Hall Monitor Lizard wrote:
Hall has lost his focus, is it Mahon?? Doubt it but anyone can get stale.....
lost focus--i think you hit the nail on the head. appearing in nissan ads, promoting all those causes, and enjoying the celebrity status. look at ritz--he hasn't done any of that. granted, Hall is probably making more money in the marketing side. he doesn't have to win another race in his life. he's got the all-american look, a good looking wife, and is more marketable to the masses.
comparisons with household running names:
Jim Ryun / Ryan Hall
Dathan Ritzenhein/ Alberto Salazar
go to
http://www.runnersworld.com/now, and review the names and pictures on the home page. All full names and names with pictures are names with an English background
Notice all the names on the home page:
Ryan Hall, Headline, picture and first name mention
Makau (no first name); small picture, barely mentioned
Paula Radcliffe, Kara Goucher (2 women who moms can relate to--advertising running and pregnancy), larger picture, middle of the site
Jeff-typical late 20's running hipster (similar marketing as Makau)
Mark Bitman- columnist
Kristin Armstrong-columnist
towards the bottom, you'll see an Asics ad for Hall, and a Nissan ad, with Hall mentioned.
Three times Hall is mentioned and has 2 pictures. If you're a business exec and marketing guru, and want to appeal to the main consumers of the running culture (middle/ upper class suburbanites), your columns, pictures, people need to reflect that culture. Ryan Hall fits it. No one else in running right now can fit in.
bottom line, if you're Hall and want to make as much money in the sport as possible, it's not going to be through winning--it's through corporate ads and marketing yourself. tough to stay competitive when you have all these stakes in the fire.