BAA stops John Legere, T-Mobile CEO, from giving prize money to top American.

John,

Another way I can help you is a president of USATFNE to increase the income of runners is to find prize money for the Grand Prix road race series we oversee. We give series prize money to teams for the entire series but not for individuals. If we can work together, contact me.

Tom Derderian

John Legere wrote:

Hi all

Let's be clear that my distance running support is 100% personal and has nothing to do with T-Mobile as the many times I have done similar have shown. It's a personal endeavor for me

John Legere

John , Simple solution, sign the americans run to your "team" or as an endorser of a product. Athletes will get a bonus from their respective shoe company, sports drink etc. for finishing in all types of running events. The formula is simple for your bonus program , top american places, time bonus, top ten finisher bonus. This would have nothing to do with BAA, its sponsors or bank roll.

We need bonus and or incentive options than can help emerging or developing athletes.

John Legere wrote:

Hi all

Let's be clear that my distance running support is 100% personal and has nothing to do with T-Mobile as the many times I have done similar have shown. It's a personal endeavor for me

John Legere

It's very much appreciated. Thank you.

Mods, can you check the IP of the poster posting as John Legere? Not actually him, is it? If so, that would be pretty awesome.

How would checking the IP addy confirm the poster's identity?

i can confirm its me and you can email me at

john@johnlegere.com

or I am @johnlegere on Twitter

No troll!

John Legere

Couldn't you just announce that $100,000 will be given to the fastest marathon run in the greater Boston area by an American on Patriot's Day 2015? Course must be certified and performance must be verified by video evidence. Put the money up with some type of accounting firm or legal firm so that it is guaranteed to be paid out. Just don't use the name of any official race or the organization that runs the race.

Companies do this all of the time with their advertisements. They don't have the sponsorship rights to the Super Bowl, so they talk about "the big game" or "football championship" or something instead.

Another option would be to use the $100,000 to have USATF disbanded, but that is another issue. :)

I would imagine one of the sticking points is the international management agencies. If more money were going to be injected into the purse, Volare, Demaddona, Global, etc would want a piece of it. I would imagine the BAA (who does book the elites with John Hancock's credit card) would not want to lose the support of these agencies. Otherwise London would have Kipsang, Gebremariam, G Mutai, E Mutai, Kimetto, G Kipsang, Kirui, and every other elite in one race. Sure that would be a lot more money to whatever American might win Boston, but how many years in a row could the Boston Marathon have Nick Arciniaga and Fernando Cabada battling it out before Boston would seem irrelevant? Overstatement sure, but I hope my point is clear in there.

I guess you can blame these agencies for being greedy, but you can't blame them for having a winning strategy. They put up impressive results and want as much of the pie as possible.

Some awesome alternative ideas in this thread even if Boston doesn't want your $. Awesome gesture... As a non-elite runner and fan, thank you!

Legere confirms on twitter that it is him: https://twitter.com/JohnLegere/status/584886405702127617

I'm not sure that you need to direct money to the top tier of elite American athletes. The very top are doing ok, consider funding the 2:13-6 range and there should be a larger pool of runners to push the 2:10-12 guys. You never know when the second tier gets enough consistency they could have breakthroughs. Imagine if T-Mobile did fund an Olympic Developmental Team.

Why is Tom Derderian unable to write English? Is it his second language? And the "official" Boston Marathon film? Give me a break, they already did that. Don't sound so desperate, Tom.

Johnlegere wrote:

i can confirm its me and you can email me at

john@johnlegere.com

or I am @johnlegere on Twitter

No troll!

John Legere

John, road races are great. You want to sponsor an athlete who is under appreciated, a sensation with the female fans, and media friendly?

Sign a deal to sponsor Maggie Vessey. Do a web series around her training and US and Euro seasons.

She could even design custom kits for T-Mobile!

The guys at Flotrack can connect you.

That seems a poor use of resources. The best way to improve American marathon running is to have a large prize for top American at the major marathons, provided they place top 10 overall. There are two many for one or two people to claim all the money, so this will encourage competition among the next level and push them to be the best.

It hasn't come up on here, but John did the same thing for the Carlsbad 5k recently. Reached out through twitter and it was successful. Even got a thank you via twitter from Sara Bowman (top American female).

John and others, my only advice to you is to reach out to these races sooner if you'd like to up the prize money. It's too late for Americans to change their schedule or motivations when the race is just a few weeks away. If you can put out big winnings and make an advanced announcement I bet you'd be surprised how much US talent would show up to that race.

A different idea wrote:

That seems a poor use of resources. The best way to improve American marathon running is to have a large prize for top American at the major marathons, provided they place top 10 overall. There are two many for one or two people to claim all the money, so this will encourage competition among the next level and push them to be the best.

I don't see how paying 32 year-olds large amounts of prize money to finish 10th is going to improve American marathon running.

Randy Oldman wrote:

A different idea wrote:

That seems a poor use of resources. The best way to improve American marathon running is to have a large prize for top American at the major marathons, provided they place top 10 overall. There are two many for one or two people to claim all the money, so this will encourage competition among the next level and push them to be the best.

I don't see how paying 32 year-olds large amounts of prize money to finish 10th is going to improve American marathon running.

If you add large amounts of money to the prize pool, you will attract better runners. I would not think that would be disputed.

The question is if WMM are even allowed to give out bonuses to certain nationals. I doubt it.

NYRR for example gives out prize money to overall finishers in the Marathon as well as to NYRR members. Anyone can become a NYRR member even though typically they're mostly locals - but not only US citizens.