Ownership of the Chicago Marathon

[pstewart]

It has been interesting this week to follow the bidding war for LaSalle Bank, the owner of the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon. It seems like only a very small percentage of running events are owned by their title sponsors, but this definitely is an example of a hazard of this type of structure. I wonder what's going on in Carey Pinkowski's mind? My guess is that the Chicago Marathon probably has enough critical mass to survive no matter what the new owner of LaSalle Bank does. (The Bank of America which has offered $21 billion for LaSalle has stated that they will change the name to the Bank of America Marathon if it ends up with the race.) But it's easy to imagine more difficult times for a smaller event.

I suppose it is possible that a new owner could simply sell the event off like any other asset. I wonder what the Chicago Marathon would go for?

I believe the Bank of Boulder once owned the Bolder Boulder 10k but it spun it off on its own when the bank was sold. Anyone out there know of other events which are owned by their commercial sponsors?

[JimG]

I've known of several here in CT. In one case, the sponsor/owner decided it could get more "bang for its buck" from a walk/fun run than the elite 5K which followed an open 5K, so a race which produced the state men & women's all-comers records simply disappeared.

In another corporate challenge event the sponsor fired one race director who had been there for half a dozen years, and has gone through 3 or 4 in the interim.

From an RD's perspective, there may be a sense of security gained by ceding ownership of a race to a sponsor, but IMO you're selling your soul - it's no longer YOUR race, it's THEIRS, and you work (or can be dismissed) at their pleasure.

[Trailrunnerdude]

This can be a very thorny issue for RDs. In addition to corporate sponsors' ownership of races, non-profit organizations and event companies have gotten into the act with sometimes disastrous results. There was a popular local race in my area and a few years ago the title sponsor/owner decided to change the race name (it included the word 'goblin') because they felt it would scare small children. That race is now defunct.

[tod durkin]

any guesses on pricing of Chicago Marathon?

Is there sales info for other races that offers rule of thumb-
2x revenues, etc . . .