Selection of Olympic Trials marathon site raises questions

Mary Wittenberg knew an announcement was imminent, but hadn't heard a word.

As the president of the influential New York Road Runners she was perhaps more anxious than anyone to learn if she would get the chance to host the U.S. Olympic Trials marathon for the second straight quadrennial.

On the morning of March 1, she placed a phone call to USA Track & Field.

Not too long thereafter she received an email.

"We were exchanging messages for a while on both sides and when it got to be the Monday after the (USATF) board meeting, I was wondering, ‘What's the deal?'" Wittenberg said. "I reached out to them that morning and then we get an email saying that we didn't get it and they were announcing in an hour that Houston was getting it."

When USA Track & Field announced that Houston had been selected as the host city for both the men's and women's Olympic Trials marathons to be held on January 14, 2012, a day prior to the 40th anniversary run of the Houston Marathon, it was received with surprise by many in the sport.

Given the overall success of the men's Olympic Trials marathon in New York in November of 2007 and the women's race in Boston in April of 2008, it was widely believed the two cities, home of two of the five World Marathon Majors races, would be shoe-ins to host again.

USATF CEO Doug Logan even believed, for a while, that the Trials would go back to New York and Boston. But upon further evaluation, he said Houston, which hosted the women's Trials in 1992, became a more viable option.

"I was pretty much locked into a two track approach, saying these two tracks served us well last time, they'd serve us well this time," Logan said during a sit-down interview in Doha, Qatar during the IAAF World Indoor Championships in March. "When I took that level of entrenchment apart and really started looking with some vitality into putting (both races) under one roof, it started to bring some interesting and positive feedback."

It is clear that there was no single overriding factor that swayed the decision in Houston's favor. As Logan himself said, "Intricate, complex problems often have a simple, elegant answer that is wrong."

But the selection of Houston has raised interesting questions weighing what's best for the athletes and what's best for the long-term strength of distance running in America. It has also revealed signs of a potential rift between the national governing body and a major player in the running industry.

"It's like a cold shower," Wittenberg said last week in Manhattan. "What this says is that despite my and our desire to work in a climate where we you pull together, this suggests we're maybe better off focusing in on things that we can own and control and delivering for the sport in that way. I'm not ready to conclude that, but it's certainly what the question becomes for us."

Let the bidding begin

According to Wittenberg, the process for securing the right to host the Trials began in earnest a year ago. She said that she and George Hirsch, chairman of the NYRR Board of Directors, met with Logan in Boston during marathon weekend to discuss hosting the Trials, and at that time there was no bidding process outlined.

"We met again in New York the night before the marathon and we found out that there was going to be an official process and that bids would be entertained during the USATF national convention in December," Wittenberg said.

Wittenberg said that the NYRR, along with representatives of the Boston Marathon and Houston Marathon were in Indianapolis for the convention and presented bids to a committee that included Logan, USATF Associate Director of Marketing and Long Distance Running Programs Jim Estes, athlete representatives Magdalena Lewy Boulet and Eduardo Torres, USATF Long Distance Running Committee chairs Virginia Brophy Achman and Glenn Latimer, and a representative of Nike.

According to Logan, Houston proposed to host both the men's and women's Trials and bid $1.7 million to host both races, while New York and Boston both bid $500,000 in proposals to host one race each, with USA Track & Field expected to make up the difference monetarily.

"We proposed that effectively we would share the cost and thought it was natural for them (USATF) to pick up a portion," Wittenberg said. "First we said let's try to go and drive a lot of revenue together by trying to bring in corporate partners, as hard as that is, try to see if there are donors who would support it, and then let's be closer to splitting the difference. We wanted to know from the beginning that we're not holding the whole bag."

Wittenberg said that she soon learned that New York's bid was not going to cut the mustard.

"I talked to Doug again later in December," Wittenberg said. "He said, ‘You've got to up that bid substantially.' He said if we upped it, we would be in the running. It was clearly a numbers issue at that point. So I went back to our staff and our Board and we carefully considered it. We take a commitment of a million dollars seriously, even when it's for something as phenomenal as the Olympic Trials. We felt like the best thing to do for the sport and for us over these next 18 months, what better way to elevate everything we're doing with the kids and everything else, then to host the Trials again."

Wittenberg said that while Boston was unprepared to raise the amount in its financial package, NYRR agreed to fully fund hosting of one race provided that an agreement could be reached on advertising revenue. Although Wittenberg said she was involved in a number of productive sponsor and donor calls with Estes and the USOC, it is clear USATF was not willing to concede on this issue.

"I think there was some hubris involved," Logan said. "If the bids were in spec from day one, and they said, ‘We'll put our money up,' I'm not sure of what I would have done. I think for them to think that their name meant dollars, and that I was going to forgo almost a million dollars on their good looks is hubris."

A more attractive bid

As New York's bid seemed to come with more conditions attached, Houston presented USA Track & Field with a Godfather-style bid.

In the end, it was one Logan could not refuse.

Firstly, its overall package of $1.7 million involved no calls for sharing of advertising revenue and its promise of $300,000 in prize money exceeded the USATF recommendation of $250,000. Secondly, the civic support for holding the event was overwhelming.

"I've been to (the Houston Marathon) the last two years and stuck my nose into every nook and cranny," Logan said. "Those guys know what they're doing. They are as good of event managers as there are. And the city is extraordinarily enthusiastic. The press announcement was done in City Hall with the mayor and members of the city council in a rotunda with 80 or 90 important people to the LOC."

According to Houston Marathon Committee board chair Brant Kotch, it was all part of their strategy.

"We went into [the bidding process] with our eyes wide open," Kotch told Universal Sports in January. "Plus, the timing of our race [mid-January] is perfect for the Trials."

In addition to the financial package, Logan said one of the things that made Houston's bid so attractive was where it falls on the calendar. Contesting the Trials on January 14 would give athletes approximately 30 weeks to prepare to race at the London Olympics.

"When I was down there, I said, ‘Why Houston? You ought to go thank January,'" Logan said. "Prior to taking this job, I did not go to Boston to see the women run. I did see the men's Trials in New York. It was a great spectacle. It was a nice course, visually a very appealing course. But there was some question in my mind as to whether we got the right bang for the buck by having the Trials split.

"The races were four-and-a-half or five months apart so you had two completely different training regimens, men and women. One could get in an additional race and the other one there was some question as to whether or not the recovery time was right. The more I talked to people, they said New York is too long of a period of time and Boston is too short of a period of time."

Wittenberg disagrees.

"Distance runners are not gearing up for January ever," she said. "These are all people who train for a spring and a fall. Not that they can't break out of that, but why not go with what they know and have been doing year in and year out"