Dutch Treat: ING Near Title Deal For NYC Marathon

Dutch financial services firm ING is "close to a deal to buy entitlement" for the NYC Marathon for $5M over three years, according to Terry Lefton in this week's SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, who notes ING would become the event's first-ever title sponsor. The company "will spend about $50 million this year in an attempt to build its name in the hyper-competitive U.S. financial services market." Sources said that the NYC Marathon "would be the first in a series of marathon titles around the world that would be purchased by ING, which is also looking to title" marathons in Berlin, Hong Kong and L.A. ING has already announced a three-year sponsorship of the Amsterdam Marathon, now known as the ING Amsterdam Marathon. Lefton adds that one concern for the N.Y. Road Runners, the race organizer, is "how ING's category rights affect those held by JP Morgan Chase, a longtime marathon sponsor." The NYRR may be planning "to creatively slice and dice its financial services category" (SBJ, 4/21 issue). CRAIN'S N.Y. BUSINESS' Steve Justice cites a NYRR spokesperson as saying she was "taken aback" when she read the SBJ report (CRAIN'S N.Y., 4/22).