Track isn’t popular because it’s BOR-ING.

Not as boring as golf

Some field events (javelin & pole vault), sprints, and middle distance are really fun to watch at a good level, much more than golf/cricket/baseball where mostly nothing happens. Watching high school soccer really sucks... yet the sport is super popular.

loqueelvientoajuarez wrote:

Some field events (javelin & pole vault), sprints, and middle distance are really fun to watch at a good level, much more than golf/cricket/baseball where mostly nothing happens. Watching high school soccer really sucks... yet the sport is super popular.

I can't watch because Flotrack is the "Paywall King."

I agree. Normal NFL game you have all these great things to watch for--storylines, key matchups, strategy, etc.

Track is 1000 people you never heard of split into 50 different events including the half lap, the one lap, the two lap, the 3.75 lap, a 12.5 lap, etc. There's 50 winners but each winner only beat 2% of the competitiors. 99% of wins mean nothing. They don't split genders, so half of all events are just slower versions of the other half of events. There's heats of irrelevant runners who should have stayed home and done a hard workout. I could go on for days about it. Watching a track meet with no vested interest in who wins is BORING

loqueelvientoajuarez wrote:

Some field events (javelin & pole vault), sprints, and middle distance are really fun to watch at a good level, much more than golf/cricket/baseball where mostly nothing happens. Watching high school soccer really sucks... yet the sport is super popular.

Watching attempt after attempt of field events is excruciating.

On TV its all about the packaging. They've figured out how to make golf viewable, why not track?

Didn't read. Got bored.

3hr-marathoner wrote:

On TV its all about the packaging. They've figured out how to make golf viewable, why not track?

The same people win distance races again and again, upsets rarely happen and that is boring. Look what it took in Boston for that rare opportunity. The reality is before a race only a few people have a real shot at winning, in almost every other sport someone or a team can get hot and pull an upset.

Also, golf looks like a really hard skill to the average viewer wheras running looks easy and less impressive to them. Most people don't know the difference between a 4 minute mile and 6 minute mile and couldn't care and the ones that do (the people that Lets Run makes fun of all the time) just know its fast and can't relate to it at all and in fact from my experience tend to dislike the faster runners.

The OP nailed it, they would essentially have to have gimmick races to make it more exciting, like the person in last place gets eliminated each lap, coed relays, starting a slower runner and seeing if a faster runner can catch them in a mile, etc. in order to get a following.

Actual D3er wrote:

There's 50 winners but each winner only beat 2% of the competitors. 99% of wins mean nothing.... Watching a track meet with no vested interest in who wins is BORING

The 50-winners thing is a problem. I can watch a marathon on TV from start to finish because I'm curious about who the eventual winners will be but watching a track meet is tough. There's a lot going on but no common storyline holding it together. My solution: duel meets. Bring 'em back. It was before my time but they used to have duel meets between the US and USSR. I bet the equivalent would bring viewers today.

3hr-marathoner wrote:

On TV its all about the packaging. They've figured out how to make golf viewable, why not track?

This is *really* easy to answer.

There's a financial incentive to making golf viewable. Golfers are a wealthy demographic. They spend a *lot* of money on their sport. Businesses that sell things that are desired by the types of people who play golf want to be able to reach these people through ads. There are obviously golfing equipment makers, but there are also businesses that sell the kinds of cars and other goods that golfers prefer. If you're a TV network, you have an incentive to invest enough make your golf shows interesting enough to draw a big audience of golfers.

What's the financial incentive for making track and field flashier? It's not as if there's a shortage of alternative programming and sports.

I'm all for gimmick races. If you don't like golf as example, think of the other crap that people actually watch on TV. NASCAR? Are you kidding me? It's just cars going in circles for ever. Talk about how 4-minute milers make it look effortless, cars make going fast look completely effortless yet they've built up storylines and feuds and people tune in. People watch TV shows of other people cooking, people repainting houses, people playing poker, people giving other people makeovers. I just doing agree that this stuff is naturally more suited to mass audiences than track but it needs storylines, it needs controversy and a better way of keeping score over the course of meets and seasons.

well..... wrote:

3hr-marathoner wrote:

On TV its all about the packaging. They've figured out how to make golf viewable, why not track?

This is *really* easy to answer.

There's a financial incentive to making golf viewable. Golfers are a wealthy demographic. They spend a *lot* of money on their sport. Businesses that sell things that are desired by the types of people who play golf want to be able to reach these people through ads. There are obviously golfing equipment makers, but there are also businesses that sell the kinds of cars and other goods that golfers prefer. If you're a TV network, you have an incentive to invest enough make your golf shows interesting enough to draw a big audience of golfers.

What's the financial incentive for making track and field flashier? It's not as if there's a shortage of alternative programming and sports.

So many of you are making a great point while missing the overall point- It's marketing.

Runners (Hobby Joggers) tend to be educated and have good jobs. There is a gold mine of high school kids out there.

Market the sport.

My daughter graduated from high school 10 years ago. Runners World used to put out these bi-yearly magazines that were delivered to me, the coach, for free. They sent 120 because I had 70+ kids on my cross-country team and over 100 on my track team.

The kids loved them AND my daughter and her friends LOVED the young, HOTTTT Dathan Ritzenhein- who was often featured in the magazine.

I'm being totally serious.

Marketing.

Sell these athletes to the people- there are 100's of thousands of Hobby Joggers who are getting sick of the NFL and think watching golf is like watching turn grow- GET THEM!

Reg Fields wrote:

The OP nailed it, they would essentially have to have gimmick races to make it more exciting

All of these would sell:

- Beer miles. Upgrade your ticket to watch elite vodka miles.

- Frozen 400. (Ice track, no spikes allowed.)

- Naked 800.

- Regular steeple, but with a mild current running through the water. (Electric steeple?)

Eliminate all jump events. They're super boring. Long jump is especially lame as a spectator; you can't see that inch of difference very easily. And triple jump is confusing. Replace these events with something involving springs and a large trampoline. It doesn't really matter what it is, as long as the participants are doing lots of flips and occasionally breaking an arm.

Also, eliminate the throwing events. Replace with better throwing events:

- Knife throw

- Axe throw

- Bomb throw

and fire in the steeple pits.

My biggest problem is there is no rivalries or bad blood like back when Car Lewis vs Ben Johnson. There is no storyline to any meet cept record attempts. Track athletes are way too nice and the sport is wayyyy too PC. Can you imagine if Usain Bolt and Drugstin Gatlin talked trash to eachother over twitter and press conferences? Their races would have had way more views

Runners could push each other and swear at each other before races?

If you think watching racing, even slow JV high school racing, is boring you aren't watching it properly. You need to make bets on who is going to win, who is going to go out to fast and crash. Any event where the outcome is in doubt has drama and tension.

Thanks for sharing. I have never heard anyone say they think track is boring.

Golf IS a really hard skill! Running is really easy. Every kid learns to run around age 1 (or shortly after they get walking down).