By Christopher K. Hepp
In three weeks, a record number of runners are expected to take to Philadelphia's streets and compete in the city's 16th annual marathon.
With 10,000 entrants, the event with a budget of $1.7 million can count on a fourth consecutive year of growth while pumping $10 million into the regional economy and aiding seven local charities.
Those seem impressive numbers, until one looks elsewhere.
Take Chicago, for instance, where the marathon has 45,000 entrants and contributes $140 million to the economy, according to a University of Illinois study. The similarly sized New York marathon, being run today, means $220 million to that city. Both races generate tens of millions of dollars for scores of charities.
Overall last year, Philadelphia's marathon ranked 12th in size in the United States, trailing the monsters like New York, Chicago, and Boston, but also races in Orlando and Portland, Ore.
Why does that matter?
Well, for every runner, particularly out-of-town runners, the city can benefit in a variety of ways: meals bought, hotel rooms booked, stores shopped.
As the business of running booms - and the city searches ways to boost tourism - Philadelphia's premier footrace lags behind in size and economic impact.
It does so despite the best efforts of the City Representative's Office, which organizes the event and has plans for making it bigger in the future.
That the city is involved at all is rare. Philadelphia's marathon is one of the increasingly few major running events owned and operated by a municipality. The marathons in New York, Chicago, and Boston, for instance, are independent of their host cities and have professional race directors with extensive marathon experience.
Here, the race is managed by the City Representative, a political appointee who can expect to be replaced with each new mayor. Melanie Johnson took the position two years ago after serving as Mayor Nutter's campaign spokeswoman. She admits she had a lot to learn about the marathon business.
And it is a business.
In New York, for instance, the race takes in $45 million in revenue. Race director Mary Wittenberg oversees a staff of 120 that puts on 49 other events year-round leading up to the city's crown jewel.
Here, Johnson oversees the marathon while juggling her other duties, which include organizing the Welcome America Fourth of July program and generally promoting the city.
"We are good at multitasking," she said in a recent interview, when asked if the race might be better served if outsourced or even sold to a private group whose only focus was the marathon.
"The marathon is one of the most successful events we have. It really broadens our ability to promote our city. Why shouldn't the city do it?"
The question was put to City Controller Alan Butkovitz, who conceded he had not previously given it any thought. His quick conclusion, however, was there was value in considering privatizing the race.
"Certainly there are incentives for a private manager to maximize sponsorships vs. a bureaucratic approach that just minimizes headaches for a city department that has many other responsibilities," he said.
Indeed, sponsorships can be a critical fund-raising tool for major marathons.
The title sponsorship alone for the ING New York Marathon is worth more than $1 million, Wittenberg said. The nonprofit event's 2006 IRS filing reported about $10 million in sponsorships, or about a third of the total revenue that year.
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