With the departure of NYRR Chief Executive Officer Mary Wittenberg, longtime sports marketer Michael Capiraso takes over as president and CEO, with Peter Ciaccia elevated to president of events and race director for the New York City Marathon.
Capiraso is a veteran marketer, previously working with Cole-Haan, Calvin Klein and the NFL, and he has been at the NYRR since 2012 full time after joining in 2009 as a consultant. He spoke with SportsBusiness Journal’s Terry Lefton about his new position.
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What’s your charter?
CAPIRASO: Simply put, it’s to continue to grow running throughout New York and the five boroughs, continue to grow the TCS New York City Marathon and make running more accessible for everyone. We need to make sure our core group of runners is always with us, but running is experiencing another boom now and we need to take advantage of that. There are a lot more casual runners, people training on their own and we are working on making that part of our next three-year plan. If there’s anything you’ll see more of, it is supporting our community roots and getting everyone running, especially kids.
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Where do you see opportunities for growth? There has been some talk on and off about adding a second New York marathon over the years.
CAPIRASO: We’ll always look at opportunities, but for now we’ll concentrate on our Five-Borough Series and the TCS New York City Marathon. One area we see as a real opportunity is offering a wider array of runner products and services. We’ll look to grow our engagement with runners outside of our races, with things like training, classroom education and more digital products. Another great opportunity is offering people the chance to run in some smaller, more accessible events for free in some of the parks around the city.
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Where are you as far as a marketing campaign for the 2015 marathon?
CAPIRASO: We were so happy with last year’s “Get Your New York On” we’re looking at the 2.0 version for this year.
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As someone who has run the last 23 New York City Marathons, what can you say about growth?
CAPIRASO: Obviously, the race has gotten bigger (from 18,000 to more than 50,000 participants). There’s more year-round training, of course, and we provide some of that support. There’s just more engagement before and after race day. As a participant, what I have learned is to run the second half better than the first, so pace yourself. Honestly, it took more than 20 years to learn that, but I’m getting smarter every race.
