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

Why do you assume this would only attract wash ups? They tend to get appearance fees already, this prize money would push guys like Chris Derrick, Luke Puskedra, Ryan Vale, Patrick Smyth, Ben Saarel, Futsum Zeinasellassie, and could have prevented Lucas Verzbicas from leaving the sport.

Mass participation at lower levels is already happening, what's not happening is guys going from All American to competing on the international level.

Randy Oldman wrote:

mo money mo money wrote:

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

Like whom and what about my point about paying out more money for coming 10th?

The money would be better spent on developing the sport and making it more attractive to kids. What about youth academies as in soccer, or mentoring coaches who may not be primarily focused on t&f.

Let's say your 32 year finishes 10 and wins $10K for being top American. Maybe some 20 something sees that and realizes that if he trains for the marathon he can probably beat Mr. 32 year old. The young due finishes 6th and wins $10K. Some other 20 something sees him and thinks that he is faster and he trains for the marathon in order to beat Mr. 20 something number 1.

The cycle repeats itself. No different than big money for coming in first overall is it? It isn't about coming in 10th, it's about coming in first out of the Americans.

As been said, running does not lack participants. It lacks Americans that can compete with the best in the world in the marathon.

Exactly. The reason I had suggested a cut off at 10th place overall is so that it is not so high as to seem impossible, but not so low that it can be treated as a guarantee. However I think a 50k prize would be needed. 10k is not enough to attract talent. It has to be large enough that they'e willing to train for a prize they probably won't win, just because if they do win it will be life changing.

For any athletes who travel internationally T Mobile is the perfect fit. T Mobile is the only carrier that offers free international data and texts and one can make Wi Fi calls back to the US free of charge.

If you're in the US their rate plans and customer service are far superior to any other carrier. The CEO is a former competitive distance runner who obviously still cares about the sport.

If you haven't already switched to T Mobile you should definitely look into it.

I like what John is doing. It's adding some snap, crackle and pop to the sport. He's offering prize money in his own way, for his own reasons. Here is a colorful dude with a passion for the sport, a maverick, having fun and making waves.

I don't think he's about to change his m.o. on the advice of a buncha Let's Run posters.

Rock on, John. As a passionate fan of the sport, it's cool to see what you are doing.

LOL@ John Legere's new financial advisors on letsrun. Can't this guy do what he wants with his money?

mo money mo money wrote:

As been said, running does not lack participants. It lacks Americans that can compete with the best in the world in the marathon.

Are you sure? Maybe they are lacking an effective doping program the IAAF will never test positive?

I agree, even a bit of money straight to the athlete would help increase the number of athletes that take a crack at elite times. But, USATF is not set up for that, neither are the big marathon organizers.

I'm not sure how many of those event sponsor contracts you've read, but they are spectacular. You get a couple of pages in and soon forget there are runners and it is a running event. The current system is not set up to reward runners.