This time it's the Seattle Marathon facing a public relations nightmare.
From Monday's Seattle Times:
When thousands of runners lined up near the Space Needle early Sunday for the half-marathon event at the 37th annual Seattle Marathon, the announcer said: Remember, you are running to benefit UW Medical Center patient housing today.
What many runners may not have realized was that not one cent of their race-entry fee — which costs up to $95 for the half-marathon and $120 for the full marathon — is destined for charity. Only money that runners decided to donate on top of their entry fees will go to charity.
Last year that amounted to only $12,000 — 1 percent of revenue — at an event that now pulls in more than $1 million annually.
The Seattle Marathon web site plays up the charity connection, with a logo at the top that says "To benefit UW Medical Center Patient & Family Housing Fund."
It gets worse. The marathon web site makes the claim that the race is "is organized and run by volunteers in the community."
Yes there are many volunteers the assist in the monumental task of putting on a marathon race, but hundreds of thousands of dollars went to marathon and organizer salaries in 2006, and the not-for-profit firm LKHA Inc. received $162,000 for "corporate administration."
Later on Monday, University of Washington officials made a sort-of-apology; in short, they issued a statement that they were sorry you if didn't really didn't understand what was really going on.
Congratulations are in order to the Seattle Times for superb reporting on this story.
Related posts:
A participant's view of the cancelled Chicago Marathon: UPDATED
Water station mayhem at Chicago Marathon
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