wejo wrote:
Mary Wittenberg, the NYRR director, just said she expects a few hundred thousand people to come out for the Trials to watch.
Do you think that many people will turn out?
The only way that 200,000+ spectators will show up is if they advertise the heck out of it: Radio spots, billboards, buses, etc. And even then they better lie and say that it's the women's marathon trials and that the competitors will be running naked.
And saying that the size of the crowds will be similar to the number of spectators for the regular five borough race ignores the fact that the regular race is basically a 40,000 person parade that comes right through millions of peoples neighborhoods.
So I doubt the number will be as high as Ms. Wittenberg (the "Ms." is for you NY Times readers) is guessing. After all, anybody outside of mid-Manhattan will need to either run, hop on a bus, subway or taxi to get to the park. And let's face it, watching a marathon on site, even on a loop course, is not exactly a scintillating spectator event if you don't know running, or even if you do know running.
With that said I still think that it's great it's in NY City in the park. (And I'm from California.)