Organizer feud: Munich Marathon as a shark tank

The team around LG Stadtwerke President Jacob Minah appears tense when the press conference begins. They want to revise and further develop the concept of the Munich Marathon and attract even more runners and spectators with fresh ideas. To do this, they founded Munich Athletics GmbH. The district administration department (KVR) considered the new concept to be better and gave Minah an oral declaration of intent to award his GmbH the contract for the next two years. But that hit long-time organizer Gernot Weigl to the core, who has left no stone unturned ever since and has fought for his life’s work. Minah had invited people to a media event this Friday to describe his point of view, as Weigl had done before. And to explain why Munich Athletics applied to host the marathon in the first place.

The previous organizer Weigl had made serious allegations against the planned two-round concept during the marathon in mid-October and assumed there was an increased risk of accidents. Weigl’s commissioned reports came to the conclusion that the race could not be carried out in this way: the group of the fastest runners would join the field of the slower ones, and the safety of the athletes could not be guaranteed. In addition, the “Save the Munich Marathon” petition, which promotes Weigl’s previous concept with the same arguments, is running until the end of November. Almost 10,000 signatures have been collected so far.

Minah calls this an “opinion-mongering in society” that would ultimately harm the marathon. And because from his point of view something has gone wrong, he wants to put things right. Together with Julia Riedl, Managing Director of LG Stadtwerke Munich, and Faliero Graiani, Vice President of Competitive Sports, he describes that the new draft should focus on promoting athletes. Because the LG is urgently looking for additional sources of income in addition to the donations from its main sponsor, the Münchner Stadtwerke. The number of athletes is increasing, as are the costs. Minah speaks of 800 active members for whom travel costs and funding could not be paid. An extensive search for sponsors had no effect.

So the club took up the option of hosting the Munich Marathon. “As a regional club, we see ourselves as having a responsibility to see to what extent we can do justice to our runners,” says Minah. In addition, the LG Stadtwerke checked whether profits could be made.

Minah and Riedl approached Weigl last year and wanted to work with him to develop a new concept. After an initially positive conversation, he then declined. After the KVR’s oral declaration of intent, they offered Weigl another cooperation. Despite his disadvantage, Weigl did not want to support the two-round concept.

Minah: “We know that we are the newcomers who are going into the shark tank to stand up to probably the longest-serving marathon director.”

At the press conference for the Munich Marathon, Weigl and his lawyer had prepared posters for the reports prepared. At Minah and Riedl’s press conference, there is a promotional video for the planned event and statistics with the numbers for this year’s marathon that are intended to convince the public. Minah’s data is intended to prove the opposite of Weigl’s report: Only a few runners would overtake others, the roads are wide enough, and there is no increased risk of accidents. The fastest athletes would not lap the first participants after 5.4 kilometers, as shown in Weigl’s report, but only after 30 kilometers. “Given the width of the route, you can also work with a lock system, that won’t be a problem at all,” says Graiani.

Munich Athletics is also referring to the 2021 marathon. Due to the corona pandemic, the route had to be adjusted to a half marathon distance, which was then run back again after a turnaround. Weigl himself had already organized a marathon on half of the route, which took place perfectly. Graiani also names comparable running events in Osaka and Salzburg, which also have a two-round concept.

No legally binding decision has been made yet, but Minah and his team are already planning. They have already found a main sponsor. Minah only wants to announce what will happen to the previous title sponsor Generali after the official decision has been made. In order to be able to plan the race in detail, he would like a decision as soon as possible. Certainly also to end the ongoing back and forth: “We know that we are the newcomers who are going into the shark tank to stand up to what is probably the longest-serving marathon director.”