SportsTravel Road Trip Focuses on Marathon Logistics, College NIL Landscape

For the 11th consecutive year, the SportsTravel Road Trip brought high-level education and networking to Colorado Springs for Olympic and Paralympic leaders, as well as executives with sports organizations in the area.

The event organized by the Northstar Meetings Group in partnership with Louisville Tourism and the Louisville Sports Commission, is geared toward chief executives and event directors of sports governing bodies. Attendees at the USOPC Headquarters were welcomed by Jason Gewirtz of Northstar Meetings Group, Gen Howard of the Louisville Sports Commission and Tammie Liddie of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee with an update on planning for TEAMS ’25 in Columbus, Ohio.

John David, president and chief executive officer for the Sports Events & Tourism Association, also presented an industry update about trends the association is watching in the year to come. The event was attended by Patricia Sexton, a track athlete from Bellarmine University in Louisville, and Tessa Nauert, a volleyball athlete from Bellarmine, through participation in the Women in Sports Enrichment program organized by the Louisville Sports Commission.

Education topics then focused on best practices from mass participation events and the landscape of NIL in collegiate and Olympic sports.

Running the World’s Biggest Marathon

Marathons are some of the most complex events to organize in sports and the events that serve as Abbott World Marathon Majors are the most complex of all. Ted Metellus, chief production officer and race director for the New York Road Runners, detailed how to approach events when it comes to logistics, participant experience, host city relations and corporate sponsorships.

Metellus leads the organization of the TCS New York City Marathon, the biggest race in the world. This year’s event has drawn record interest, with more than 200,000 runners submitting applications, a 22% increase from the previous year. Only 2%–3% of applicants will be selected. In 2024 there were 55,644 finishers, the largest ever.

Attendees were able to learn a bit about the beginnings of the non-profit NYRR and New York City Marathon, which in 1976 first went through all five boroughs and inspired marathon organizers in Berlin, London and Tokyo. The organization now holds a multitude of other events including the Fifth Avenue Mile, Empire State Building Run Up, Midnight Run and Mini 10K, serving over 427,290 runners of all ages in 2024.

Organizing a massive event such as the NYC Marathon also includes a lot of logistics. There are 24 medical and water stations with 1.6 million compostable cups and 70,416 gallons of water. There are also 465 toilets and more than 5,000 volunteers on course.

“We don’t wake up each day with the goal of being the biggest” marathon in the world, Metellus said. “We do want to be the best. We want to host as many participants as possible but we also want to make sure the experience of the participants is the best that they can have.”

Navigating the Changing World of NIL

The collegiate ecosystem is evolving at a rapid pace. With important decisions ahead from the House v. NCAA settlement on college campuses, the Olympic movement is watching the next few months closely with the true impact on national governing bodies still to be determined.

Steve Smith, managing partner at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, presented to attendees the details about the Olympic Movement’s Intellectual Property within the United States and what trademarks the USOPC has compared to the IOC and NGBs.

Different details in how venues need to be ‘cleaned’ of sponsor logos that conflict with an NGB, USOPC or IOC event were discussed as well as uniform logo guidelines. Various commercial and non-commercial uses of athletes’ name, image and likeness and who owns footage and images from events were also discussed.

Big West Conference Commissioner Dan Butterly said each of the schools in his league have opted into the House settlement. NCAA institutions that opt into the settlement will be permitted to compensate their own student-athletes directly. According to estimates, the cap could be around $20.5 million in the 2025–2026 year. Butterly pointed out that part of the House settlement means roster limits in some sports, estimating there will be several hundred fewer athletes on Division I teams that would have to look for a new spot to play or even consider going to a school in a lower division.

While Smith’s presentation showed the various and settled guidelines as to NIL regulations within the Olympic movement, there has been widespread requests throughout the college landscape for one national standard for NIL. Butterly said the chances of that, given the current political divisions in Washington, is essentially zero.