New York Road Runners, the organizers of the ING N.Y. Marathon, have “reached a multimillion-dollar insurance settlement for the cancellation of last month's race,” according to sources cited by Matthew Futterman of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. The deal will allow NYRR to “release its restitution plan for the runners and sponsors who registered for and invested in last month's race," which was cancelled in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. An announcement “could come by the end of the week.” NYRR had been “seeking as much as $15 million in coverage,” but a syndicate of insurers “put together through the London-based Lloyd's insurance marketplace had been resisting such a large payment.” Officials last month said that “even if they were able to collect on all of the expenses covered in the cancellation policy, the club wouldn't be able to reimburse fully all runners and partners” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 12/20). In this week’s SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, Terry Lefton reports NYRR “will be looking to replace title sponsor ING, which may or may not be in the final year of its deal in 2013, depending on whether 2012 will be called a do-over or not.” In either case, while ING “has titled the race since 2003, the original deal was a few CEOs ago, and the company’s investment in running has been trimmed from a dozen or so marathon sponsorships to less than a handful.” A source said that CAA Sports has “already been quietly shopping the title sponsorship among clients and other agencies.” Another source said that ING has “already nixed a proposed $10 million a year offer to renew” (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 12/17 issue).
