Also affected by the new coronavirus epidemic, many marathon events in China have been canceled or postponed, but most of the organizing committees have chosen to refund the registration fee unconditionally.
Xinhua News Agency, Chengdu, February 19 (Ji Yanhao, Sun Xiaohui) the Tokyo Marathon Organizing Committee issued an announcement a few days ago, announcing that the Tokyo Marathon event to be held on March 1 could not be guaranteed to be held “safely, it was decided to cancel the mass race, and only the elite race and wheelchair marathon elite race were retained.
The Tokyo Marathon in 2020 was originally scheduled to have 38000 people. The announcement meant that more than 30000 mass runners who had successfully signed up would miss this year’s competition. However, the organizing committee also announced that the quota for those who failed to participate in the competition would be retained until 2021, but all the players had to pay again.
As soon as this message came out, it caused controversy in domestic running circles. Also affected by the new coronavirus epidemic, many marathon events in China have been canceled or postponed, but most of the organizing committees have chosen to refund the registration fee unconditionally. Is the Tokyo Marathon Organizing Committee reasonable? In the face of force majeure like the epidemic, should the marathon registration fee be refunded?
Why does the Tokyo Marathon “dare” not refund the fee?
A Chinese runner who successfully signed up for this year’s Tokyo Marathon revealed to Xinhua that after the Tokyo Marathon Organizing Committee sent the relevant notice to the runner group on the 17th, it caused great controversy, many runners expressed anger and doubts, and some runners expressed understanding of the measures of the organizing committee.
In the view of the above runners, the Tokyo Marathon Organizing Committee has its own “confidence” in doing so. The first paragraph of Article 22 of the Tokyo Marathon “Registration Treaty” clearly stipulates: “The situation that the track is inaccessible due to snow, heavy rain, strong wind, thunderstorm, tornado and the fire of buildings around the track, the registration fee will be refunded; Or if the competition is suspended due to the earthquake and the National instantaneous alarm system (except war and terrorist attacks), the registration fee will also be refunded. The rest of the cases that cause the cancellation of the game will not be refunded.”
The spread of the new coronavirus epidemic in Tokyo is the force majeure factor that affects the normal holding of the Tokyo Marathon. According to Japan’s news on February 16, Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, Tokyo, Japan added 5 confirmed cases of covid-19, including medical staff.
The organizing committee said that considering that the cancellation of the participation of mass players was due to the epidemic, and the epidemic was not any refund stipulated in the Treaty, the decision was made that the registration fee would not be refunded.
Regarding the practice of the Tokyo Marathon Organizing Committee, Wang Yong, the leader of the capital media running group and Xinhua News Agency full senior reporter, said that he respected the decision made by the Tokyo Marathon organizing committee considering the severe epidemic situation, this reflects their attitude of being responsible for public safety. But he also said that although the Tokyo Marathon Organizing Committee was reasonable, it was not pleasing. “After all, from the perspective of runners, paying again increases their economic costs, which is unfair. What’s more, some runners have already booked air tickets and hotels for the competition, and these expenses are not small.”
As the event operator, Jiang Chunyang, the R & D director of Huiran event, expressed his understanding of the Tokyo Marathon from the perspective of event cost. “Today, it is less than two weeks before the Tokyo Marathon Runs. According to the rules of event operation, most of the expenses of the Tokyo Marathon have already been incurred. The time-sensitive supplies such as medals, costumes, and Chip telephone directory of the Tokyo Marathon have been produced, and some advertisements for the event have also been rolled out.”
In his view, under the circumstance that these time-sensitive products cannot be sold, the Tokyo Marathon Organizing Committee may not be able to bear the refund fee of about 38000 runners.
Yan Hao, the person in charge of the event operation center of Jiangsu sports competition Co., Ltd. Also recognized the above view, “although the Tokyo Marathon organizing committee did not meet the expectations of some people, it was also understood, because the measures are reasonable and compliant.”
In the face of force majeure, how to do domestic events?
It was also affected by the outbreak of the new coronavirus pneumonia. Many domestic marathon events had previously announced the extension or cancellation of the competition, but the handling method was not the same as that of the Tokyo Marathon.
Many insiders told Xinhua that the handling methods of domestic marathon events canceled due to force majeure were basically full refunds, and some organizing committees would also reimburse the players’ accommodation and transportation expenses.
According to the notice issued by the organizing committee of the recent marathon events, Xinhuanet found that most domestic marathon events that were canceled or postponed due to the epidemic gave runners two options: to retain the qualification of successful runners, even if it continues to the next session, there is no need to pay again; If you cannot continue to participate in the competition, you can refund the registration fee unconditionally. This is the case of Chongqing Marathon, which was announced to be postponed on February 17.
Jiang Chunyang said, “most marathon competition regulations contain force majeure clauses similar to Tokyo marathon. However, at present, most of these domestic competitions choose to bear the risk cost themselves.” In his view, the purpose of domestic event operators is the same, “they all hope to maintain this hard-won runner market.”
Wang Yong also expressed appreciation for the practice of the domestic marathon organizing committee, “through comparison, we can see that the domestic Marathon Organizing Committee considers more from the perspective of runners, reflecting the domestic marathon, the humanized concept of running off-road events.”
Should the registration fee be refunded under force majeure?
Compared with domestic marathon events, most of which digest risk costs by themselves, foreign marathon events with higher degree of marketization usually follow their own rules when dealing with unexpected situations, even if it will “offend” the runner.
In 2012, the New York Marathon, which began in 1970, was canceled due to Hurricane Sandy. According to US media reports, in the subsequent solution, the organizing committee decided to allow applicants to apply for refund. However, applicants who choose not to refund the fee can choose the direct qualification for any year in 2013, 2014 and 2015, but they need to pay the registration fee twice.
Insiders told Xinhua that in the short term, for the runner market, in the face of force majeure, domestic marathon operators can choose to bear their own risk costs; But in the long run, this phenomenon is not advocated.
At present, the main sources of income for domestic marathon events are government subsidies, sponsorship income and registration income. However, with the formal implementation of the materialization reform of China Track and Field Association, accelerating the marketization process has become an important direction for the development of China marathon. “The market-oriented operation mode of marathon should be government setting up platforms and market singing. The operation cost of the event needs to be solved by the organizing committee through market development and registration fee income.” The above people think.
Whether the move of Tokyo Olympic Games will have an impact on the compensation measures for domestic marathon events to deal with the epidemic, Yan Hao thinks this is certain, “maybe some organizing committees will refer to this treatment method, after all, the good operation of the organizing committee can ensure the quality of the event.”
Wang Yong put forward another view. He believed that the Tokyo Marathon reserved place but the need to pay again would not change the attitude of the domestic Marathon Organizing Committee in dealing with similar situations, but it will provide them with a kind of solution seeking mindset.
“When dealing with similar events, domestic competition companies should proceed from reality and balance the interests of holding cities, runners, organizing committees and other parties.” Wang Yong said, “buying ‘event cancellation insurance’ is also a good way, which can reduce the losses of organizers and runners.”
It is understood that event cancellation insurance has become very common in foreign sports events, and almost every top event has the support and guarantee of this kind of insurance. In China, the event cancellation insurance also appeared in the marathon market many years ago.
International organizations also encourage the event underwriting of “event cancellation insurance. In the world field Federation’s 2019 Road running sign competition standard, the statement of “event cancellation insurance” appeared for the first time, requiring event cancellation insurance to apply for the highest level platinum sign in 2020, if the event is canceled, the registration fee must be refunded through insurance.
It is worth noting that the Tokyo Marathon was listed in the first batch of platinum events announced by the world field Association in November, 2019.