Chicago now has a problem.
It seems that they never advised the top runners that there would be no pacers. (See the Lucas Rotich thread)
Marathoners can't really run more than 2 (or 3) marathons/year
Top guys effectively lost one of them. They didn't get time bonuses and running a 2:10 marathoner really doesn't help you negotiate better appearance fee for the next marathon (they did not improve their marketability)
Pretty sure that no (or very few) top marathoners will show next year.
This could spell the beginning of the end for Chicago
It also seems that the Chicago race organizer doesn't get it which makes things even worse.
It doesn't really matter if it's more interesting or not. Coincidently, in my mind, it was more interesting because Luke was in the mix for a long time. But that's a random event. Had he not been there, it would have been a complete snooze fest. Furthermore, when no top runners show up next year, it will be even worse as a bunch of Americans will be running a tactical race in 2:15(??).