The Study On The Externalities Of The City Marathon Race

In recent years, the city marathon races have been developing rapidly in our country. The characteristics of city marathon races are that mass athletes can play with professional athletes; the course of the races is on the open city roads; and the races need a large amounts of the city resources. These characteristics emphasize that the city marathon races have the nature of quasi public goods. Based on this perception, this paper analyzes the externalities of marathon races through research methods such as literature research, expert interview, field investigation. Based on the studies above, this paper reaches conclusions as Follows:1. The city marathon races in our country have the nature of quasi-public products.They are inseparable on the utility; competitive on the consumption; non-exclusive on the benefit.2. The direct cost of the city marathon races in our country is organization cost, including competition organization, activities ceremony,media and publicity,traffic, security, insurance, medical and first aid, technology application and so on. The direcct yields of the races are entry fees and sponsorship fees.3. The city marathon races in our country have the nature of quasi public goods, and create Spillover Effect. These positive externalities are mainly manifested in the following aspects:the promotion of running, the spread of the spirit of marathon, the development of nationwide fitness campaign, the advocation of healthy lifestyle; the contribution to the shaping of the city brand image, the enhancement of culture core competitiveness of a city; the indirectly driving development of sports industry and urban tourism; the strengthening of public environmental awareness.3. At the same time, there are also negative external ities in the process of the city marathon races, including:during the race, road traffic-controlling cause residents and visitors some inconvenience; any noise pollution and garbage pollution; the waste of resources from a large number of temporary objects and race materials; the huge potential security problems during the course and the start/finish areas.Based on the conclusions above, this paper proposes suggestions as follows:1. In response to the positive externalities of the city marathon races, this paper suggest:on the one hand, strengthening propagandism of the positive meaning of the marathon; on the other hand, striving for the support and assistance of government to ensure the safety and order of the races.2. In response to the negative externalities of the city marathon races, this paper suggest:government adopt administrative measures, economic measures, legal measures, negotiation methods and education way together to guide and control.3. In addition, this paper suggest that the organizing committee and industry administration should creat event database.