The myth of the “casual fan” in track and field

This is why I don't get the effort to "GrOw ThE sPoRT". There is nothing T&F can do to make running 25 times around an oval exciting to anyone but fellow T&F athletes or their friends and family. Decisions should be made with the goal of making the product as good as possible for existing athletes and the very few fans that exist.

I am mostly in the same boat. And another reason why I don't agree with the idea that T&F will benefit by adding meets and having runners run a ton outside championships. Basically I want to see people try to win a championship or set a record

"Baseball is dull only to dull minds" Red Barber

Sorry, couldn't help myself

The casual fan is someone who watches YouTube videos and reads an occasional article. That's me! I have never attended a track&field meet.

So we don’t need to cater the meets to you. Since you don’t attend or watch them anyways. The YouTubers can edit their highlight videos to make them more exciting for you and you can wade through rojo’s typo-filled articles.

This. Consider powerlifting or olympic lifting, these sports are equally boring as a spectacle but the average gymgoer (which are many) can relate to the weights they lift. You don't see lots of people who do track as a hobby compared to lifting.

Umm what are you talking about? Most of Europe is obsessed with Football(soccer), a few of those countries also have a major interest in Rugby and those that don't, usually are pretty big basketball countries.

This is beside the fact that the only US sport that overlaps the outdoor track season is baseball and its the regular season only. In Europe, they have to compete with either the World Cup or European champs in Football which are summer tournaments and are gigantic spectacles.

The London World champs sold out every day of a massive stadium in 2017 despite England having the most watched Football League in the World and having 1/6 the population of the US.

Not sure we watching the same meet. As someone that has been to packed houses in Hengelo, Monaco, Oslo, etc., the wide shots in LA made the crowd look like a Thursday JV high school football game, or single A baseball on a hot day at best.

This was literally 30 seconds before SCR raced:

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The US essentially only has casual fans for every sport. Proper fans are just too scary for advertisers.

I've never met a track and field fan who wasn't casual. It should be the perfect sport for the US. Lots of rich white people, plenty of gaps in the action for commercials, nobody ever throws explosives on the field, starts an armed brawl or triggers a diplomatic incident. Racial hatred and gang violence seem pretty rare. Track fans never cause criminal damage because their guy lost a race. They don't have to be physically separated in the stadium, they don't smash up the opposing team's bus, they don't even have offensive chants. Maybe Canadian hockey fans get close, but North America in general is super casual.

But the hint is in the name. World Athletics deals with athletics across the world.

Yes, maybe some US meets might not attract big crowds. Although a lot of the events do have great and big crowds.

At major events like the Olympics, World Championships, area championships, Diamond League and so on, most will be casual fans. World Athletics does not want to go bankrupt, presumably. So they need to cater to the majority of fans and make decisions in that direction. And I think you prove the point anyway. If they changed a few things maybe a casual fan would want to spend some of the day at a track meet. The place is probably empty because they have not catered to casual fans.

If you do that it dies. No new fans? A sport, meetings, championships can't sustain themselves like that.

Long Thread but I've summarized my past arguments into one. So...apologies.

It's not even that. Many Track and Field fans (mainly Distance Runners) wonder why our Sport isn't nearly as popular as the NBA, MLB, NFL, hell even the MLS. The Supporters are key to this issue. We have so many damn taboos and restrictions even at Track meets, we don't promote crap and lastly, our attachment to being formal is what drives other people away. Like damn, start some damn beef for once. If Letsrun posters are our epitome of "Fans" then damn we're gonna take a bunch of Ls these next coming years in terms of popularity.

Oh man, don't even get me started on the disaster known as World Athletics. The sports governing body acts in a dictatorship manner because of the lack of fan or athlete support. People like Nick Symmonds can complain all they want on the rules but do little to ACTUALLY make or lobby a change. Lack of sponsorships and Nike holding an endorsement monopoly pretty much allow unchecked or unquestioned products (like the Supershoes or wavelight tech) to go unbothered when Nike practically owns 70%+ on the revenue on Diamond League, National team kits, Shoe market dominance, Marathon meets, etc..
WADA is another huge failure on integrity.

1. No alcohol allowed at meets - If you want someone to be entertained for a 13-27 minute race, keeping them sober won't help. With the right booze they'll be entertained every split lap
2. No Gambling - Seriously, at this point World Athletics is desiring to lose money (literally).
3. Obsession with being Amateur and Professional - the AIU alone is cringeworthy with their code of conduct on how athletes should behave even on Social Media and whatnot. Even Jakob couldn't diss his opponents when he lost. No wonder letsrun has the most soft insults and that goes for rojo and wejo too.
4. Lack of personality - This kinda goes with the third one but, seriously. Apart from Usain Bolt (whom was never controversial to begin with) how many other Track and Field athletes are renowned globally? - Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Cristiano Ronaldo, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Tiger Woods, Maradona, Mike Tyson, etc..these guys are great because they weren't known for being politically correct. Yet, almost every track interview is just runners praising each other. Like Jesus, the spirit animal for Distance runners might as well be a mule since that's another creature that just stands there when you beat it.
5. Lack of marketing - If you want the world to watch your boring old meets, maybe promote it better rather than expect the small community of runners to know its schedules. Politicize races to give it global stardom. On top of that, the broadcasts of running is terrible too.
I could go on but, to bring this discussion full circle. THESE are what should promote the sport by reversing these five and not some cringey individualistic fans who whine about our sport not being popular but yet refuse to do anything mind boggling that could cause a second running boom. Just my two cents.

*The myth of the “casual American fan” in track and field

The Hypomeeting in Austria is popping right now, the Commonwealth stadium was packed, the WC in London was packed, etc. There are plenty of issues with the sport, but whether or not the sport is popular in the US shouldn't be a benchmark.

This is true. When was the last people died in a stampede at a track meet?

Track fans are the most boring people on Earth with distance fans being the dullest of the bunch. No energy. No passion. No excitement. Just a bunch of expert dorks that pull out their phones and stop watches to record splits and then quietly mutter about the pace being too____________ or someone's arm carriage being inefficient or some other esoterica. During a distance race and even if the house is packed, most of the time it is quiet as a bunch of smug fans stay in their seats analyzing splits and making snarky comments to the 2-3 people that can hear their voice.

My favorite event is now an MLS match. The crowd never gets quiet. It is all chanting, cheering, and singing while the action takes place. Supporter groups bring drums and horns. They pass out sheets with clever chants and barbs to shout at the opposing team. The atmosphere is electric and fun. It's a party! They're elated to be at the stadium and watching their boys do battle.

Even cycling has better fans. Riders have supporter groups that will mass along a single point of the course, party, hang banners, and then get super loud for the 30 seconds that their favorite rider is within vision and earshot.

Our sport? Some potbellied middle-aged men murmuring stuff like, "Woody better get it together in the next lap or two if he's got any prayer of staying with... Oh, look! I called it! There goes Cheptegei just as I predicted. Kincaid and Klecker are just embarrassing themselves now. Now if I were coaching those two...".

A bit odd to think that the dividing line between casual and non-casual fan is physical violence. I’m sure a healthy number of people on this site are way more than casual fans and somehow haven’t punch someone in the face because their guy didn’t win the race. What you are pointing to is societal problem where people are rioting over a game, not the seriousness of their fandom.

Of course. Feels like the average track meet is spent watching helpers adjust the hurdles and praying the jumpers don't get past the current height so the event will finally end. Hope you packed sun screen!

Completely agree. I am talking about the US if you read my posts in the thread.

Complete nonsense.

The definition of a passionate fan vs a casual one is those who are racist and violent? I call those idiotic fans.