to the sport, which is good.  You mentioned the 250 million worldwide television audience.  In the United States, the sport is basically not on television.  New York was the only marathon last year on network television, with 1.2 million people watching that.  What are the other plans to get the races on network television or live television on cable like Boston?  London is nonexistent here, and Berlin.

      MARY WITTENBERG:  We are always striving for additional TV exposure domesticically and internationally.  We're very fortunate to have extended local deals, five-hour shows in Boston, on several channels, in Chicago and in New York.  Boston, as you know, is also on OLN.  We do have our highlights show on NBC.  That's not good enough for any of us and we continue to work hard.

      What we're going to have to do is continue to develop for American TV great American stars.  That's why you see our focus there.  We're going to have to continue to develop worldwide this sport to be every bit as compelling and show the world how compelling it is versus other sports.  So this initiative is another step in the direction of trying to cultivate the TV opportunities.

      GUY MORSE:  As Mary said, she very nicely, eloquently described the Boston coverage.  It's intense locally and national, and it's live on OLN.  As Mary said, we're committed to striving in a variety of ways to make this interest greater.  This is one way we'll be doing that.  We'll be doing it independently among each of us, the five events.  Who knows, with this sort of interest, this sort of new series, it's going to open up all new doors for additional coverage and interest in the future.  

      Q.  We would like to know how your working together looks like in practice.  Is it purely democratic with the World Marathon Majors or is there some kind of hierarchy between you?  What does it depend on you?  Number of starters, finishers, budget, something totally else?

      DAVE BEDFORD:  There is a hierarchy.  It normally is based on who buys the beers first in the pub (laughter).

      Every single decision we have made has been made on the basis of one vote per event, in the same way as even within a group of five people there will be different races that have different strengths than others, but that none of that is important.  What is important, we are funding this initiative as equal partners.  We make our decisions as equal partners.  We have not yet made one decision leading to this position that has not been unanimous.  I think I can tell everybody that I'm delighted with the working arrangements within this group.

      JACK FLEMING:  We're all in agreement here.  That's what the race directors say.  

      Q.  The program sounds really good.  The upside, is there going to be a way to accommodate larger fields of elite athletes in these top marathons?  There will be many athletes that want to get into them.  Most of them have a ceiling somewhere between 20 and 30 athletes.  Is the ceiling for elite athletes going to be risen higher?

      CAREY PINKOWSKI:  I mean, I think it goes back to the availability, athletes and the talent pool and who wants to compete, given the timing in their schedules.  As you know, in my experience and collectively with the group, you recruit 20 athletes, and they don't -- my experience, they've not all been able to compete. There's injury.  There's disruptions in their training, whatever.  Part of the science of this is getting to the line and navigating through the competition, not only in the individual races but in the series.

      It depends.  It depends on who becomes available and who is interested in competing.  Obviously, we try to recruit the best athletes that are considering running a marathon or the top marathon runners.  You know, we always -- I don't think we've ever had, within reason, we don't take people the night before the race because there's a strategy to that.  But we try to invite as many of the top athletes as possible, given their availability.

      DAVE BEDFORD:  I agree with that.  Obviously, as this develops, there will be more calls from people who want to take part in our events.  Most of our events are already significantly oversubscribed at every single level, but we will obviously work with the sport, with the agents, in order to try and make sure that we encompass as many people as possible.

      I think it's been let to me to make some closing comments.  I think hopefully we'll look back on this day and see that today was a major step in the development of our sport of marathon running.  I think we're starting this with some great partners, some great events.  Hopefully with everyone's support we will find that we have moved forward today.  I thank everyone for their interest.

      Meb, sorry you're going to be in Boston this year.  Hope that you can make London sometime.  Paul, I'm sure that Boston would love you to be there, as well.  Thank you both for joining us, and everyone else that participated both at press conferences and on this communication network.  Thank you.

      RICHARD FINN:  Thank you, Dave.  Jack, I think we're going to have some closing statements from the three race directors in Boston.

      JACK FLEMING:  I'll give these guys an opportunity to say something if they like.  Looks like from the communication here, Dave has it.  Anything from Boston?

      GUY MORSE:  I want to reiterate what Dave said on two points.  One, this has been very much a democratic process and will continue to be so.  That's referencing an earlier question.  I worked well for us and it's the way we're going to continue to work as a group.

      Secondly, we will keep in mind it's a commitment we make to the sport and to you as journalists that we hold the integrity of the athlete in the highest regard and the integrity of our sport in the highest regard.  We will only do and change and adjust and grow this series and other things that really make it a win-win situation for everyone.  We believe we're on that right track now and we'll continue down that road.

      JACK FLEMING:  I think that's it from Boston.

      RICHARD FINN:  One final note to all the journalists on the call, a collective thank you for your attention, your coverage from all of us at all the five races.  

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