Abbott World Marathon Majors Reduces Prize Structure to Pro Runners by 35%

Can someone please explain to me what the appeal of running a Major is vs any other prominent marathon (we'll say Gold Label for argument's sake, whatever that's worth) for a serious recreational runner/ sub-elite. I know some good recreational runners who wish to run the Majors, and I can't possibly figure out why Tokyo or Chicago might be any more appealing than say, one of the elite marathons in Japan.

As an aside, I find it irritating when a runner touts his or her place among top finishers (especially when s/he doesn't list the time), especially when s/he say top X American. Often times that just reflects a shallow field.

The income of these races seems to be somewhere in the ballpark of $5,000,000 to $10,000,000 and they're worrying about $150,000. I'd like to see the breakdown of where all that money gets spent.

An unfortunate step in the wrong direction for the sport.

"We" ruined it ourselves.

The dopers.

Those wanting money, chasing titles, chasing greed.

We can't continue to reward the doping class.

It would be cool if the charities are anti-doping charities that go after and prosecute dopers.

Ho wrote:

"We" ruined it ourselves.

The dopers.

Those wanting money, chasing titles, chasing greed.

We can't continue to reward the doping class.

"You" ruin it by continually harping about "the dopers". The average person in the street could not care less.

complete garbage. if they reduce prizes to the pros, let it go to cutting the race fees.

How much you wanna bet they're taking the money and using it for larger appearance fees/bonuses for non-Africans? Those are the athletes who generate media interest.

First, since the bombings in Boston 2013, the various marathons have made less money off of their races because of the security costs. The various changes over the past couple of years have resulted in a savings of $100,000 for each race. For NYRR, that is probably negligible, but for the BAA, or Chicago, that's huge toward their bottom line.

Second, the charity component is, to me, a little unnecessary. How much fundraising does each race have to do? $150 Million total amongst the races, well, let's just add in 280,000 more? Really? But here's the problem - that additional money will garner more media and public attention than any of the runners. Let's face it. 99% of the long distance runners in contention for the AMM Prize money are unknown foreigners, or American runners who train behind closed doors 45 weeks out of the year. Outside of people who read these boards, no one cares to follow their training/racing/etc... outside of marathon week.

This second problem has been an ongoing one for long distance racing and even the internet and social media has barely been able to crack it.

It stinks that prize money is getting reduced once again, but, these races are businesses. There needs to be a return on the investment and with most of these athletes - there is absolutely none. Watching ESPN flail around to find a public interest story during the NYC Marathon is comical. NBC during the Olympics Marathon....it goes on from there. None of these runners are interesting, exciting, entertaining, or showmen.

Uhm no Ho wrote:

Ho wrote:

"We" ruined it ourselves.

The dopers.

Those wanting money, chasing titles, chasing greed.

We can't continue to reward the doping class.

"You" ruin it by continually harping about "the dopers". The average person in the street could not care less.

Agreed. I'm with you - I'd like to see more doping. Ideally, it starts at a much earlier age, too. Thanks for sharing.

It is a combination of things wrote:

None of these runners are interesting, exciting, entertaining, or showmen.

Help us Droddy, you're our only hope!

This is just the prize pool for the series winner, not the prize pool for the individual races.

The whole idea of a series never made a whole lot of sense to me anyway. Unless you have the same competitors in all the races, which can't really happen w/ marathons.

Mr. Obvious wrote:

This is just the prize pool for the series winner, not the prize pool for the individual races.

The whole idea of a series never made a whole lot of sense to me anyway. Unless you have the same competitors in all the races, which can't really happen w/ marathons.

The whole point of the World Marathon Major is a branding exercise. If they don't have some sort of prize then they are just like the other races. Perhaps we at LRC should start considering Dubai a Major.

Abbott got involved and gave sponsorship $ so my hope would be the $ would go up not down.

I never liked the idea that the winner got all the money and 2nd nothing but for a few people it makes a huge difference in what race they consider doing. I just got back from Iten where I saw the house Jemima Sumgong is building and met with Kipchoge who is about to pick up his second half million $ check. It's good 2nd and 3rd get something but the money for that isn't that much compared to marathon appearance fees and with first place but in half it'll be interesting to see what happens.

While cutting the pros money, they raised the wheelchair money, but the main cut came from the money going to the new charity component. The wheelchair races generally get very little coverage on the broadcasts.

What we don't know is what the donating sponsors may have requested in their agreements of how the money is to be spent, hence wheelchair and charity functions etc. My guess is that they have some influence.

The awareness of the majors is limited to a handful of people that follow the sport closely and something the race directors feels like it makes their event important.

If the whole thing went away today, I would guarantee you would not loose a single regular runner with exception of a few elites racing for the top prize.

The problem with the world marathon majors is that it takes a Diamond league approach to a race that runners can only run twice a year at best. T&F athletes have no trouble doing 4-5 diamond league events over the course of a few months. So, fans see the points add up over a relatively short season and can see the rivalries emerge and pressure on athletes to get points late in the season to seal the victory. But with the world marathon majors, only a die hard fan will remember who won a race six months ago and how the current race affects the points standings.

The world marathon majors really need to set up a championship system. One year is for earning points to qualify for the championship race. The next year is the championship race for all the marbles. The championship race can rotate and be hosted by each major. That way you would have a huge prize purse with all the top runners in a single race. That could potentially be more exciting than the Olympics.

most of them are not businesses; they are non-profits.

Wejo is right about branding. The WMM is not some elected or appointed international body. It is a group of races that found a way to differentiate themselves from the rest. And it was a brilliant move on their part. They got their partnership sponsored and now athletes are more likely to run their races over others because of prize money incentive.

I also agree about 2nd and 3rd place money. This is also a brilliant move because again - it opens up the field of people who will want to run all of the races. Right now, who would want to run a WMM race hoping for the prize if you know that Kipkoche is going to just run away with it. But with 2nd and 3rd, there are increased opportunities.

I am just disappointed that the total prize purse paid to the athletes is dipping in favor of giving money to charities. Especially considering that the $280,000 donation represents .19% of the total raised in the races. Literally - that amount of donation is a barely noticeable blip. But for the athletes who are competing, it is a LOT of money. PAY THEM.

And, not to be harsh to wheelchair athletes, but I question how much more prize money they need. Usually, it is the same 5-6 names in all of the races regardless. For instance, Tatyana McFadden, is usually the women's winner. Now her story is incredible. She is a very nice person. But she also is able to compete in all of the WMM races in a single year because the physical toll to her body to complete a marathon is less than that to an able-bodied runner's. I am all for the wheelchair athletes to receive prize money - but I feel like the physical sacrifice that an able-bodied runner makes is worth more because they're only able to run 2-3 marathons a year - whereas most wheelchair athletes seem capable of doing 2-3 within about 5-6 weeks.

biogen wrote:

It is a combination of things wrote:

None of these runners are interesting, exciting, entertaining, or showmen.

Help us Droddy, you're our only hope!

weejo = rojo are correct again.

In conclusion:

1) No one give a sh*t about distance running.

Maria "Meldonium" Sharapova (= 1 blonde and blue-eyed white female Russian Doper-tennis player in cute outfits) makes $30 MILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR… grunting... and posing...on the tennis court…which is equivalent to the entire annual budget for WADA to use to catch all the dopers in the world.

ha ha ha

She is already back on the court collecting LOTS OF MONEY from NIKE!!!

Distance running is a TOTAL JOKE in terms of making MONEY.

The prize MONEY in distance running IS a CHARITY DONATION to the runners and their BORING sport.

Dig it LetsClick.com

Hopeful Runner wrote:

An unfortunate step in the wrong direction for the sport.

Wrong. At last a step in the right direction for the sport which should be made amateur again i.e. prize money should be zero for the pros bar travelling and food expenses. Having prize money has encouraged the proliferation of doping to the extent that I do not watch any elite level distance races anymore. The sports needs more people like Yuki Kawauchi or Amy Bersagel not a bunch of running robots infused with EPO, testosterone, and thyroid hormones.