Piss Poor Crowd at USATF Indoor Meet

yes, bad marketing, little press coverage before the meet and the lack of real top-notch athletes in any number. most events had only a couple. i was there Saturday, it was fun and entertaining, but if you're not a huge track fan you'd have known few of the names.

By the way, when will sponsors start putting names on uniforms?

Although the Indoor Nationals have never been a great draw, even back when held at Madison Square Garden, it did at times get up to about 12,000 in attendance (real people). To watch this meet dwindle down to less than 3,000 (from what could be seen of the many empty seats at Reggie) is sad and disturbing. My guess is that it won't be long before there won't be an indoor meet anymore. What sponsor is going to keep throwing money towards a sport that can't draw flies? To hear all the upbeat bs about the health of USA track and field, you would think they could draw 20,000. This is more than no press coverage, although that is certainly true. The meet is dull, the athletes seem to be using it more as a workout than anything else.

When Boston had two indoor meets a year at the old Garden, a bad night was 10,000. Where have all the fans gone?

SB wrote:

i was there Saturday

I'm curious, what did a ticket cost?

What are you talking about? This Meet was held in Boston this is just the big market that we need to generate interest in the sport. I know this because I keep hearing over and over again how great the marathon trials are going to be in a large market. Meanwhile they award the track trials to Eugene. It seems like USATF is inconsistent until you study the situation a little closer. USATF CAN BE BOUGHT. Nike bought the track trials and NYRR bought the marathon.

Yeah, except the stands at Hayward will be filled to capacity for the trials! Screw large market, etc...full stands make the meet.

The USATF does not market properly. They should have pushed the meet like crazy all over Boston and the Northeast. It was the same with the XC Meet lastweek. There were New Yorkers who didn't hear about it until the last minute. I'm the only one in my humble, little Upstate town woh new about it.

Market the meets and the athletes.

I hope so. It still doesn't make the process correct.

In response to the the comment as to when advertisers will start putting names on jerseys... why is track so behind with this. we need our threads plastered with rolex, mercedes, gucci, ferrari, cnn, and walmart.

Here is the problem. Right now shoe companies are the only sponsors that elite athletes have. Shoe companies know this and require exclusitivity. They know that the athlete can't get that kind of money elsewhere so the athlete obliges. Athletes need a union. Right now the athletes are weak. Shoe companies totally run the sport.

USATF doesn't market rivalries or individuals...aka how the OLY coverage went. If USATF would start to develop interesting bios on individuals and promote rivalries it would certainly be a start. I am an avid runner and I didn't even really know about this event...and hadn't heard any reason to attend...and barely know any of the athletes...imagine the common runner...

The USATF needs to make running events more "generic" and start focusing on the human factor to pack the halls...otherwise, people are just tuning into other areas that DO capture their attention. It's a whole new world in terms of competing for attention....with cell phones, pagers, blackberries, cable, Tivo, DVDs, etc.

Pump it up and make it timely and interesting or lose out.

Awful showing. More people come to watch collegiate meets. This meet should never be at that venue again, no seating at all. More people would come to watch it even in Madison Wisconsin which is pathetic. Move the meet to a city that cares and will fill the stands.

Hell move it to Indy where they used to have the NCAA indoor.

An additional problem. USATF does nothing and then blames lack of promotion on the event. Ask Fred Finke who was at fault for the mens Oly Marathon Trials not being on TV and it will either be Birmingham or USOC. Neither is true but if you say it enough times maybe people will start to believe it.

So dissapointing to see on TV nobody in the stands. Makes me sad because I know I would be there if it was somewhere closer locally.

I was at both the Boston Indoor Games and the USATF meet (both held at Reggie Lewis). The facility was filled to capacity at the Boston Indoor Games whereas the USATF meet had LOTS of open seats. The simple fact is that USATF did a horrible job of marketing the meet.

Additionally, tickets for the USATF meet were almost half the cost of tickets for the Boston Indoor Games. People in the Boston area and Northeast WILL pay come to see a track meet if it is advertised well.

I was at both the Boston Indoor Games and the USATF meet (both held at Reggie Lewis). The facility was filled to capacity at the Boston Indoor Games whereas the USATF meet had LOTS of open seats. The simple fact is that USATF did a horrible job of marketing the meet.

Additionally, tickets for the USATF meet were almost half the cost of tickets for the Boston Indoor Games. People in the Boston area and Northeast WILL pay come to see a track meet if it is advertised well.

What genius came up with the idea of having CC nationals a week before indoor track nationals?

nice planning. Why to split your resources and tax the resources of the media outlets that are friendly to the sport.

Do you think, say, competitiverunning.com, will send someone to both of these events in back to back weekends? Stupid.

I thought Masback was some ivy leaguer. I guess ivy league schools are all hype.

SB wrote:

yes, bad marketing, little press coverage before the meet and the lack of real top-notch athletes in any number. most events had only a couple. i was there Saturday, it was fun and entertaining, but if you're not a huge track fan you'd have known few of the names.

By the way, when will sponsors start putting names on uniforms?

just using the near complete lack of threads on indoor nationals on this site, i think it is a bit hard to blame it all on marketing. you have to be a diehard fan to follow the indoor national meet and apparently even many of the diehard fans who populate this site didn't even care.

and comparing this meet to a meet where the best distance runner in the world appeared is silly. the sprint events were barely populated with names even a diehard fan would know.

a couple responses:

my tickets were free, but I think they were $15.00. Seems high until you compare it to other sporting events in Boston.

By names, I meant athlete names. Knowing who you're watching makes a difference no matter what people say. Then we might get some recognition of faces in the papers. Instead of a picture of somebody hurdling, seeing the name on the jersey might get people more aware. And don't tell me those numbers with the names printed are enough. You could barely read them unless you're an official.

There are so many officials and bigwigs at a meet, you'd think it was about them.

Who's going to outdoor nationals? Hell, I live in Indy and I might not even make it. June 21-25, Weds-Sat, I sure as hell can't afford to take weds, thurs, friday off. Looks like most of the stuff I want to see will be at night, at least, so I could go down after work.