big gap wrote:
Viktor wrote:Do you work for a living? Would you do your job for free when you need the money? What would you say if your employer said, "we're unable to pay you but if you want to keep doing the same work you've been doing for us without further compensation, by all means"?
Ummm, it's called pay for performance. Commissions and performance-related bonuses, with a small-to-nonexistant base salary are good examples for you. Only performers want that kind of setup.
Races should be mostly prize money, and limited or no appearance fee bullsh*t. Let the performers be rewarded.
What union do you belong to? Or let me guess, you're tenured?
Tell me how you get the best guys in the world to come and run your race without any financial certainties. How do you get them to do promotional work for you if they have no idea if they're going to get paid or not?
You want Wanjiru vs. Gebrselassie? Be prepared to pay for it. One of those guys is sure not to win and in doing so will take a hit in what they can ask for from their next race and their world ranking (for which they're paid bonuses).
Let's say you have Boston on Monday, April 15, 2013 and London six days later. No appearance fees all prize money. Your major stars don't have to decide what race they're going to run until the last minute because there's no contract locking them down. If Geb hears that Wanjiru's running Boston, he can then flyover to London and do that one instead and not risk losing. However, that doesn't happen now because Boston will have carved out hundreds of thousands of dollars to make sure Geb starts in Boston. And he can't expect to pull out at the last minute and go to London because London will have already allocated all their appearance money and won't have any left for him.
It's no coincidence that the most compelling marathons (apart from the Olympics), the ones with the biggest hype all pay significant appearance fess. There are major marathons with lots of prize money that don't pay appearance fees, but they don't feature the kinds of fields you'll see at the Marathon Majors.