Economic Impact

[Kristine]

Any marathon or large race RD's out there with stats on the amount each runner spends when they come to your race? for example, some races say that each marathoner generates $1000 in local economic impact - including what is spent by those coming with them. That seems high to me. I hav egone to Boston twice (with other runners - not non-running people) and never spent $1000 if you don't include plane fare. Even sharing a room with only one person at marathonweekend prices dosen't get me there - unless I count what I spend at the expo - and that goes mostly to out of town vendors.

[pstewart]

It's a bit of the wild west out there when it comes to economic impact studies. There is a strong incentive for all kinds of events ranging from the Super Bowl and the Olympic Games down to a city's 10k to produce impressive figures in order to justify municipal support, road closures, etc. I think there are widely differing methodologies used in preparing these statements which makes comparing them like comparing apples and oranges. It would be nice to have a standard technique that would allow better comparisons.

That said, here are some numbers from recent marathons:

Boston Marathon weekend ('06: including the marathon and 4 Red Sox games): $95.4 million

Portland Marathon (2005): $15 million

Honolulu Marathon (they attract a large percentage of Japanese runners): $100 million

Austin Marathon ('06): $5.1 million

Cellcom Green Bay Marathon: $1.2 million

Richmond Marathon ('05): $8.4 million

Rock 'n' Roll Marathon ('06): $16.4 million

ING New York City Marathon: $188 million