MTA demands $750,000 for NY Marathon to continue using their bridge

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The M.T.A. has quietly demanded roughly $750,000 a year from the organization that runs the marathon, to make up for the toll revenue that the authority loses when it closes the Verrazzano — North America’s longest suspension bridge — to vehicular traffic, according to interviews and memos reviewed by The New York Times.

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The dispute pits the M.T.A., whose finances have suffered a post-pandemic commuter decline, against an organization that derives the bulk of its fund-raising from the wildly popular bridge-dependent event — and then uses those funds to support running activities for the rest of the year, many of them free.

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Rob Simmelkjaer, the chief executive of the Road Runners, pleaded his group’s case in a February letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul, who effectively controls the M.T.A., warning that the start of the marathon was “now in danger.”

Mr. Simmelkjaer pointed out that the marathon was a homegrown institution that draws more than one million spectators and provides substantial economic benefits to New York City.

He also highlighted a certain irony in the M.T.A.’s messaging. Even as the authority has insisted that the marathon is unacceptably costly, it has also praised the race for driving up subway ridership, which boosts the M.T.A.’s fare revenue.

The day after the marathon in November, both the governor and the M.T.A. put out a news release citing those higher ridership numbers: “Marathon runners and spectators alike took the subway to Sunday’s race, accounting for 2,304,683 paid rides, the highest for a Sunday in almost four years,” it read.

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The Road Runners also began paying for personnel costs linked to closing the bridge in 2021. Last year, the group was charged $150,000, the organization

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