Dublin City Marathon returns to profit in 2022

The company that runs the Dublin City Marathon returned to profit last year. It recorded post-tax profits of €690,710 after recording losses over the previous three years.

Marathon Events Management Ltd operates what is the country’s most popular marathon, with 22,500 signing up for this year’s race which took place on the last Sunday in October. Accounts for Marathon Events Management Ltd show that the post-tax profit of €690,710 followed losses of €84,653 and €42,236 during the Covid-hit years of 2021 and 2020, when the Dublin City Marathon did not take place.

The firm also recorded losses of €222,174 in 2019.

The losses depleted the company’s accumulated profits to €15,171 at the end of December 2021, and the profit for last year resulted in the accumulated profits rebounding to €705,881. The company’s cash pile almost doubled from €1.62 million to €3.19 million.

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The profit for last year takes account of a Sport Ireland Covid-19 resilience grant of €100,000.

A spokeswoman for the Dublin City Marathon said on Thursday: “As a not-for-profit organisation the return to profit will help to build reserves for unexpected financial challenges as well as allow for further investment in the management, development and promotion of the Dublin Marathon and race series.”

She said the return to profit “is important for the financial stability and the sustainability of the Dublin Marathon and race series”.

The firm made the return to profit after hiking the entrance fee for the cancelled 2020 marathon to €110 and all entries remained valid for the 2022 event. The €110 entrance fee was a 22 per cent increase on the €90 entrance fee for the 2019 event. The entry fee for the 2023 marathon was €110 and with 22,500 signing up it generated an estimated €2.475 million in revenues.

Asked how many runners have signed up for 2024, the spokeswoman would only say that “the process for entering 2024 is still in progress”.

In spite of the increased cost a large number of signed-up runners were no-shows for the 2023 event.

Of the original sell-out entry of 22,500, only around 16,540 runners made the start, with 16,347 listed as official finishers meaning around 6,000 running entries went used.

Asked what measures the Dublin City Marathon has in place to reduce the level of no-shows, the spokeswoman said: “This is part of our ongoing review of the 2023 event.”