rojo wrote:
Full disclaimer. I've never been a fan of WMM expansion. It's never made sense to me why you would want to dilute your product. There aren't enough elites to go around (particularly in the fall with Worlds and Syndey) and I think we are starting to see it. I wrote an editorial at the end or 2024 on this topic that I suggest you read if you haven't: "Expanding Into Irrelevance? World Marathon Majors Expansion Is Ill-Conceived Unless They Do This."
The expansion of the WMM was never about the elite runners, Rojo. It was about the "masses of asses", ie the casual runner who are chasing the medals, the social media likes and the race directors wanting more $.
It's a marketing stunt, plain and simple, and it's working.