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The London Marathon is as bent as a corkscrew!
Of course it is Ben, no doubt you will be able to back up your statement with some anecdotal "evidence" and a few internet studies, topped off with a conspiracy theory or two.
I don’t want to get into that sort of territory, but the they have been given an awful lot of money, and they have not given a very good account of what they did with it.
Based on what they have publicly disclosed, you would have to think that they are keeping the money they receive for a couple of years, and creaming off the interest.
Each year I give them £30 or so and they give me the best organised and marshalled race of the year with a field of the world's best athletes in one of my favourite cities with hundreds of thousands of people cheering me on. Criminal. They want locking up.
The bottom line is that they receive a hell of a lot of money, that they have failed/declined to account for!
I want to be on their side, but they seriously need to answer some questions!
In another thread, I am being criticised for being a Sweatshop stooge.
Hugh Brasher owns Sweatshop, and organises the London Marathon.
I basically call it like I see it.
But Ben, that is the point, they don't need to answer any questions. If they were forced to respond to every disgruntled and cynical ex sweatshop employee on the internet they would never get any races organised.
So, rather than prolong the argument, why don't you - having accused them of being bent - just put up or shut up?
you can't call them bent as a corkscrew and then say loftily you don't want to get into that sort of territory, you're in it, and you put yourself there.
It wasn't me who made the acusation, it was Panorama.
That is a suficiently high profile criticism, that it requires a response in my opinion.
Seems that your opinion is worth even less than Panorama's..... Oh the shame
Ben, mate, first of all it was Dispatches, not Panorama, that's the standard of your research as ever. I watched the programme with interest and an open mind, and I thought the programme makers embarrassed themselves.
Next, you said they were bent. Did you mean you know they're bent because you saw it on the telly? Or perhaps it was Bloke from Down the Pub who told you?
You clearly don't know any more than me or anyone else, so come back when you have some hard facts and I'll be the first to listen,
No It was you Ben, Your posting at the top of this page Jan 5th at 21:46, You call The London Marathon as bent as a corkscrew, No mention of a TV programme making the claim, no mention of a bloke down the pub...
YOU MAKE THE CLAIM, now be a good chap and back it up
She may have felt obliged to, maybe the charity told her she had to, but legally she didn't have to make up the difference.
I think the allegations made in the programme are quite sufficient to call their integrity into question. An organisation that is taking substantial sums of money, nominally for charity, should not be holding on to them for years on end for its own profit. That is not the expectation that people have when they donate money to a charity. The fact that they have declined to comment on the matter, merely makes them look more guilty. Do you have any reason to think that the allegations made in the programme are unwarranted?
Come on, What proof do you have ?????
You may well be breaking the law making such a defamatory statement like that, especially without any sort of evidence
Surely Ben isn't stirring things up again is he ??
Hi Cheerful Dave. I never knew that! I always thought you had to make up the difference. This will change my mind if I choose to run for a charity in the future. Thanks!
Ben I don't really remember much of the detail, and I would hazard a guess you don't either.
I remember an allegation that they had some money in the bank and hadn't given it all away. Not giving all your working capital away overnight and being in the game for the long term is a good trait in charity work I think.
another allegation was, I think, that they obstructed other race organisers from holding events in London, and they trotted out the organiser of the British 10k. Now I don't really know anything about him, so I can't comment on his integrity, that would be very wrong of me. But do I have a problem with a major brand protecting itself commercially? No of course not, The London Marathon are just doing what Heinz, Innocent, or any other brand would do...stopping people jumping on the bandwagon and profiting from their work.
you still haven't come up with any concrete proof of anything though, it's not really acceptable to say that an allegation justifies itself by merely being made is it?
The alegation (which was backed up by there own research),is that they had held onto a lot of money, as in millions for a number of years. If true, then this is not acceptable. Indeed the mere fact that they are being secretive about what they are doing with money given for charity is bad in my book.
On a slightly related note, can VLM introduce a box you tick when you apply to say "don't send me the rejection magazine, just e-mail me and save yourself some pennies (and donate them to charity instead)...?
I agree with the letter. I run regularly, am not a club member and have entered the ballot 8 times without success. Charities hold the general public to ransom by demanding huge amounts for a place. Perhaps there should be 2 races every year, the marathon for runners and the charity marathon.
Obviously the charities don't want people taaking their places with no intention of raising any money (and I'm not suggesting you'd do that!) so they always true and give the impression that it's a compulsory amount. Problem is, if there was any compulsion over it then they're effectively selling the place and they can't claim gift aid on any of it - they can only claim gift aid on voluntary contributions.
If you know you can't raise the amount they're asking for then talk to them - as we've seen this year they're often willing to lower targets as they don't have a long list of people able to raise £2500 any more. OTOH, if you've given it your best shot and come up a bit short then they shouldn't be pressuring you to make up the difference.
Only thing that puts me off running for charity for the bigger races is that they normally want equivalent money as is needed for an own place entry, but then they want silly money sometimes thousands on top. That charity place I doubt has cost them anywhere near that much to gain in first place, so surely they should just be happy that someone is raising money for them? I now gain my own places for races and then look for a charity to support afterwards.
£2500 is a lot to raise and possibly unrealistic target for many people. I was lucky enough to win a ballet place this year on my fist try. I decided as this is something of a challenge I would raise some money, I set myself a target of £1,000 and I'm 53% of the way with 8 weeks to go, I couldn't do it every year though.My friend in a running club wanted to do it but so many more people put their names forward than they had places for, should make the race bigger.
scorpiokisses – I believe the minimum cost of a charity place is £300 (plus VAT of £60 which can be re-claimed later, but still payable up front). However there are different packages available that gives the charities benefits such as a double-page advert in the official mag which can cost up to £1,000 per place. So you can see why they are asking for £2,000+ sponsorship, since a lot of the cost is just going towards the marketing! Some runners no doubt will have very strong options about this, personally I simply found a very small charity, no adverts at all in the mag, no finish-line luxury hotel, and they have asked for less in total sponsorship that what a larger charity with a big marketing budget might be charged per place by the organisers.
Believe there are roughly 10,000 charity places available each year which is fewer than what most people seem to believe. That’s around half the number of ballot places so in my opinion charities aren’t holding ballot runners to ransom. Information is out there if you ask them, just because it’s not on the front page of the website doesn’t mean they are hiding it.
Just in case anyone's unclear, here's what the London Marathon says about its status: http://www.virginmoneylondonmarathon.com/marathon-centre/marathon-centre/the-london-marathon-charitable-trust/
And you can look at its last accounts on the Charity Commission website: http://apps.charitycommission.gov.uk/Showcharity/RegisterOfCharities/CharityWithPartB.aspx?RegisteredCharityNumber=283813&SubsidiaryNumber=0