How to Ensure Footlocker XC Continues in the Future?

Some ideas:

- Retain Footlocker as a title sponsor, but court several smaller sponsors to increase funding. Adidas (and later Nike) were always secondary sponsors to Kinney/Footlocker. Maybe it's time for Brooks or Saucony to step up to the plate. You'll never compete with Nike's funding, but relying on one income stream is a recipe for disaster.

- Promote the history of the meet. Running on courses like Balboa and VCP allows for comparison to the great runners from years past. Highlight the number of NCAA champs, US champs, and Olympians who have come through the Footlocker ranks.

- Highlight the simplicity of the meet/regions: hundreds race, but only the top ten (in each region) qualify. No "at large" points. No politics. Race fast, and you go to nationals.

- To go with the last point: keep it simple. Nike has paved the way with some very cool technology at Portland Meadows, but to me the beauty of xc has always been the simplicity: run from point A to point B over hill and dale faster than the other guy. Nike's artificial course with ridiculous hills is a joke, and while the intermediate team scores is kind of cool, Footlocker would have no use for it. Don't try to out-technology Nike.

I'm not sure why people see this as such a negative thing...

keeping them as 2 separate races inevitably dilutes both fields...while most of the top individuals are not on top teams, inevitably 4-5 guys are

with the team championship now including a regional, it will be nearly impossible to schedule all the regionals and both nationals meets on their own weekend...and even if hey could, thats 4 high quality meets in a row after a full high school season

inevitably, some kids will shoose one or the other...so why are people bitching about a race that includes everyone, top teams, top individuals, top individuals on the top teams...i think its fair to say that NCAAs are more fun to watch than footlockers...

and finally, whats with all the resistance to nike...yeah there tactics are a bit pushy, but remember nike is not trying to establish such a controlling interest in track due to any vast profit making scheme (the profits arent there), its taking an interest because of a tradition in track and a desire to help develope the sport...nikes resources and history greatly outstrip anyone else, putting them in the best position to help the sport...dont bite the hand that feeds you

Pony up some sponsorship money?

I think it's an awesome opportunity for a partnership to better the sport.

Nike's history is steeped in running tradition, so I'm sure the powers that be ALSO recognize the role that Kinney/Footlocker Nats have played.

My suggestion would be to combine the efforts and have regional races that have team and individual qualifers, similar to NCAA regionals. For instance, guaranteeing that the top 8-10 individuals NOT on a qualifying team get to go.

This way it would cut back on the number of races that would potentially have to be run w/o having the meets compete against each other.g

Somehow Footlocker needs to market/advertise it's race to the schools. It is the runner and the coach who decide which race they want to go to. Right now every coach knows that Footlocker is the Championship, and sos do most high schoolers. If Nike is able to change the minds of the high schoolers, they in turn will change the minds of their coach. I think the possibility of Nike out-glitzing Footlocker is dangerous. Kids these days just want the pomp and circumstance, if Nike gives it, they'll move there because its name brand.

again I ask...how is this a bad thing for the sport?

as long as the best kids are going to the same race on the same day, why do you care if who puts it on...

and the only way to get ALL of the best kids to the same race on the same day is to have 1 nationals championship: team and individual combined

Nike is the best equipped to do this and have done a great job with everything else theyve done for track...so what is everyones problem?

I know Wejo said to stay away from this, but

hmmmmm wrote:

and finally, whats with all the resistance to nike...yeah there tactics are a bit pushy, but remember nike is not trying to establish such a controlling interest in track due to any vast profit making scheme (the profits arent there), its taking an interest because of a tradition in track and a desire to help develope the sport...nikes resources and history greatly outstrip anyone else, putting them in the best position to help the sport...dont bite the hand that feeds you

BS. Huge BS. Nike does not sponsor NTN/NIN/NON out of the goodness of its heart. There are eyeballs to capture and future consumers to influence. Go to Dyestat (now Nikestat). Check out the spikes forum. Kids will absolutely put down anything that is not Nike. Now so I don't seem biased, Footlocker/Eastbay sponsor their meet for the same reason. Any company that provides use of its name and advertising dollars to any event is looking for one thing: a return on its investment. Nike doesn't make a cent NTN weekend, but down the road you can be it is raking it in.

And Nike may not make much profit on track spikes, but you can bet sponsoring these meets will equal more profits down the road on apparel, trainers, socks, Nike+, etc. To think that they are providing sponsorship as a public service to the track community is naive.

You're off with the "the don't try to out-tech Nike" bit. The stuff Nike is doing is really bloody simple, any undergrad electrical engineer who's made it to his junior year should be able to set up a similar system with ease. It would be very easy for FLN to set up a similar system of cameras and chips and big electronic readerboards that give out splits, places, etc. Very easy, not terribly expensive, and would add to the appeal of the meet.

Of course, none of that matters to the athletes that will actually be running there, which is the market they need to be pandering to, not the audience. Although I think that tradition for the sake of tradition itself is stupid, they really DO need to really pump up the tradition and history of the meet, get past famous champs there giving speeches, doing introductions, handing out awards, etc. Have an "alumni" race - try to get some guys like Webb/Hall/Solinsky/Rupp/Rohat/McD/Teg/Ritz/Withrow/whoever. Get 4-8 guys like that to come out and race each other on the 5k course the day before (or day of?) the HS race, and hang out with the HS athletes the rest of the weekend. I don't think there's much going on that time of year that running a moderate 5k would really get in the way of for most of them.

More free gear, and I agree get another shoe co-sponsor. Get some famous coaches (lydiard, daniels) to give some talks on training, or bring in a legit excercise physiologist or whatever to come in and do thorough gait analysis on the runners after the race.

Scholarships. Don't know if you'd do it by place (some organization would probably throw a fit over that, I'm not quite sure who or why though) or by essay submissions, or both or whatever.

Just some ideas.

Getting Lydiard out to give a talk might be kinda tough, but if they can do it, I'll buy Footlocker for life, no pun intended.

exactly-- they're buying brand loyalty.

From this high school coach's standpoint Nike is more appealing right now. We have to travel 850 miles to get to our Footlocker regional and only 450 miles to our NXN regional. If I have a good team and good individuals we can get it done in one trip and one race now instead of 2 races. Our NXN regional is 2 weeks after our state meet, not bad. Our Footlocker regional is 4 weeks after which is a problem sometimes with training and winter sports. Having been to both last year I think both do a great job promoting their events and are both very well run but the convenience of Nike makes it unlikely we will travel to footlocker next year.

Get Cerutty & Prefontaine while U are at it!

Wejo: I'm curious as to how you would feel about Nike moving NTN to Balboa, and making it the same day/race as the Footlocker race? Surely having a course so rich in tradition would be a boon to the NTN meet, and I think Nike would benefit more from being seen as compromising for the kids than from keeping the meet near their HQ. Your thoughts?

That would not be good for XC. Portland Meadows is muddy, wet, and cold. SD is warm and dry. Moving either to the other location would ruin the reason for having either of those races (the different running conditions). FL and NTN both are great races. I myself doubt that Nike is trying to destroy FL, nor does Nike have sinister motives with NTN, Eugene, U of O. They simply want to contribute to the sport. NTN, FL, Border Wars, the more the better as far as I'm concerned. The best outcome of all of this is that the US could someday have a good showing at the WCs and Olys in the distances, and at the Marathon Majors.

I personally thought it was the beginning of the end when they went to 40 runners. I think they should go back to the top 32 runners for a start.

theres is absolutely no way for footlocker to compete with nike...

putting on a meet like this is all about 2 things resources and history, the thought of some competing with nike in resources is laughable and while FL does have some history, nike plays the whole pre, bowerman, oregon thing too well

within 3 years footlocker will either be a joke or cease to exist, who would pass up all the gear, 1st class experience, etc that nike offers

its all for the best anyway, nike puts on the best meets in the nation and combining the two races eliminates any chance of conflict/overlap between teams and individuals

how come you can say "bitching"?

at the high school level there's no end to the conrovery over who is the best runners or best teams for either field. coaches often complain that their kids never had a chance even though their times wre as good. you could have kids who run at only one of the FL or NTN and still not have enough slots. FL and NTN will both survive, they are not in competition at all. with all of the FL regionals, the tradition, the history, FL will never fade away. NTN should proceed as planned, there will be enough glory for all. Nike is doing a great job. Adidas, Asics, etc. should step up and become more like Nike. We saw how Dyestat exploded when Nike bought out the failed garage operation. Now we see Runnerspace taking over the groupie media genre. I would like to see more sponsor step up and provide some serious cash the way Nike and NYRR has. We shouldn't be afraid of them, instead we should encourage more companies/clubs to follow their lead.

just a little side thing here, regarding Nike spikes and the dyestat obsession:

dyestat kids are obsessed with spikes. It's true. It's incredibly annoying.

But I've worn many a pair of spikes in my day, and while I have no particular brand loyalty, I can say that in my experience, I have found nike spikes to be the very best ones I've owned, with the exception of the puma harambees.

In order of spikes I enjoy the most:

lanang

eldoret II

harambee

I've also raced in New Balance, Asics, and Brooks spikes and found them to be either less comfortable or of poorer quality than the ones I've listed.