Reinke Sports Group of Winter Park, Fla., which helped organize and market the recently completed inaugural Mother Road Marathon in Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri that drew 1,500 runners, may not be rehired for the 2011 event.
Tim Cox, the new director of the Joplin Convention and Visitors Bureau, announced Friday on Facebook that Reinke wouldn’t be retained, but backtracked on that when contacted later by the Joplin Globe:
It states that the Reinke group, headed by Dean Reinke, was “an integral part” of helping the communities along Route 66 plan the event.
“However, upon conclusion of the event it has been the decision of the city of Joplin and the Joplin Convention & Visitors Bureau to not utilize the Reineke Sports Group for any future events, races or activities officially associated with the Mother Road Marathon,” the posting reads.
It says the city of Joplin and the CVB are the copyright holders and owners of the event.
There are comments on the page that indicate that Reinke has been e-mailing participants to sign up for next year.
Cox, asked Friday why Reinke won’t be rehired, said a decision on whether to rehire Reinke actually is pending. Globe efforts to reach Reinke on Friday were unsuccessful.
That posting on Facebook couldn’t be found Saturday morning.
The Joplin CVB may be changing horses for any number of reasons. Maybe it got miffed when Reinke jumped the gun for the 2011 marathon. Maybe Cox simply wanted a new direction after succeeding former CVB director Vince Lindstrom, who hired Reinke.
It was Lindstrom, after all, who said the marathon would be run in 2009 before he and other red-faced CVB officials realized the announced course from Miami, Okla., to downtown Joplin would be about four miles too long for an official marathon. Citing economic reasons, the Mother Road Marathon was postponed a year and the course rejiggered.
But maybe it’s simply because the CVB got cold feet after hearing about problems with Reinke. This article from Worcester Magazine in Worcester, Mass., indicates there were problems with Reinke Group at other running events it had organized:
“Research was done on past marathons [run by the Dean Reinke Sports Group] and we found that they really weren’t run well,” says Goolsky. “There was not enough water stations or volunteers in some cases. These may be small things but they’re important things.”
Initially CMS was working with Reinke to help create a course for the marathon, but the group ended the relationship after Goolsky began hearing and reading complaints about Reinke and his past events via postings online.
“All I could find was bad reviews,” says Goolsky, “and I just couldn’t put our name behind something like that. If the race isn’t run well it will paint Central Mass running with the same brush, and we have a problem with that.”
And just last month, Purdue University sued Reinke Sports Group for trademark violation regarding the alleged improper use of “Purdue University” to publicize a local half-marathon.
And, as the Worcester publication cited, the online complaints against the Reinke group are legion.
Regardless of what happens, the Joplin CVB has announced the 2011 Mother Road Marathon would be Oct. 9.