LI Runner wrote:
Mad Mike -
I agree with most of your post, however I think the gist of the lawsuit is that she was 'deceived' (maybe too strong of a word, but nevertheless) into believing she was volunteering for a 'non-profit' cause.
One can argue it was on her to do the proper research to see what she was volunteering for, etc.
Let the courts decide.
Personally, not sure where I stand on whole Competitor issue. One one hand it fills a need for a certain segment of the running/jogging population and if they keep registering obviously the demand is there. On the other hand, they want non-compete clauses from other area races (from what I read on LRC), it lets other races raise their prices and swallows smaller races.
The Cancer Society lawsuit is interesting because it shows that when it is the American Cancer Society Rock N Roll Chicago Marathon that the Cancer Society is paying to sponsor the race not Rock N Roll paying the cancer society. The net flow of money is from Cancer Society to Rock N Roll not the other way around. The Cancer society then presumably sells spots to the race to people who raise money for it.
Then if Rock N Roll solicits volunteers and says it is to benefit the Cancer Society I can see how people find this misleading. I would assume that an extra volunteer benefits Rock N Roll by saving them wages instead of the Cancer Society. Am I missing something?
The way around this I guess would be for the Cancer Society to promise to provide all the volunteers and then for Rock N Roll to pay it a fee for them. This would let Rock N Roll get the labor at a cheaper rate.
The one thing I don't get is why the Cancer Society would pay big bucks to sponsor the race. Do these races sell out? Couldn't they just buy up a bunch of entries at $150 and use them for its charity runners instead of paying Rock N Roll a huge fee to sponsor the race to get entries that ultimately are costing it more than whatever the entry fee are presumably. I guess Rock N Roll could sue them for using the "Rock N Roll" name in marketing materials?