Track and Field, boring or not to watch?

High School Running Distance

6 years ago 04/17/2018 1:58pm EDT

Background, I ran track in high school, tired to run in college but sucked, coached high school track for over 20 years. Went to a local track meet as a spectator last weekend for the first time in 5-6 years and was bored out of my mind, Meet really slow and behind schedule, annoucer's were terrible, results took for ever to print out. And I left before the mile relay thinking this sucks. Started thinking, if I don't have a stake in the game, Not there to see any one stud athlete perform, not coaching anyone, just there to watch track and field at this level it's really boring. Anyone feel the same?

6 years ago 04/17/2018 2:06pm EDT

re: T&Fisboring

Yep! Track & Field can be really boring at times. There's just so much down time when nothing is going on. Add in the fact that it could be cold, windy, and raining and then the fan attendance will really be down. This is coming from someone who ran track in university. If it's boring to someone who was once in the game how must it feel to people who didn't participate in it in their youth?

6 years ago 04/17/2018 2:25pm EDT

re: Nigel_Bikes

And you wonder why it's not on TV and ESPN is not taking about Boston?

6 years ago 04/17/2018 3:46pm EDT

re: T&Fisboring

It doesn't have to be boring. It comes down to organization. Get the heats underway quickly without a lot of downtime in between, move the hurdles on and off quickly, and for the love of all that is holy, stack the distance races with 20-30 people instead of running multiple heats of the 3200.

6 years ago 04/17/2018 4:51pm EDT

re: my 2c

Wait until you see the empty seats when the NCAA moves to Drake.

6 years ago 04/17/2018 4:54pm EDT

re: T&Fisboring

Track meets can be boring. I have been to the Olympics and one of the old Diamond League meets and the Olympic trials. Been to USATF indoors. Enjoyed them all.

Went to a few indoor WAC meets many years ago and it was pretty poor for the reasons you stated.

Running a meet on time is a skill. At the above meets you have people who know what they are doing and not 50 flights of the 200 either.

6 years ago 04/17/2018 5:01pm EDT

re: T&Fisboring

The problem with Track is that it’s hard to “TV-ify”. Popular sports like football and basketball have undergone rule changes to streamline and improve the TV experience. For Track, that’s difficult to do without compromising the competition. Look at the Penn Relays, a meet that tries very hard to optimize presentation-you’ll frequently hear complaints that it’s not a very athlete-friendly meet.

But to address OP’s original situation (a low level, open entry HS meet)- there is nothing that can be done to fix this type of event. It is inherently a long, boring parade of mostly mediocre athletes slogging around the track with next to nothing on the line.

6 years ago 04/17/2018 8:26pm EDT

re: Entol

Track has too much down time in between races!

6 years ago 04/17/2018 8:48pm EDT

re: Capo #3

I've been an avid runner on all surfaces for many decades, but only a handful of times have I been at a track meet and not competed. I've been a paying customer probably 3-4 times, all top level including 1980 Oly trials. Every time I came away wondering why anyone would regularly spectate - a standard track meet schedule is boring as hell.

Only the snappy evening Euro meets are competing enough to watch complete.

6 years ago 04/17/2018 8:50pm EDT

re: Jfull

That's...'compelling' enough .

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