BAA stops John Legere, T-Mobile CEO, from giving prize money to top American.

what did it say? tweet has been deleted. thanks. and yes, baa sucks balls on that one, big missed opportunity. what, b/c then tmobile would have got some free advertising? c'mon, grow the friggin sport people

BAA has nothing to do with prize money at the Boston Marathon. That is provided by John Hancock. STOP giving credit or blame wher it is not deserved.

On a similar note USATF does not provide prize money at US Road Championships. That is provided by the Host Race.

From talking to Nick WIllis, I know Legere is a huge track fan. It's fun to think he's got an idea I've always had. I've always thought, "What would happen if fans started raising money for races (hell any sportiing event)?"

I had thought of it sort of both officially and unofficially. Obviously, if you went to the race and offered a million bucks you could become an official sponsor.

But what's to stop a race or hell even any major leaugue sports teams from spending money as they see fit privately?

Could LRC just tweet out $100,000 if Galen Rupp runs world xc and is at least top 15?

Or take Boston for an example and the year they ]didn't offer Meb an appearance fee of note so he didn't race. Could LRC just say, "We'll pay Meb $200,000?"

Would the Texas Relays really be able to stop us if we'd offered Jeremy Wariner $25,000 in his prime to run the 800 (only paying out if he broke 1:50)?

What if some random rich guy (non-owner) wanted to get around the salary cap and said, "I'll pay Tom Brady $50 million if he plays for the Bills." Could the NFL stop that? Of what if fans crowd-sourced to raise an extra million or two to keep a beloved free agent in baseball?

What are teams going to do? Start demanding to see the tax returns of individual players? I imaigne they'd have to do something like that.

In this instance, I bet Legare could get in trouble somehow with John Hancock who pays for all of the elites in Boston but am not sure legally what the claim is. I guess the BAA could claim his profile is so much associated with TMobile that Tmobile is sort of getting status as a sponsor without being a sponsor.

But there are all sorts of guerilla marketers at meets.

And what if it was Ross Perot or something?

-Rojo

PS. Full disclosure. LetsRun uses TMobile but that was a decision based 100% on what they offer. - namely low cost and free international roaming, texts. We didn't even know Legare was a fan of track.

Rojo, isn't this already happening to a smaller extent? For example, athletes have their own sponsors (shoe contracts, etc) who are known to pay bonuses for a top finish or record. So I don't think it's much of a stretch from there for someone to make a blanket promise of something like $100k for the first American.

He's trying to piggyback on the Boston Marathon without doing the field work. He wants a race that offers 100k to the top American? Fine, he can develop his own race, get the permits, get ppl to enter, get volunteers, get the roads closed, etc. That might be the way they see it?

I think Boston should let him do this. Its good for publicity, but if they've signed something with a sponsor not allowing it, he could choose a different marathon. Why not Vermont City or another race? The marathon prizes at most races are comically low. If fans of the sport started offering big prizes everywhere, we' stop pretending that high 2:20s is anything other than a hobby jogger putting in some running around work and 2:teens is anything but a guy who ran in college and is still kind of good compared to people who did not.

Wow, dude wants to help hand out more american dollars in thi years marathon for top americans and boston shuts him down

What the hell is wrong with boston! Glad i wont be particapting there anytime or supporting that garbage race anytime soon.

Boston strong...should be boston ashamed for this act.

Disgrace.

They used to offer spectator primes at local bicycle races. Someone walked a box around the course talking it up then spectators would put money in the box then on some lap the bell goes off and the amount was called out. Cycling has been circling the drain for decad es, nobody goes to watch and the federation doesn't want spectators.

Your first paragraph is why the sport will have participants, but never any money to pay athletes. I've seen a few event sponsor contracts for a few IOC endurance sports by now and they just aren't set up to grow a sport.

Does the Boston Marathon have a sponsor that conflicts with T Mobile? I could see that being a reasonable cause for their actions.

Seymour G. wrote:

Does the Boston Marathon have a sponsor that conflicts with T Mobile? I could see that being a reasonable cause for their actions.

AT&T.

Hi all

Let's be clear that my distance running support is 100% personal and has nothing to do with T-Mobile as the many times I have done similar have shown. It's a personal endeavor for me

John Legere

John Legere wrote:

Hi all

Let's be clear that my distance running support is 100% personal and has nothing to do with T-Mobile as the many times I have done similar have shown. It's a personal endeavor for me

John Legere

John you and your support for running are the best. As soon as my current contract is up, I will be switching to T-Mobile. Keep up the good work!

I am looking for sponsors and qualified investors for the official Boston Marathon film. Contact me.

Tom

$100,000 is way too little for the boston marathon to take this seriously. They should shut it down because they can't just let anyone abuse their brand. If John Legere wants to give money to the top American finisher he can do that privately. But he wants to do it publicly (tweeting about it), and that's where he runs afoul. John Hancock pays many millions of dollars for the rights to give a few million in prize money. In return they get to publicly associate with the Boston Marathon brand. They are not giving away a donation. They are buying public exposure.

And anyway, do we really want a two-tiered foreign/US prize structure? To me that only makes sense when a US championship is part of an open race. Otherwise prize money should go to the fastest men and women, regardless of where they are from.

You do what you want and I will do what I want... I want to invent American distance runners and add to their ridiculously low income... I don't want publicity and it's not for my company or obviously we could buy the sponsorship...

I just want to add a little incentive to top Americans... Purely to the runners and for the runners

I respect and appreciate all that the major road races do and why

This isn't about PR or rights

It's simple... What if I added a little extra to the top Americans at many races and pushed them to better performance levels...

That's all... If it is an issue or problem I will find another way.

Keep running!

John

John- from the tone of your post at 2:21 pm you may not be a troll - so first of all thank you for wanting to help top Americans. Seriously - thank you! It is an excellent thing to do.

You may find, as you have here, that our sport is rather insular. The governing bodies are resistant to new ideas, and often it seems look out for the governing bodies interest above those of the athletes. Some of this is warranted - flights for a full US team to China for the World XC championships do not come cheap - but some is ridiculous. So I fear an uphill fight.

One way to help from a corporate side is simple - hire the near elites. Much like Home Depot did back in the 90s with their Olympic development program. With the plethora of T-Mobile stores, hiring some of a group of athletes to work 20-30 hours a week gives your company motivated dedicated employees, gives the athletes more of a work history to ease their transition into the workforce after the sport, and generally was a win win in many ways.

As you've said in your post however you wish this to be personal, and that is again fantastic. It simply may be easier to have this happen in a slightly different format due to the bureaucracy that runs our sport - not that you haven't defeated bureaucracy or a monopoly in your current business!

Thank you for your efforts to improve our sport.

Agapius Mackwamba

It was a screenshot of their email to him. Essentially they were saying that they'd appreciate it if he would stop bringing it up on twitter and instead talk to them in private, and that they feel that the BAA High Performance Team is more beneficial than prize money for the top American.

Yes, don't give the money to the top American, instead give it our sponsored team, and maybe 1/3rd will go to athletes with the rest covering administrative expenses.

They weren't asking for donations to their team. It sounded like they just don't want to be upstaged.

Dear John,

That sounds like a great endeavor. Based on this thread I don't see what would stop you from doing it anonymously or contacting them privately. Or it could be more informal or outside of the race prize money, like your own personal bonus to American elite.

im not saying BAA is perfect, but I see where they are coming from on this