Home of Purdue Marathon not happening

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - Officials from Purdue University and the cities of Lafayette and West Lafayette have notified the organizer of the Home of Purdue Half Marathon the race won't be happening and to stop advertising a partnership with them.

The organizer said he hasn't received anything.

"They talk about a letter; I've gotten none. Purdue talks about concerns. What are those?" said Dean Reinke of Reinke Sports Group. The organization was putting the Home of Purdue Half Marathon on in October this year.

Reinke came to the Lafayette-West Lafayette Visitor's Bureau about hosting a mini-marathon. There was a press conference in December announcing the Home of Purdue Half Marathon would be October 24, 2010. In February, the Visitor's Bureau backed out of supporting the marathon and President Jo Wade said a letter was sent to Reinke stating just that.

Wade said the Visitor's Bureau has never heard back from Reinke, but she said she has heard he has gotten the letter.

She said he continued forward with the half marathon.

"He has continued to promote it and put people on as sponsors who have not said they were going to sponsor race," Wade explained. "We are just trying to say stop. We don't want anybody to get hurt."

Wade said the biggest reason the Visitor's Bureau, both Lafayette and West Lafayette and Purdue backed out and aren't supporting the race is because both mayors asked to have a not-for-profit organization benefit from the race.

"What we found out was the (other) YMCAs were not benefitting from the (other) races at all. They were not making any money. They were doing all the work, but they were not making any money. All the money was going to Reinke Sports for promoting the race," Wade said.

She said the committee for the marathon wasn't happy with the agreement Reinke had drawn up for the YMCA. Wade also said the Visitor's Bureau wanted some of the money from the race to benefit the community. She also said Reinke is not allowed to use the logo on the race website or the name "Home of Purdue" as the race title. It is trademarked to Purdue University.

West Lafayette Mayor John Dennis said the city sent a certified letter from the city attorney at the end of July to Reinke, stating the city does not support the half marathon based on the Visitor's Bureau's decision earlier this year.

"In this community, we have a fairly high standard of how we hold public events. Mr. Reinke didn't meet that standard. Therefore, we decided to terminate our relationship with him," Dennis said.

Wade said some people from the Visitor's Bureau went to a race Reinke was hosting in Tennessee.

"We had concerns about how things were being run at that race. As we were following up more, we had racers sending us some race magazine and blog comments about how things were not run right in other communities," she said.

Reinke said his organization has a stellar reputation and doesn't understand why the city wouldn't want the race.

"This economic impact and tourism benefit from this event will be second to only Purdue football games," Reinke said.

Reinke said over 800 people have signed up for the race.

Dennis said the West Lafayette Board of Works would have to approve roads to be closed for race day and he is advising the board to not approve this. Dennis also said money Reinke has paid to cover security costs will be returned to him.

News Channel 18 spoke with Rienke before talking with Dennis and Wade. News Channel 18 called Reinke back to get his reaction about the concerns Dennis and Wade expressed, but he has not returned our call.

Wade said something like this has never happened in Lafayette or West Lafayette before.
 

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