Michael Johnson’s ideas for improving track & field

Track and field needs to be marketed differently than the other sports. It is not a combat sport, it isn’t hand-eye coordination, manipulating balls or creative playmaking.

Track and field is one thing and one thing only: human performance. Track and field is the only sport that pushes to the limits of human ability, and measures it accurately. This is how it needs to be marketed. Speed, power, endurance, leaping; faster, higher, farther. Keep pushing track and field as the premier sport for these fundamental aspects of human performance.

The sport will be able to live up to this hype, because it is proven again and again in every meet at every level.

Track was more interesting when the focus was on a dual meet and there were actual rivalries of teams. That dynamic no longer exists.

The issue isn’t that die hard fans don’t enjoy it, it’s that new fans can’t get into it. I enjoy the sport the way it is but I’d like to see it blossom into a more mainstream and popular sport, which thrives much more than it does today. In order to do that, meets need to be more fan friendly, more accessible and just overall more entertaining

MJ's shtick is complaining about the current state of T&F. I haven't seen much action from him.

The Chickenboy Cross Country as discussed by the Coffee Club Podcast could be an interesting model. You need dynamic influencers to make it fun and exciting and to reach out to a new fan base. Hundreds of thousands compete in track and field through primary and secondary school as well as recreational activities by adults. The sport needs more exposure of its athletes. OAC is dynamic but ON needs more track marketing. Nike has Fisher, but have you ever seen an ad? Sure, the debate is you don’t need stars to sell running shoes, but the sponsors need to promote the athletes and the athletes need to be visible.

YES GET RID OF ALL THE FIELD EVENTS

Interest in the sport won't grow from adding or deleting events. The only thing to grow is the pot of money.

The first step is to recognize that sports like television exist for the sponsors not the viewers.

It's astounding that t&f has managed all this time to keep ads and sponsors off of running kit. A runner could look like a NASCAR car with logos not only from running companies but any product including beer and granola bars. There's no reason that the only identifiable logos are from shoe companies (other than that's how shoe companies want it).

The running orgs and sponsors would push the sport onto media for the advertising presence even if the real audience is small. Look at car and motorcycle races in these big racetrack venues where the seats are empty.

Nearly every legitimate sport plays to an ANNUAL league or world championship. Athletics can do this - top 24 athletes in each event are entered regardless of country. The meet is a four-day affair that rotates continents or Diamond League venues. The 5K and 10K are finals only. No marathon - that is a separate event held in conjunction with a WMM race that starts 30 minutes prior to the masses and each WA member country can enter 3 athletes so long as they meet the performance entry standard. The WC also gets held in Olympic years. You don't see tennis or golf suspending their majors in favor of boosting the Olympics, why should track?

Great suggestions. Pole vault and high jump should survive, though--on TV, these are easily the best of the field events.

Nah, he was CLEAN AS CAN BE. Absolutely NO DOPING by MJ. 100% pure dedication and NATURAL weight training.

Just hit the gym a bit and take some creatine and you can look like this easily!

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All of us get into track in school as kids, who comes to the sport who wasn't involved with it early on?

The sport does fine as it is, never been to a meet and leave dissatisfied, I got my fix life is good.

I don't get his analysis of field events and his solutions are very skewed to favor sprints. Has he ever watched golf on TV?

Also, having multiple narratives is also compelling

The NCAA championships meet has a good model to follow on the last two days with finals (for women on one day and men on the next day). It's about a 3-hour program with almost all finals (plus semi-finals for the sprints), so it's easy to follow with lots of head-to-head competition. The field events could be trimmed down to 8 finalists and three attempts.

The Pre Classic is "packaged" pretty well for a pro sporting event that runs under 3 hours.

The Diamond League (or another grand prix circuit) needs to be better structured around a season that's easy to follow (with 10-12 weekly meets) with better incentives to compete in every meet to get paid based on your finish in each meet.

Pro golf has this figured out with long tournaments, a long season and lots of players. But they get the crowds and the TV viewers.

Why does track and field need to be “improved.” Track is huge with, together with xc, more high school participants than any sport. This weekend the great Arcadia meet is taking place in California. We have terrific new indoor arenas all over the country. The premier pros make millions. Who cares if golf, tennis, whatever draw more fans and “everybody” gets rich, or that your neighbor has no clue who Usain Bolt is, or, for that matter, Michael Johnson. The Boston Marathon is coming up, then Penn Relays, then, in August, the Worlds, where US athletes will clean up, as usual. Let’s stop the bitching about what’s “wrong” with track, just sit back and enjoy it.

When watching track, it’s hard for the layperson to really put it all into perspective. Everyone is running smoothly and it looks effortless without context.

One small suggestion I have to make it more relatable to most spectators, is to somehow have a hologram runner pop up on the screen every few laps, or even a cardboard cutout riding on the inside rail to show what an average running looks like in comparison.
I can imagine the commentary, where every 3 or 4 laps in the 5k, the commentator can mention “and as you can see here, the lead pack is about to pass our virtual runner again, who is moving at 8min per mile pace, or the speed of your average turkey trot runner (or mix it up… sometimes show the avg high school state champ…or avg 1.5 mile pace for our active military. Anything to provide context)

This obviously won’t fix track and field entirely, but I think more folks would appreciate what it means to be the best in the world when they see the runners in context, flying by the avg runner.

While it's true that track and field has a large participation base in the United States and there are many great events (Arcadia, Mt. Sac, Penn, Texas Relays, and more), it's important to consider the global perspective.

In other countries, especially here in Europe, track and field doesn't have the same level of support and recognition, which impacts funding and opportunities for athletes. Additionally, just because a sport like track in the US has a large participation base doesn't mean it can't be improved or made more exciting for viewers.

My best idea would be MJ coming clean on his alleged PED protocol from the 90s. Industry rumor he was protexted by USATF.

The sport has the fans that want it and a strong grass roots & collegiate (Olympic Development) programs. More prize money might get a few more athletes interested but not likely. Holding meets in USA in stadiums with larger population centers might pull in a few more curious spectators or thise that dont want to choose between family vacation/downpayment on a house or a track meet.

Europe respects/enjoys the sport more but they have fewer options/ball games.

Diamond League has it figured out. College conference and national meets are great. State HS meets are the most competitive for kids.

I really enjoyed all of the display information for several events at WC.

Hard one, as it has always been the case that most westerners only pay a lot of attention at global champs.

other racing sports, like car racing, big all year round because each round counts for points with winners getting the most for year