NYC Olympic Marathon Trials Marketing Questions

A couple of points.

NBC pays big pucks for the Olympics and yes in this country. They only have the US television rights so whoever said that is wrong.

And network TV makes a difference, or even cable. The one guy is talking about a blackcactus video on Flotrack and I have no idea what he is talking about and I'm a hard core running fan. A few thousand people if we're lucky will see any video on a running website (unless perhaps it gets on the front page of youtube). If the race is on even ESPN a few hundred thousand people will see it. Big, big difference. There has always been word of mouth marketing, running needs much more.

The internet preaches to the choir, tv preaches to the masses.

The 7:30 start time makes no sense to me. I understand that maybe it's NBC's fault the race isn't on TV but the NYRR came up with the 7:30 start.

Ah, now I can think of a good reason it won't be shown live. In NY it will be 7:30am, which is too early already for average people to watch at home, but it's even earlier for the rest of America. How much of the west coast will be watching at 4:30 in the morning?

dukster wrote:

And network TV makes a difference, or even cable. The one guy is talking about a blackcactus video on Flotrack and I have no idea what he is talking about and I'm a hard core running fan. A few thousand people if we're lucky will see any video on a running website (unless perhaps it gets on the front page of youtube). If the race is on even ESPN a few hundred thousand people will see it. Big, big difference. There has always been word of mouth marketing, running needs much more.

you're thinking in the past. the internet is the future. look at how many people were watching ncaa tournament games on the internet last year. look at the growth in subscriptions for mlb.tv. forget about tv. it's not happening and it's the past. the next generation of fans is on the internet more than they watch tv. yeah, i'm sure the 45 year old running fans aren't happy that they can't just turn on the tv and will have to watch it on nbcsports.com instead. the younger fans don't care.

Snoochie Boochie wrote:

Who cares if YOU get to see the race 10 times instead of two. What about the hundreds of thousands that would be watching if it were on the true course?

That makes little sense. There's nothing to stop those hundreds of thousands of people from coming to CP on Saturday. And instead of seeing thousands of runners pass by once, they can watch a much smaller field many more times, and perhaps get a sense that it is a RACE, not just a social phenomenon.

wejo wrote:

That is such convoluted language.

That's a laugh, considering the source.

i'm sure the 45 year old running fans aren't happy that they can't just turn on the tv and will have to watch it on nbcsports.com instead. the younger fans don't care.

Chuck I disagree. I've yet to find people of any age who enjoy watching something on a choppy 3 inch screen as much as they do a television.

The quality of the product is much higher on a television. The quality is at another level in HighDef which is why so many HighDef tvs are being sold.

We're quite a few years from internet quality replacing the TV. When that happens then no one will care.

Plus TV brings an event to an audience it might otherwise not have. Internet pretty much brings it to people who already are interested.

But we're all debating finer points on this thread. Personally I hate the lack of live tv coverage. For an event to be taken seriously generally it is on live TV. The 7:30 start is way too early for my liking and most spectators. Having said that, there should still be a ton of people watching the Trials in the park on a spectator friendly course. It will be a great weekend in NYC. And the NYRR has really stepped up its game since Mary W became in charge. Prior to then the NYC Marathon was slipping tremendously in quality and Chicago was the only race doing something for American running. Now just 5 or 6 years later look at the difference.

Wejo--good points, however the bigger question for me is what is the purpose of the Trials? Is it to promote the sport? Draw spectators? Provide prize money? Or is it for the athletes--provide them with the best possible race to showcase their talents and make an Oly Team? I do think a later start would be nice, however NYC has, and can be very warm later in the day--early start time ensures the best possible temp (remember Pittsburgh and then the A/B time thing? we only sent one man that year) and NYRR (Sam and his handpicked staff) will provide a wonderful experience for the athletes (yes, even the Bs)--I think that this is the ultimate goal, to provide the best race possible for those who have qualified. And since Mary and Co has taken over, NYCM and their many other smaller races are nothing but great events with wonderful hospitality, organization, and with good media coverage to match.

wejo wrote:

I've yet to find people of any age who enjoy watching something on a choppy 3 inch screen as much as they do a television.

I (intentionally) don't own a television set and I don't feel that I'd miss out on something by seeing it on the computer versus television. There really isn't that much nuance or detail to marathon running that you'll really miss anything pertinent on the computer that you'd catch on the tv. Moves like surges and break-aways are the only break in metronomic running action and you need nothing more than uninterrupted coverage to pick up on those. chuck d is right, expecting it to be on tv uninterrupted is a naive fantasy and the internet is indeed this niche sport's best friend. You can rest assured that nobody who isn't already interested would be watching this at 7:30 EDT (earlier to the west). Then again, the same would be true if it were going to be on starting at 9:30 or even 12:30 EDT. Nevermind that there's no way that NBC would let an event like this preempt any college football broadcast (yet another bad reason to contest the OT marathon in the fall).

wejo wrote:

i'm sure the 45 year old running fans aren't happy that they can't just turn on the tv and will have to watch it on nbcsports.com instead. the younger fans don't care.

Chuck I disagree. I've yet to find people of any age who enjoy watching something on a choppy 3 inch screen as much as they do a television.

The quality of the product is much higher on a television. The quality is at another level in HighDef which is why so many HighDef tvs are being sold.

We're quite a few years from internet quality replacing the TV. When that happens then no one will care.

I hardly watch TV anymore and I have an HDTV. The internet is much more convenient and there are less commercials. You can go back and watch something, pause it, etc. I guess you can do that with Tivo, but can you read letsrun on Tivo? A lot of popular TV shows are now available online as well. Still have to see sweaty runners in high definition on a big screen? I think you can connect your computer to the TV, right?

In 2006 Boston was live, in its entirety, on Versus, was it not? I know Versus isn't exactly ESPN or NBC, but starting the race live on NBC, then pitching it over to the NBC.com stream AND Versus would still be an improvement over the current set-up. NBC does it with NHL hockey, so why not with the Trials?

The point about local/regional cable is maybe slightly less valid, because YES, MSG and FSN-NY are most widely available in the NY area and COULD potentially keep NYers home who might otherwise come and watch in person... without really expanding the audience nationwide all that much. Unless those networks are going to pay fairly decent money to NYRR/USATF for the broadcast rights (and they won't), then I don't know if that risk is worth it.

It's NBC's call.

Don't you think the NYRR/USATF would want as much TV as they can get?

The Freshman is right and you ARE all dorks and many of you are morons too. I've developed a mathematical equation for this: Dork + Moron = Runner. And don't flame me for this, I'm one of you.

Bottom line, this is the most hyped men's trials ever. The first one ever that someone outside of this pathetic community might find out about and have an opportunity to watch (if only highlights). NYRR is doing a great job with this as usual.

txRUNNERgirl wrote:

Still have to see sweaty runners in high definition on a big screen? I think you can connect your computer to the TV, right?

Did just that for WC marathons - went to a friend's house who has a big screen HD TV and plugged in his laptop w/ a $9.95 cord from Radio Shack. The image quality wasn't great, but it was good enough to see all the moves, etc. Internet image quality is basically a bnadwidth issue and once that's solved there will be little if any difference between it and TV. Plus, you get to listen to Steve Ovett instead of Carol Lewis!

JimG wrote:

Snoochie Boochie wrote:

Who cares if YOU get to see the race 10 times instead of two. What about the hundreds of thousands that would be watching if it were on the true course?

That makes little sense. There's nothing to stop those hundreds of thousands of people from coming to CP on Saturday. And instead of seeing thousands of runners pass by once, they can watch a much smaller field many more times, and perhaps get a sense that it is a RACE, not just a social phenomenon.

Sure it does... People are lazy. They will walkoutside or downthe block but wont wake up at 7:30 and travel all the way to Central Park for a side show when the real runners are running on Sunday. Glad to see you get a chance to watch them 10 times though...

If you want to go through Times Square, you have to start early. If you want to be on the Today Show, you have to start early. If the Trials were held entirely in Central Park starting at, say, 10am, would people be that much more likely to travel over there to watch if they didn't already have plans to go?

and also... "real" runners? What's the heck is that supposed to mean?

I think the trials are too elitist. If they let walkers in more people would come out to see all of them and probably get more TV time.

Snoochie Boochie wrote:

People are lazy. They will walkoutside or downthe block but wont wake up at 7:30 and travel all the way to Central Park for a side show when the real runners are running on Sunday.

There are maybe about 75-100 "real runners" in the race on Sunday, if you compare their times to that of the guys who will be running the Trials. Let's face it, after the first pack of men and women it's just a spectacle.

Which is why people go watch right? What I mean is the "real" runners are those running the "real" course on Sunday.

Ask anyone in New York when THE MARATHON is and almost everyone will say Sunday. The elites are faster then our trial runners...30,000 will run on Sunday. To the non-runner which one is the "real" race? that is what I mean.

Just pony up and go out to watch. I'm leaving Wisco on Friday to go out just to watch. It'll be better than any internet viewing or TV replay.