my suggestion for fixing track and field

I would also do something similar for baseball. Get rid of the first and third basemen and left and right fielder. Just think how much stronger every position gets - no need to dilute the pool for the all important players up the middle.

Outdoor track is too big. Its hard to follow everything that's going on. My solution: separate track from field.

Field. Basically could be done in a very small stadium if you shorten the runways for the jumps and vault and eliminate javelin. Think something closer to the NFL combine.

Track: everything is on a 100-150 meter banked track.

here is how it goes wrote:

Eliminate all events except for the following:

100m

Mile

4x400m

Pole Vault

Imagine if all the talent and money were dedicated towards just these 4 events. Prize purses / sponsorships could be large enough to give incentive for more athletes pursuing careers in the 100m. How better would the mile be if all 800-10k runners trained for that event since day 1? Meets would just consist of multiple heats of each event - IE high school, college, age groups, and multiple heats of professional. More meets on city streets.

I think all of the other events dilute the potential for the sport.

If they did this, they could televise a meet in an hour. For the mile, they would show the start, cut to a few pole vault attempts then a commercial, then the last 200 meters.

here is how it goes wrote:

Eliminate all events except for the following:

100m

Mile

4x400m

Pole Vault

Imagine if all the talent and money were dedicated towards just these 4 events. Prize purses / sponsorships could be large enough to give incentive for more athletes pursuing careers in the 100m. How better would the mile be if all 800-10k runners trained for that event since day 1? Meets would just consist of multiple heats of each event - IE high school, college, age groups, and multiple heats of professional. More meets on city streets.

I think all of the other events dilute the potential for the sport.

NASCAR is very boring and goes on for hours, yet has an audience and more importantly a TV contract. Same with Indy Car.

Alan

Runningart2004 wrote:

here is how it goes wrote:

Eliminate all events except for the following:

100m

Mile

4x400m

Pole Vault

Imagine if all the talent and money were dedicated towards just these 4 events. Prize purses / sponsorships could be large enough to give incentive for more athletes pursuing careers in the 100m. How better would the mile be if all 800-10k runners trained for that event since day 1? Meets would just consist of multiple heats of each event - IE high school, college, age groups, and multiple heats of professional. More meets on city streets.

I think all of the other events dilute the potential for the sport.

NASCAR is very boring and goes on for hours, yet has an audience and more importantly a TV contract. Same with Indy Car.

Alan

The point isn't to make the meets shorter, the point is to have less events that nobody cares about. Make the best events the very best they can be, and get rid of everything else. I still think there could be 2 hour track meets, just more races for events people care about, and higher quality athletes competing against each other. It's about increasing the quality, attracting more athletes to events people care about, and getting rid of all the extra crap. Not sure about the racing references, Indy Car is almost dead and NASCAR is declining, probably because of how boring they are.

The reason track and field has a million different events is because it's a participant sport, not a spectator sport.

And that's as it should be. We need a society of more doers and fewer watchers. I'd have never become a runner if there had only been 4 events.

The world does not need another 'sit on your butt and watch' entertainment option. It could use more participant-exercise options. So keep all the events, even if they are boring to watch. Watching isn't the point. Doing is.

I would also do something similar for baseball.

It wouldn't take anything very drastic to improve baseball.

all you need to do is start at the top of the seventh.

cheers.

The real problem is track is a non-contact sport and viewers love it when folks mix it up. They watch NASCAR hoping for an accident. I’d eliminate rules like you can’t jostle or cut off other runners, make it legal in relays to jab the other runners with the baton and abolish the stupid rule you can’t step on someone who falls down. It’s time to man up.

Hounddogharrier wrote:

The real problem is track is a non-contact sport and viewers love it when folks mix it up. They watch NASCAR hoping for an accident. I’d eliminate rules like you can’t jostle or cut off other runners, make it legal in relays to jab the other runners with the baton and abolish the stupid rule you can’t step on someone who falls down. It’s time to man up.

I'd eliminate the lanes in the 100m as well. Advantage to quick starters, and lane draws would become more important based on who else is in the race and their style of racing.

some guy the fake one wrote:

The reason track and field has a million different events is because it's a participant sport, not a spectator sport.

And that's as it should be. We need a society of more doers and fewer watchers. I'd have never become a runner if there had only been 4 events.

The world does not need another 'sit on your butt and watch' entertainment option. It could use more participant-exercise options. So keep all the events, even if they are boring to watch. Watching isn't the point. Doing is.

This is the exact reason to eliminate events - make the sport being more elite by eliminating the opportunity for people that can only cut it i fringe events, and allocate those resources to draw more talented athletes to the real events.

I'm fine for keeping more events at the high school level though - there is already mass participation and it doesn't really need to be fixed there. Where it needs to be fixed is at the elite level. It's the difference between being able to participate in go-carts in high school and NASCAR professionally. Make it more elite, bring more money/athletes into events people could care about, and promote it. Let's not waste resources sponsoring and flying around steeplechasers to meets. Use all that money to increase the appearance fees and prize purses in the mile and 100m.

I do not share your opinion that getting people to watch track is a worthy goal.

here is how it goes wrote:

Eliminate all events except for the following:

100m

Mile

4x400m

Pole Vault

Imagine if all the talent and money were dedicated towards just these 4 events. Prize purses / sponsorships could be large enough to give incentive for more athletes pursuing careers in the 100m. How better would the mile be if all 800-10k runners trained for that event since day 1? Meets would just consist of multiple heats of each event - IE high school, college, age groups, and multiple heats of professional. More meets on city streets.

I think all of the other events dilute the potential for the sport.

So, you have a 4x4, but no open 400or 4x1. I think those events are very exciting and it wouldn't add much to the length of a meet. You could still have a 90 min meet:

7:00 - National Anthem and welcome

7:05 - Vault pit opens with a reasonable height and some rule to make the thing go faster. Needs to be done by 8:15.

7:10 - 100m final

7:20 - 400m final

7:30 - Mile final

7:50 - 4 x 100m final

8:05 - 4x 400m final

8:15 - vault is over and awards ceremony starts

8:25 - fireworks

8:30 - stadium begins to empty

This leaves 40 min between the 100m and the 4 x 100m Plenty-o-time to recover.

This leaves 45 min between the 400m and the 4 x400m. Maybe not the best, but you could still run fast times.

Spectators get to see 5 exciting races and decent vaulting action.

Oh, and prelims for the 100 and 400 could be run at 4:00 before the evening starts. If people wanted to come early they could, but it wouldn't be necessary. It'd be like a doubleheader in basesball

this is pretty good. I think eliminating the open 400 benefits the 100m a bit, because guys that could have been 9.8-9.9 guys (or faster) had they always trained for it would be in the 100m vs. being in the 400m where they ended up (thinking like top guys like michael johnson, van nekirk ) I really think there should be only 1 individual sprint event and 1 indivisual distance event. You could have several division at every meet, similar to how every major boxing matches have a bunch of undercard fights etc. The 4x4 would be the only option for the true 400m types, but they would stay on teams and compete on the 4x4 year round. the open 400m is otherwise kind of boring anyway. move as much money as you could, even from individual 400m, to the 100m to get guys who end up in the nfl into the sport consistently.