promoting things, then they deservea little compensation.

In the past, however, before the advent of prize money, an appearance fee was the only way an event could attract an athlete who wouldn’t otherwise come.

When all transactions were done under the table, some big names would walk off with a good payday and others, regardless of how well they performed, would walk off with nothing. The fact that a transaction was even taking place was supposed to be kept secret, and when someone occasionally or accidentally spilled the beans, enemies were made quickly.

The advent of prize money greatly reduced this problem, but it’s still out there. Sometimes an appearance fee goes to the guy who has the best agent or who has friends or who’s just savvy enough to know to ask for some cash.

In a sport where performance is so easily measurable, it’s one aspect where who you know is almost as important as what you know. “It’s not about money, it’s about respect,” said one sprinter as he pulled out of a European meet because the promoter wouldn’t meet his appearance fee demands. People have a problem saying it’s really about the money. Nothing hits home quite so profoundly.

When appearance fees become so large that they significantly detract from the overall prize money purse, the rest of the athletes are affected unfairly. Recall that Tiger Woods recently signed a large deal with the PGA Tour. Radio host Howard Stern commented: “They shouldn’t be giving him all that money. What’s he going to do [if they don’t], start his own golf tour? He has to play in golf tournaments or he won’t make a dime.”

Ihave to say Iagree, and the same logic can be applied to marathons. There are a limited number of highprofile, large-purse marathons out there, and I have to believe that the top marathoners would compete anyway if one race wanted to redirect more of its money toward the finish line purse.

Or maybe there are market forces at work that I’m not seeing.

Maybe if you were to get Yuko Akimori at your race, you could sell the TV rights to Japan for a big markup. To be sure, Haile Gebrselassie’s run at London in 2002 is probably wortha significant appearance fee since the interest in the race will be that much greater.

Or it could be my ignorance as an American since, with most races here, it’snotusually any given star who sells the race to sponsors and advertisers; it’s the race itself. People would line the streets from Hopkinton to Boston on Patriots’ Day and spend lots of money at the expo regardless of who was running. The star of the Boston Marathon is the Boston Marathon.

The best predictor for tomorrow’s weather is today’s in this case. I don’t see much changing with prize money for runners. I think it will continue to be a very top-heavy sport, with very few people doing very well and the rest fighting for scraps.

March/April 2002

Athletes in the United States aren’t likely to do any better unless distance running becomes more of a spectator sport with greater interest from the consuming public, which isn’t something that anyone says is coming on the horizon.

One idea that’s been talked about is the establishment of an athlete’s union. Sports with players’ unions do well. It probably won’t happen because it would require a buy-in from the athletes with the most to lose.

March/April 2002

SAME SPOT, NEXT ISSUE

With the next issue, my wife Ellen takes over this column. She is a pig aficionado [For those playing catchup, Joe and Ellen own a Vietnamese potbellied pig named Skunky. —Ed], who has, on a couple of occasions, won $1,000 or more in races. Be sure toask her about her new course record of 4:41:22 in the Knickerbocker 60K.

beautiful 26 miles, wll ever run.

Half & Full Marathon

Full – 9am, September 22, 2002

| Half – 10am, September 22, 2002

Schroon Lake, New York

5K & 10K Races /9:30am, September 21, 2002 Chestertown, New York

Visit Our Website _adirondackmarathon.org