Many sporting events are considered great due to their rarity and exclusivity. Consider the Olympics, the Fifa World Cup and the British and Irish Lions, all of which are held on a rotating four-year cycle. That rarity heightens the anticipation and special nature of the event, ensuring public interest and engagement.
There is no doubt that the governing bodies of those sports are regularly tempted to look at ways to cash in on the brand and reputation those events have by hosting them more regularly – rugby union in particular would love to increase the regularity of the financial windfall that Lions tours bring to the sport. But, so far, common sense has prevailed, and the cache of the exclusive nature of the contest has held back those seeking to water it down.
It seems as though organisers of the London Marathon, however, are heading down a slightly different route.
The London Marathon is now officially the most popular in the world. Last year a record 56,540 runners completed the course, raising £87.3m for charity, making it the world’s largest annual one-day fundraising event. It’s a far cry from the first event held in 1981, when there were around 7,000 runners.
Despite this year being the 45th anniversary, and 1.3 million people having completed the course over the years (and £1.3 billion raised for charity), the appetite to compete has not diminished. Over 1.1 million people entered the public ballot to run this year (an increase from 410,000 just three years ago), and 95% of those applicants will not get a place to compete.
To enable more people to experience the event, the organisers are currently actively considering running the London Marathon over two days next year, Saturday and Sunday. The main reason communicated is that a two-day marathon would enable more than 100,000 amateur runners to participate over the weekend, with 50,000 running the course each day. This would potentially double the amount raised for charity to around £130m. The elite men’s and women’s races for professional athletes would also be staged on different days.
The arguments for running over two days are compelling, but the backlash to the news has also been fierce. A poll run by local news outlet The Greenwich Wire, showed that 67% of locals voted against a second day, and this is mainly due to the enormous challenges that hosting the marathon over two days would bring. Thousands of people live inside the areas that are cut off by the route, which already causes issues for the Sunday running, but adding in a Saturday will have even more impact as deliveries to businesses would be disrupted and customers will not be able to travel to high streets. A Saturday marathon would also disrupt other sporting activities in the area, such as football matches at Charlton and Millwall.
A further consideration is the fact that the popularity of the London Marathon has been so dependent over the years to the BBC coverage of the event. This event/broadcast partnership is one of the longest running agreements in British sport, spanning over five decades, with the BBC providing hours of live broadcast, which is shared to 190 countries around the world. It is a partnership that clearly benefits both sides, but would the BBC really be able to dedicate live coverage to two days, especially with all the other competing sports events taking place on Saturdays around the country?
The organisers of the Marathon have stated that the potential change in 2027 would be a one-off, but everyone knows that were it to be a success the pressure to repeat it would be too much to resist. But with a sports event that derives much of its popularity from its exclusiveness, organisers should be wary of losing that essential element while also diminishing the goodwill of Londoners and tarnishing what is currently a great success story for the capital and the country.
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David Little is a Partner at Bishop & Sewell in our expert Sports Law and Corporate & Commercial
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The above is accurate as at 2 April 2026.
The information above may be subject to change. The content of this note should not be considered legal advice, and each matter should be considered on a case-by-case basis.
