OVER HEARTBREAK HILL : Corporate Sponsorship Helps Boston Marathon Get Past Wall . . . at a Price

Four years ago, David D’Alessandro opened the local paper and began to read about “an event that was broken,” the venerable Boston Marathon.

D’Alessandro was more than a casual reader, he was a corporate vice president at John Hancock Financial Services, with $42.2 billion in assets under management.

Boston was then floundering on the cusp of the old and new in the sport. The organizers of the 89-year-old race were resisting the move into what they viewed as gross commercialism and, worse, the vulgarity of awarding prize money. Never mind that the rest of the running world had long before added lucrative appearance fees and time incentive bonuses to their prize-money structure.

The Boston Marathon crawled into the future in 1985 by agreeing to pay expense money to some elite athletes, but stopped short of prize money. As far as major leaps go, it was pretty weak.

The intransigence of the race organizers--the Boston Athletic Assn., a 103-year-old former men’s club--was exacting a toll. The situation was this: During the half-century of Boston’s position as the world’s most famous running race, no other marathon dared challenge it as the most important spring race. Boston was protected by its own dominance.

Ironically, Boston’s success helped marathons in New York, London and Chicago grow, and eventually, surpass the dowager. And, when Boston failed to keep pace with the big money offered at other races, it lost its lock on the spring running schedule.

Things looked bleak, but the Boston Marathon hadn’t endured all those years without learning a little about survival. When D’Alessandro called to inquire if Boston would be interested in obtaining a major corporate sponsor, Boston said yes, please.

Today, the Boston Marathon is basically owned by John Hancock Financial Services. In an agreement announced earlier this week, Hancock and the Boston Athletic Assn. signed a 20-year deal to replace the former 10-year, $10-million agreement. The new deal calls for $1.3 million per year in funds and services through the year 2003. There is a five-year option through 2008.

The historic first contract with Boston, signed four years ago, signaled not just the resurgence of the marathon here but also the arrival of John Hancock as a major player in the running community.

To arrive on the 59th floor of the John Hancock Tower in downtown Boston is to be at the top, literally and figuratively. It is here where D’Alessandro has his office.

As the youngest senior vice president in the 120-year history of John Hancock, D’Alessandro, 37, has masterminded the company’s move into sports sponsorship. He suggested Hancock spend $7 million in TV time during college football games. Then, in 1986, D’Alessandro bought a bowl game, the John Hancock Sun Bowl.

“I was brought in five years ago next June to change the image of the company,” D’Alessandro said. “The company had acquired a number of smaller companies and had expanded and diversified into financial services. The problem was it was still perceived as an old line insurance company and they wanted to burst out of that.”

Hancock’s sponsorship of Boston is its most extensive but not the company’s only relationship with marathons. Hancock has a stake in three of the country’s richest marathons:

New York--$250,000-plus per year and a $600,000 television advertising buy. The agreement has a two-year option and runs through 1993. In addition, Hancock brings in most of the elite field; last year’s winners Steve Jones and Grete Waitz are Hancock clients.

Los Angeles--About $500,000 a year in cash and services, over five years. Hancock brought in most of L.A.’s tiny elite field.

Hancock offers a bonus to any runner who wins the open ($100,000) or masters ($25,000) division of the three races within a 24-month period.

Even expenditures in the millions, D’Alessandro is convinced his company has more than got its money’s worth.

“By helping the Boston Marathon to recover, we are seen as the saviors of the marathon,” he said. “We are seen as a much more progressive company than we would have before.”

The truly progressive idea D’Alessandro came up with was to sign elite runners to multiyear personal services contracts. The athletes are paid to conduct Hancock running and fitness clinics, for as as much as $25,000. The runner is required to run in a certain number of Hancock events over the time of the contract and for that the athlete is paid an appearance fee, six figures for some runners.

It’s a guaranteed yearly income plus the potential for lucrative bonuses. However, Hancock is paying Hancock athletes to run in Hancock events. The contracts carry a clause that if a marathoner chooses not run in Boston, New York or Los Angeles, that’s fine. But the athlete is prohibited from running in any other marathon 60 days before and 60 days after a Hancock event.

Hancock has signed most of the world’s best runners. Hancock has significantly upped the ante to play in big-time marathons. It’s natural that rival race promoters would bristle at what they perceive to be a monopoly. Bob Bright of the Chicago marathon has called the Hancock group “the Mafia.”

“The same people that started appearance money in marathons are the same people complaining today about it’s getting too expensive,” D’Alessandro said. “Go tell Rob de Castella he’s not worth $50,000.”

D’Alessandro said Hancock puts about $600,000-$700,000 a year into the athlete’s program.

“There was this great inadequacy about how runners were being treated,” D’Alessandro said. “They were being treated as greyhounds. They were only as good as their last race. There was no treatment of these athletes as professionals, in the sense that if they got injured they got no compensation.”

The case of Steve Jones is an example of how the program provides a safety net for injured athletes. Jones, a former world record-holder, dropped out of Monday’s race. He won’t be running, but he’ll be compensated for a clinic. Jones is freed from having to run for the money, which could lead to further injury.

But, under his contract, Jones is also not going to run anywhere else.

“What we try to do is to give them some guarantee of some income and we guarantee the depth of a field,” D’Alessandro said.

Indeed, the races that Hancock sponsors often feature the deepest fields of the season. Races such as the London marathon next week are forced to spend huge amounts of money to compete. Olympic marathon champion Gelindo Bordin of Italy, a Hancock runner, was reportedly offered $200,000 to run in London. He is not.

“The money is very tempting, but I don’t want them to tell me where and when to run,” said one runner.

However, testimonials from athletes abound. D’Alessandro said no athlete he has seriously recruited has turned down his offer. Joan Benoit Samuelson, the 1984 Olympic marathon winner, has a reputation for being cautious in choosing endorsements and sponsors. She spoke in glowing terms about her deal with Hancock.

“John Hancock’s support of our sport is just phenomenal,” Samuelson said. “Their concern to the athlete’s needs and desires and the fact that they are very sensitive to our needs, when they ask us to do clinics when they don’t, says a lot.”

Bill Rodgers, four-time winner here, was in the original group to sign with Hancock. He said that after years of fighting the “amateur” attitude in the running world Hancock’s businesslike approach is refreshing.

“Last year when I toyed with the idea of going to the Olympic trials, they said ‘great,’ ” Rodgers said. “Most athletes appreciate being treated with respect. Hancock does that.”

Rodgers says he’s involved with four to six clinics a year, more than twice the number other runners are involved with. His five-year contract, which expires next year, requires him to run both Boston and New York. Rodgers said he has no idea if his contract will be renewed. He said that after the first year of his contract he went back to Hancock and asked to change it. They said no.

D’Alessandro, who spent his two-month vacation last fall working on ad campaigns for the Michael Dukakis campaign, is nothing if not a practical man. He likes what the sponsorship of running has done for the company and so do his bosses.