If players in the NFL that I've never heard of can get $100 million contracts, these big marathons can put out large and deep prize purses.
Make the prize juicy enough and even Kipchoge would find a way to get on the starting line.
Give the winner $500,000 and go all the way down to $1000 for 50th place.
Throw in a few bonuses in for leading at 10k, half, and 30k.
And don't separate the elites from the masses.
Yeah, cause money grows on trees. Why stop there??? They should’ve taken the $1.9 trillion stimulus and put it on the Boston Marathon… that would do the trick, amirite?
I have never seen a race that pays less to the winner if they are a certain race or from any particular country.... If first place pays 10Grand then the winner gets ten grand whether they're from the US, Africa, China or Mars....
Or maybe the NFL needs to be more like race organizers & only pay the top 4 QBs in the league... If ur team doesn't make it to the Conference Championship that year you just don't get paid. LOL
The appearance fees can vary, along with other restrictions. Some appearance fees are guaranteed but the athlete isn't allowed to run any other marathon within a certain time period after the race (so that they don't drop out and save themselves for a different race in two weeks as a backup plan). Others are 100% if they run under a modest time standard and 50-75% if they have a bad race.
What I don't like is how the appearance fees have gotten to the point where most people get more money from their appearance fee than the actual prize money. The person who runs the fastest often does not get the most money. It has gotten to the point where a lot of people are getting twice as much appearance fee money or more as they earn from actual prize money. People who have one good race a long time ago milk that appearance fee for years instead of that money going to the overall prize money and letting the current fast people to win it. African runners who typically win the overall race are getting the short end of the stick because they are often offered less prize money because they are a dime a dozen and the coordinators don't want to give them a lot of appearance fee money unless they're a past champion or an olympic medalist.
I wish appearance fees would be done away with and the races should beef up the advertised prize money amounts.
Spoken by someone who has never earned an appearance fee, and like you would turn it down if offered?
You only get an appearance fee if you're worth it, and you should take it when you can.
Appearance money is just that, you get paid to show up. If you bogart the race just to get appearance money, you most likely won't get any more appearance money in the future. I don't think that's what Molly did. Boston can be a very unforgiving course and a smart runner knows when to drop out and try again elsewhere.
What I don't like is how the appearance fees have gotten to the point where most people get more money from their appearance fee than the actual prize money. The person who runs the fastest often does not get the most money. It has gotten to the point where a lot of people are getting twice as much appearance fee money or more as they earn from actual prize money. People who have one good race a long time ago milk that appearance fee for years instead of that money going to the overall prize money and letting the current fast people to win it. African runners who typically win the overall race are getting the short end of the stick because they are often offered less prize money because they are a dime a dozen and the coordinators don't want to give them a lot of appearance fee money unless they're a past champion or an olympic medalist.
This is the most true thing ever written on this site. There could be a PhD thesis on this trend and its causes and implications
Except it is wrong on multiple accounts.
Prize money is fixed. It is not based on race or ethnic background.
Appearance fees similar to salaries in other sports. The highest paid players in sports don’t always win the most. Salary is not 100% commission based. Incentives? Of course.
As for appearance fees not being justified, until I am the one paying the appearance fees, I’m not going to tell a Marathon who they should spend money on. If they are smart they will give appearance fees to some people who have name recognition, and to some who will run fast times. And it appears that is exactly what most races do.
Shades of "Flight of the Concords." After Jermaine Clement spends his entire per diem and his manager tells him that the amount was alloted for the entire weak, he says: "They shouldn't call it a per diem...they should call it a per weekem!"
This is the most true thing ever written on this site. There could be a PhD thesis on this trend and its causes and implications
Except it is wrong on multiple accounts.
Prize money is fixed. It is not based on race or ethnic background.
Appearance fees similar to salaries in other sports. The highest paid players in sports don’t always win the most. Salary is not 100% commission based. Incentives? Of course.
As for appearance fees not being justified, until I am the one paying the appearance fees, I’m not going to tell a Marathon who they should spend money on. If they are smart they will give appearance fees to some people who have name recognition, and to some who will run fast times. And it appears that is exactly what most races do.
Yup. Des didn't get an appearance fee because she was going to be in the top 5, either. It's based on her personality and getting on podcasts, doing interviews, etc., about the race.
Requiring a finish in order to collect an appearance fee is pretty sickening. Outside of sponsor dollars, marathoners only get to make money when they race, which for most is two fulls a year and maybe a few other lesser 1/2s and other road races. Seidel aggravated a hip injury and would have had to risk a very long and serious injury in order to finish the race. Requiring a finish basically puts runners in a position where they have to risk their professional careers just to secure a paycheck.
Sickening? Talk about hyperbole.
This is the most absurd thing ever posted on LR. You realize running is her actual job, right? She's not an accountant. Does your job pay you just start your day? Imagine a dentist getting paid to just start your filling. They start drilling out the cavity and then just leave. Then they ask you to pay them for the entire procedure. You'd tell them to screw off immediately.
I've heard appearence fees are some times contingent on finishing or running a respectable time to prevent runners from taking them in bad faith.
Is that something that likely applied to Molly? Is it the kind of thing where lesser draws may have more strings on an appearance fee than the star? Or a race director may still pay the appearence fee to avoid pissing off a runner who they expect to have back in years to come (I'm sure the BAA wants to stay on Molly's good side)
Even with Molly dropping out, the BAA still got its money's worth out of Molly showing up to the starting line with all the publicity she generated.
If they advertise the race with you included you are getting paid for your likeness. Africans would never show up to an American marathon without guaranteed appearance money. It would be bad business. The only people who maybe wouldn't get guaranteed money would be Americans who aren't good enough to be elite yet and have contingency on placing.
Molly was heavily covered going into this race and was considered the top American. OF COURSE she gets her money.
I don't think the poster was saying an African winner would be paid less because of his ethnicity, but because money that could have been used for prize money was instead used for appearance fees. In this way, an up-and-coming (but as yet not an established star) African winner is "losing" money to a less accomplished American with more marketability.
Not saying I agree with that poster's overall point, just that's how I read his argument.
There's a difference between showing up to a marathon to half-ass it just to collect an appearance fee, and then showing up to compete and having something go wrong that merits dropping out. I can't really think of any scenarios where a runner has ever done the former. Molly was clearly trained and prepared for the race, put in several 130+ mile weeks and has had a great marathon record thus far. She also ran as far as she could once her hip injury unexpectedly set in, making it to 16 miles before withdrawing to not cause irreparable damage and jeopardize her future career. I would say she definitely put in the work for the appearance fee, even if she was unlucky with how the race panned out for her this time.
Also, we are here discussing her race and giving it attention which is the publicity the Boston Marathon would want from its choice of competitors, anyways.
Molly is actively trying to win the marathon. She is paid an appearance fee based on all of the hype that a potential winner generates.
Des is no longer competitive and is slowly transitioning to a role of garnering appearance money for what she once was. It generates a different type of attention.