B.A.A. Releases Report on Economic Impact of 2024 Boston Marathon

By Emma Siebold

The Boston Athletic Association, the non-profit that hosts the famed Boston Marathon, released a report detailing the economic impacts of April’s race on the local and state economy. The report found that the marathon spurred over $500 million in economic activity.

“It’s very important that the data backs up what our eyes were telling us,” said B.A.A. President Jack Fleming. “That over the last few years, this very special event that everybody loves has really grown to a new level.”

The report was led by the Donahue Institute for Economic Policy and Research at UMass Amherst. Researchers found that 69% of the over 34,000 participants traveled from outside of Boston, with 30% coming from a foreign country. 

Visitors stayed three median nights in Boston hotels and spent a median of $500 on miscellaneous expenses during their stay. Meet Boston, an organization that leads tourism-related business and marketing in the private sector, commissioned the report. 

“For us it’s that global exposure,” said Martha Sheridan, President and CEO of Meet Boston. “It’s that word of mouth, that running team from Italy that comes over for the marathon, then they go home and tell their friends how wonderful Boston is.”

Researchers, led by Rod Motamedi, used the IMPLAN economic impact model to generate the $500 million figure; the model calculates total economic activity by using the cascade of direct impact, indirect effects and induced effects:

• Direct Effects: Immediate results of B.A.A. costs, marathon admissions, spectator-related spending.
• Indirect Effects: Hotels/restaurants purchasing more supplies to sustain increased tourism and patronage.
• Induced Effect: Increased household consumption because of increased wages/hours due to higher population of visitors.

Sheridan said Meet Boston will use the data as a benchmark for future events, including the upcoming World Cup matches at Gillette Stadium in 2026. 

Unlike other major global marathons, Boston’s qualification standards are based on a qualifying time, except for charity runners. Because of its narrow course, the field size is limited to 30,000 runners–this number includes all charity runners and the professional and wheelchair divisions. Hence, thousands of runners–even if they meet the time qualifications–get cut each year. 

Over 36,000 people with qualifying times applied for the 2025 race, and 12,324 were rejected. This is the most applicants in the marathon’s history, and that number continues to rise each year. 

“When something is taken away, our experience is that we had something we appreciated, and now we really appreciate it,” Fleming said. 

Fleming said the spectator surveys that informed the report informed the B.A.A. about the significant effect that non-participants had on the marathon’s impact. 

“That’s a very large constituency that we have not accounted for previously,” Fleming said.