Road Racing’s Hidden Money
It’s a story rarely told, but it impacts the sport in a profound way. Prize money at major road races (i.e. Boston Marathon, NYC Marathon, Chicago Marathon) often rounds out to $500,000 or under, very rarely exceeding anything really worth putting in the newspapers or online. However, most major road races have budgets to attract runners in that are often three to four times greater than the prize purse, a rarely discussed aspect of the sport called appearance fees.
While reading an article on the Toronto Marathon over the weekend, a read a quote from the race’s director where he stated that the Toronto Marathon was doing rather well for itself considering its appearance fee budget was a quarter of what the major marathons have.
“This has been the race for up-and-comers, with a budget of $450,000, compared with about $2-million for a major marathon.”
The best marathoners in the world attract appearance fees well into the $100,000+ range, with athletes like Ryan Hall and Deena Kastor racking up appearance fees pushing towards $250,000+. It’s an impressive amount of money, but never manages to find its way to the press.
Money attracts sponsors, money attracts press, money attracts the sporting public’s attention. Professional road racing has millions upon millions of dollars circulating around each and every year, but few realize it’s there because race directors don’t flash it about. A major golf event, which usually don’t pay appearance fees, have prize purses of millions of dollars, but most major road races don’t exceed $1 million.
If race directors realized they could promote the amount of money an athlete receives just to show up and compete, that could raise the stake in professional distance running in the American sports landscape. Money makes the world go round, and if people begin to realize that road racing has more money in it than perhaps realized, then perhaps our sport can start to gain the attention it so rightly deserves.
