MARATHON OWNER FORCED TO SELL RACES
Chris Devine had big dreams. The Chicago man who birthed the Chicago Half-Marathon, the Salt Lake 'Bump and Boogie' Marathon, the Los Angeles Marathon and more, came into the sport of 26-mile runs with a bang. His races were lavish, with plenty of advertising, big prizes and huge appearance fees for star runners. He came into each marathon town, hired a staff and opened an office. He offered daily training programs to get runners ready for his races.
And then it all came crashing down. Runners began complaining that Devine Racing had not paid contracted appearance fees. Winners complained that they had not received their prize money. Cities that had donated services to the new big man in the running world, started getting balky.
Devine has now sold his baby, the Chicago Half-Marathon, and the prestigious Los Angeles Marathon, saying the sale money will be used to pay his overdue bills.
"My personal feeling is that he overextended himself by acquiring half a dozen mostly marathons. I would guess that he's not able to pay his bills, so he's not making a profit on them (the races)," says Phil Stewart, editor of Road Race Management, the definitive newsletter for road race organizers.
Stewart believes that Devine was hoping to imitate the success of Elite Racing, which is an event organizing company that was the first to market marathons as a brand. Elite has been extremely successful with their rock and roll themed races.
Devine has told reporters that he is "embarrassed" by his money troubles. There have been reports that he has even used some of the profits from his string of radio stations to help pay for the marathons, and runners noticed that some of the parties and other extravagances of the Devine races were cut from last year's events.
But the money troubles should be over now, since newspapers are reporting that Devine got "double digit millions" for the two races he sold.
The man who would be the marathon king say that the Las Vegas and Salt Lake City Marathons are still on, and will be up to the standards his races were before Devine Racing fell into financial difficulties.