Abbott World Marathon Majors Reduces Prize Structure to Pro Runners by 35%

Obvious Trolly Response wrote:

Uhm no Ho wrote:

"You" ruin it by continually harping about "the dopers". The average person in the street could not care less.

Agreed. I'm with you - I'd like to see more doping. Ideally, it starts at a much earlier age, too. Thanks for sharing.

Yes, because those two things are morally equivalent...

amateur again wrote:

Hopeful Runner wrote:

An unfortunate step in the wrong direction for the sport.

Wrong. At last a step in the right direction for the sport which should be made amateur again i.e. prize money should be zero for the pros bar travelling and food expenses. Having prize money has encouraged the proliferation of doping to the extent that I do not watch any elite level distance races anymore. The sports needs more people like Yuki Kawauchi or Amy Bersagel not a bunch of running robots infused with EPO, testosterone, and thyroid hormones.

So you believe the professional runners should NOT be paid prize money but the amateur runners SHOULD be paid prize money??? I believe the definition of "professional" is one who makes money from their time... So your idea is to NOT PAY the professionals??? Goodness, people are so dumb.

I think better than nobody is paid prize money, or that prize money is set at a level which discourages doping and East African mercenaries. Sure people will run slower times but It will lead to more exciting and unpredictable races, and we'd see more local winners that people can identify with. This in turn would increase quality at the grassroots level

amateur again wrote:

Hopeful Runner wrote:

An unfortunate step in the wrong direction for the sport.

Wrong. At last a step in the right direction for the sport which should be made amateur again i.e. prize money should be zero for the pros bar travelling and food expenses. Having prize money has encouraged the proliferation of doping to the extent that I do not watch any elite level distance races anymore. The sports needs more people like Yuki Kawauchi or Amy Bersagel not a bunch of running robots infused with EPO, testosterone, and thyroid hormones.

What are you talking about you negative old dink.

The sport has been professional for years and is always going through an ongoing evolution of change. To encourage ,develop and keep athletes in the sport prize monies are needed. The days of racing for a bowl of stew are long gone.

You have a bone with NOP and just hate the success of their program.

Letsrun you need to have your own top 10 Marathons that we can follow. Maybe:

1. Dubai Marathon

2. London Marathon

3. New York Marathon

4. Berlin Marathon

5. Tokyo Marathon

6. Boston Marathon

7. Frankfurt Marathon

8. Shanghai Marathon

9. Amsterdam Marathon

10. Paris Marathon

The solution is simply to get rid of prize money and give appearance money to whoever they believe is worth it.

People will still show up and run Abbott WMMs even though Abbott is a bunch of douches.

You want a fun idea for a race?

1) Disqualify pacers

2) First prize is based on speed. Faster the time, bigger the payout.

3) 8 figures if you break 2 hours.

Dubai can afford to throw money away. The course is flat and fast but lacks the appropriate US-sized crowds.

Word is they are spending millions $$$ on lawyers trying to get their prize purse back from dopers.

Who is Abbott, anyway? The custard parlor?

The WMM has been highly successful as a branding exercise. Not for elites, but for the average recreational runner. It's a mark of distinction now to run all six, one people around the world pursue. The elite component, like the elite field in any of the member races, is something that helps to tie together the brand identity, but it's really about building up a steady recreational runner clientele base among the member races and keeping them from going elsewhere. You'll see one of the big Chinese marathons with 20,000+ finishers and a massive domestic market added in the next couple of years but never Dubai, which is a totally inconsequential little 2000-finisher race with no domestic market support.

You not thinking, trust me. In fact what is hurting our sport are appearance fee. Imagine if all the appearance fees would go into prize money?

Well you don't have to image that, check Dubai Marathon where they get no appearance fees, but it's the biggest paying Marathon in the world: $200 000 to each winner (woman/man). They can even offer $1 000 000 if the runner break the World Record!

Most new Star athletes start @DubaiMarathon. So think, please. How can you offer $100 000 for world record? It's a disgrace to us, really.