Don't blame ESPN, Blame the USATF and Doug Logan

Blame ESPN. T&F did what it had to for this meet to be on TV. They got shafted.

The type of disrespect ESPN pays to our best athletes and fans contributes to the lack of popularity.

Would have been nice to see Andrew Bumbalough get up for 3rd....whatever....

And on top of getting dissed, it looked like there were maybe 1,000 people in the stands . . . What else are you gonna be doing on a 80 degree night in Des Moines?

Pathetic.

It sure says it all when ESPN cuts away from a NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP to go to coverage of a POSSIBLE no-hitter of just one baseball game out of a hundred in a MLB season. This is when it SUCKS to be a track/running fan. Our sport deserves more but probably won't ever get it.

No, this time I'll just blame ESPN.

Not Sure wrote:

It sure says it all when ESPN cuts away from a NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP to go to coverage of a POSSIBLE no-hitter of just one baseball game out of a hundred in a MLB season. This is when it SUCKS to be a track/running fan. Our sport deserves more but probably won't ever get it.

ESPN is contractually obligated to cut to the 9th inning of ALL MLB no-hitters.

They've been doing this same thing for years. They've pre-empted NBA playoff games, NFL games, NHL games, NASCAR, and whatever else they are showing.

D. Douglas Dent wrote:

Not Sure wrote:

It sure says it all when ESPN cuts away from a NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP to go to coverage of a POSSIBLE no-hitter of just one baseball game out of a hundred in a MLB season. This is when it SUCKS to be a track/running fan. Our sport deserves more but probably won't ever get it.

ESPN is contractually obligated to cut to the 9th inning of ALL MLB no-hitters.

They've been doing this same thing for years. They've pre-empted NBA playoff games, NFL games, NHL games, NASCAR, and whatever else they are showing.

thank god for somebody showing some f***ing sense

say wat? wrote:

D. Douglas Dent wrote:

ESPN is contractually obligated to cut to the 9th inning of ALL MLB no-hitters.

They've been doing this same thing for years. They've pre-empted NBA playoff games, NFL games, NHL games, NASCAR, and whatever else they are showing.

thank god for somebody showing some f***ing sense

Hi, I'm Not Sure. I KNOW the reality of it all!!! I was just saying that it SUCKS it is the way it is!!!

bump

Then why was MLB Network showing it live before ESPN broke in? I was switching back and forth in the 8th inning and then ESPN totally blew it. What's the point of two channels showing it?

Does ESPN have any clue who the audience was that was tuning in at the time of the USA Track & Field meet? The audience was track & field fans who tuned in to watch the US Championships. NO ONE was watching ESPN at that time looking for a possible no-hitter. ESPN has no clue that people tune into ESPN to watch a certain program. They are so arrogant that they think we all tune into ESPN every waking minute while trusting that they will make the best decision about what sports we need to see at the moment.

It's time for USATF to grow a pair of balls and stand up to this nonsense.

ckfitz wrote:

Then why was MLB Network showing it live before ESPN broke in? I was switching back and forth in the 8th inning and then ESPN totally blew it. What's the point of two channels showing it?

Agreed. I was at the gym and the baseball game was on the tv to my left and the tv to my right had T&F. They show 5 laps of the women's 5k. Show 1 lap of the men's 5k and cut to the stupid baseball game. So now its baseball on both tv's....sweet.

Not Sure wrote:

It sure says it all when ESPN cuts away from a NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP to go to coverage of a POSSIBLE no-hitter of just one baseball game out of a hundred in a MLB season. This is when it SUCKS to be a track/running fan. Our sport deserves more but probably won't ever get it.

As Clint Eastwood once said (in a movie), "Deserves got nothing to do with it".

And even if it did, a potential no-no would still be more compelling to 99% of ESPN's audience than that snoozer of a race.

That really pissed me off.. But I do love baseball.. I'm sure like me all of your dads stuck you in little league to. The game is great.. But come on. I don't even know the guys name.. He walked 8 guys, and there was an error commited. Baseball needs to grow a pair.. The game had a freaking hit. Just cause a short stop can't field a ball like a 5 year old can shouldn't make it a no hitter.

I'm not gonna lie. I wish I had the talent to swing a bat than run track.. Get drafted and never play in the big leauges I would make way more money than some kid running road races getting crapy medals. Plus those of you at D1 schools know that Distance guys get no respect from anyone. We are a simple Title 9 sport. I would trade running to be a place kicker on the football team.

BigTex wrote:

Does ESPN have any clue who the audience was that was tuning in at the time of the USA Track & Field meet? The audience was track & field fans who tuned in to watch the US Championships. NO ONE was watching ESPN at that time looking for a possible no-hitter. ESPN has no clue that people tune into ESPN to watch a certain program. They are so arrogant that they think we all tune into ESPN every waking minute while trusting that they will make the best decision about what sports we need to see at the moment.

It's time for USATF to grow a pair of balls and stand up to this nonsense.

Did you read the whole thread? ESPN is contractually obligated to cut in to potential no-hitters. That has been part of the deal with MLB since they started showing baseball. And the "audience" probably grew once baseball fans found out about the no-hitter and knew they could turn on ESPN to watch the end of the game. That's the point of the deal.

The cut away because there was 20,000+ people who thought the baseball game was important enough to go watch it and even more would have gone if they suspected a no-hitter would happen, but only 1,000 people (if that) cared enough to attend the Track Nationals. Blame USATF for holding them in Des Moines. At least Eugene fills the stands and makes ESPN think there are people who care.

Their purpose of getting track out to other areas of the country this way doesn't work. Not many people live in Iowa and those tuning in on ESPN saw that no one seems to care about T&F from the empty stands.

USATF only seems to market track and field to those who are already fans. Thats preaching to the choir but we need some converts and they are clueless as to how to make that happen.

I'll give them a hint..... there are only a few thousand people who are active sprinters or jumpers or thowers in this country yet there are millions of people who run road races. Those runners are prospective new T&F fans.

Note to ESPN: read the last paragraph - hint, hint, hint, get a freakin announcer who can actually talk intelligably about distance races because 75% of your audiance are distance runners. Dwight Stones does a good job with field events but there isn't alot of interest there and he's pathetic at distance races (don't ask him to go there), Ato Boldon is excellent at sprint races but doesn't know squat about distance running (don't ask him to go there). That Johnson guy doesn't seem to know anything about anything.... can him. Call up Todd Williams or some other good former good distance runner (Liquori, Shorter, somebody) and get them to do the distance races. ESPN drops the ball on the events that have the most potential to gain them more viewers.

Other helpful hint for ESPN. If you have a distance race going on and you want to use the time to recap the results of other events, instead of a stale picture of the stands as your background show the race in the background. Have you guys ever done TV before??????

plain truth has ir right.

our sport doesn't deserve to be broadcasted, if we drop our national championships into a place that can't even get a thousand people sit and watch it live.

if you figure the majority of the people in the stands were other athletes, coaches and family, and you take away free tickets given to local schools, you may have had as few as 500 people who paid money for the event. thats about an eighth of the people who were at the new york state high school track champs. . .

would the nfl place the super bowl in moline just because it hadn't been there before?

its embarrasing to endure - eugene, icahn stadium, lets try to put on a show and get our athletes a crowd.

hey, why not build a track at fenway, and hold it there?

the jimmy buffett concert was a hit - outdoor hockey worked!

hey dougie, wake up from your slumber, call the yawkey's.

You're deluding yourselves, track will never be marketable to the masses. ESPN, CBS and others need to turn track over to web-based media (Flotrack, Universal, etc.) and be done with it.