The Boston Marathon CAN NOT be cancelled because it's higher priority than other events

TAA wrote:

Be safe Hardloper!

Thanks, TAA!

That same week, there are:

7 home Red Sox games

NBA playoffs (2 games)

NHL playoffs (2 games)

1 MLS game

That ads up, conservatively, to 350,000 people in attendance. Plus at least 25 people at the Sebastian Bach show.

If the're going to cancel things in Boston that week, it won't just be the marathon.

Piano_Man87 wrote:

They didn't cancel it in 1918 during the Spanish Flu epidemic. (although the deadly 2nd wave of that flu didn't occur until the fall.) But they could easily still hold it. Why not.

It just depends on if they care about how it will mean people die because of it. But hey, athletic legacy. *shrugs*

Not a fan of history, eh? In 1918, BAA did cancel the marathon (due to the war, not the flu) and held a military relay instead. It was won by The Camp Devens team.

the Devens team had a lot of cms and whirlaway guys

Reality Checker wrote:

Piano_Man87 wrote:

They didn't cancel it in 1918 during the Spanish Flu epidemic. (although the deadly 2nd wave of that flu didn't occur until the fall.) But they could easily still hold it. Why not.

It just depends on if they care about how it will mean people die because of it. But hey, athletic legacy. *shrugs*

Not a fan of history, eh? In 1918, BAA did cancel the marathon (due to the war, not the flu) and held a military relay instead. It was won by The Camp Devens team.

He's right that they didn't cancel it. Presumably there were just as many people in attendence.

casual observer of these boards wrote:

The top 100 in this race is faster than any other race except for the olympics. Same with the top 1000.

CIM, Tokyo, Lake Biwa, and Fukuoka all have faster top 100s. Probably others I'm not aware of as well.

Boston might have the best top 1000, as it's the only large race that is filled primarily with time qualifiers. It's a good race for a 2:55 guy. For a 2:20-2:40 guy, Boston is no better than any number of other top marathons.

Not a marathon problem wrote:

That same week, there are:

7 home Red Sox games

NBA playoffs (2 games)

NHL playoffs (2 games)

1 MLS game

That ads up, conservatively, to 350,000 people in attendance. Plus at least 25 people at the Sebastian Bach show.

If the're going to cancel things in Boston that week, it won't just be the marathon.

Yeah, but those are real sports.

Earlyboy wrote:

Not true

To guarantee entry to Berlin you need to be Sub 2.45. Boston much easier. Bucket list??

Considering quotes i received for accommodation, and comparing it to major marathons worldwide.

They can keep it

Can't tell what you're even trying to say

Not a marathon problem wrote:

Plus at least 25 people at the Sebastian Bach show.

Well done on this. I got a good laugh at it.

Not a marathon problem wrote:

That same week, there are:

7 home Red Sox games

NBA playoffs (2 games)

NHL playoffs (2 games)

1 MLS game

That ads up, conservatively, to 350,000 people in attendance. Plus at least 25 people at the Sebastian Bach show.

If the're going to cancel things in Boston that week, it won't just be the marathon.

Right. The marathon is a big gathering of people, but so is every concert and professional sporting event. It's implausible that they're going to just shutter every sports arena and stadium in the world for the next year. So I think the only way it gets canceled is if there's some weird public pressure like there was in NY with Sandy.

Tokyo is a little different because that was canceled at a time when there was still a belief that maybe the virus could be contained.

Not a marathon problem wrote:

That same week, there are:

7 home Red Sox games

NBA playoffs (2 games)

NHL playoffs (2 games)

1 MLS game

That ads up, conservatively, to 350,000 people in attendance. Plus at least 25 people at the Sebastian Bach show.

If the're going to cancel things in Boston that week, it won't just be the marathon.

Though mass gatherings are problematic local focused ones are less problematic than international or multi-state ones. Let's just say that a particular town has 0 cases of an ailment. If no one goes in our out of that town there is very little risk of group events within that town. Now hold an event in that same town where people come from all over the world...well totally different problem. At this point in time Boston will be a hotspot come marathon day. If a BQer from Idaho goes to Boston and brings the virus back to their home state...now it spreads there where it might not have before.

117,000 people fly in and out of Logan every day. Between now and Marathon weekend, that's 4.9 million people. People come and go all the time.

The point isn't that they won'rt cancel it. It's that if they do, they'll be cancelling a lot of things. It's not a unique event that will be sacrificed while baseball and hockey games continue.

Hardloper wrote:

Reality Checker wrote:

Not a fan of history, eh? In 1918, BAA did cancel the marathon (due to the war, not the flu) and held a military relay instead. It was won by The Camp Devens team.

He's right that they didn't cancel it. Presumably there were just as many people in attendence.

Fair point. In those days there were like 70 participants, and likely very few spectators.

Boston now has about 30,000 participants and 500,000 spectators.

polar cila wrote:

the Devens team had a lot of cms and whirlaway guys

as a local boston club runner, that was funny

Not a marathon problem wrote:

117,000 people fly in and out of Logan every day. Between now and Marathon weekend, that's 4.9 million people. People come and go all the time.

The point isn't that they won'rt cancel it. It's that if they do, they'll be cancelling a lot of things. It's not a unique event that will be sacrificed while baseball and hockey games continue.

Major league sports are an anomaly in comparison.

They may continue with NHL games but close arenas from public use. The players can continue until the owners cave or their own player's association deems it unsafe

Same with NBA and MLS. (TV revenue would actually go up)

The Boston Marathon is a one time event requiring millions to come in contact with each other via participants, supporters, restaurants, hotels, shuttles, ubers, planes,,,,.

This has a much bigger Covid19 affect on Boston than those other sports do.

The NCAA is considering limiting public access to hoops Madness games too. Preemptively. Especially since an individual State has the authority to pull the plug on any event at any time

The city of Boston has the authority to pull the permit if the BAA doesn't. Not that it will but it could.

A bigger issue for serious runners is that California, Oregon and Washington may shut down all public gatherings which may affect the NCAA T&F schedule in a big way.

As far as the seriousness of the potential can be, Italy is a better guide for what's coming than China is

Radio discussion on cancelling Boston with people calling in. The radio host hosts holds the position that it should not be cancelled.

When should the decision made?

the point is, until they do, this is a moot discussion. They're not cancelling the economic impact of the Boston Marathon while 500,000 people are at other sporting events in the same week.

Not a marathon problem wrote:

That same week, there are:

7 home Red Sox games

NBA playoffs (2 games)

NHL playoffs (2 games)

1 MLS game

That ads up, conservatively, to 350,000 people in attendance. Plus at least 25 people at the Sebastian Bach show.

If the're going to cancel things in Boston that week, it won't just be the marathon.

As others said the NBA is talking about playing in empty arenas.

I don't think most NBA or baseball games are attended by people from all 50 states and something like 100 countries. The risk is that runners or their family will catch it and then spread it around the world and throughout the US.

Are the people who attend a NBA game going to a crowded expo, packed in school buses, and crowded corrals and being around people breathing heavily? Are they using port-a-johns where they open and close doors and don't have soap and water to wash their hands for 20 seconds?

Between all those games (and the Sebastian Bach concert), all 50 states and many countries would be represented. Lack of soap and hand sanitizer at the start area is an easy problem to solve.