November 19, 2008
FEATURE NEWS: At Last, Good Economic News--Ryan Hall Has A New Job, Will Race Boston Marathon
By Amby Burfoot
Photo By Victah Sailer
The John Hancock Financial company, principal sponsor of the Boston Marathon, yesterday announced that Ryan Hall will be running next April's Boston Marathon. Hall will attempt to become the first American male to win Boston since Greg Meyer in 1983. (The last American female winner was Lisa Rainsberger in 1985.)
In these days and weeks of gloomy economic news, it's nice to hear that someone's got a decent-paying new job. How decent? Only the Hancock, Hall and a few of his best friends know for sure. But we decided to ask a select circle of running insiders how much they believe Hall will be receiving as a Boston appearance fee.
So we sent out an email to: race directors, elite athlete coordinators, elite marathoners, top agents, and informed running journalists. We asked them what they thought about Hall's new job. Many noted that athlete contracts contain several key clauses offering payment based on: appearance, place, and time, to note the most obvious three.
Estimates of Hall's appearance fee ranged from $100,000 to $500,000, with the majority falling between $100,000 and $200,000. However, the one big pop at $500,000 raised the average of all estimates we received to $202,000.
At any rate, we're pretty sure the payment is enough to keep Hall off the assembly lines in Detroit. And on the hills of Mammoth Lakes and Big Bear Lake, CA, where he does his best work.
Estimates were provided by: Deena Kastor, Jim Ferstle, Luis Posso/Derek Froude, Peter Gambaccini, Jim Gerweck, Bob Gordon, Don Kardong, Merhawi Keflezighi, Dan Lilot, Greg Meyer, Brendan Reilly, Dathan Ritzenhein, Bill Rodgers, Victor Sailer, Matt Taylor
2 comments:
No shit. Maybe this will be a good year to go for Boston?
Yes, just run a 3:10 in Jan. Cake.
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