Anyone else eagerly anticipating the meet today? The golden league meets are my favorite time to be a track and field fan.
Why?
- Lots of action compressed into a couple of hours (vs. Olympics and World Champs held over 9 days)
- All of the biggest stars
- Knowledgable and enthusiastic crowds
- Million dollar jackpot adds extra intrigue
- All events are straight to final
- Lots of compelling storylines
- Good mix of tactical vs. rabbited distance races
- Great chance to see Americans mix it up
- Most atheletes are in top form because of timing
- Select few events
My question is- Will the Diamond League live up to this standard?
My worries are related to the above points-
Will all of the biggest stars compete? It seems like more meets and more geographic diversity many serious jepardize the quality of the meets.
Will the crowds be any good? We know that Europeans will turn out. But what about Americans, Chinease, Quataris?
Will the chase for the $80,000 diamond really be as exciting to watch as the chase for $1,000,000? My guess is no, and I really dislike point based competetitions anyways. This is a big reason the "Visa Championship Series" lacks intrigue.
Will we really care about big meets when atheletes are far from top form? Watching Bolt run in May or October doesn't compare to seeing him in August or July.
Will more events really be better? The new format stresses having all 32 events. Seems like more is not really better in this situation. I'd rather see the marquee events (100,1500,5K) more often and secondary events (Hammer, 10K) less.
Thoughts?