My simple solution to save the sport of track & field: Crown 3 world champions at each Diamond League event

If this happened, LRC would have to hire extra admins to delete all the threads calling it "Baby Worlds".

The main problem is that the sprints are way more popular than any of the other events. So, any of the meets with the big sprint events would get decent ratings and crowds. But the ones that had a distance event and a throw or jump would not get much interest at all. And then the meets with the big sprints would not get as much interest as the regular WCs because they would be all spread out. T&F can barely get enough people interested in the star packed weekend lineups at WCs. How are they going to generate any interest for a single meet with just a fraction of the competition?

Finally, the concept would not be workable with qualifying and then having heats, semis, etc. at meets that are normally only single day events. You would have to add a second day for a lot of events which would lose money because no one is going to come watch a 100m heat two days before the final at Ostrava or wherever.

So, what's my great idea? I think the off year should be a true world championship in that the season would be structured to have a series of races in a playoff format to have a World Championship where every event is a final. In the spring and early summer, you have a series of qualifier events. Then, everyone gets ranked based on placing and time. Then, you have playoffs among the top athletes. You would take the top 32 sprinters and have 4 seeded semifinal races with the top 4 moving on. At the next meet, you would have the two races with the top 4 moving on to the final. Each meet would be a couple of weeks apart and you could have different events at each playoff meet to mix it up. Then, there would be a single final meet with each event having their final world championship race.

This would be very different from Worlds in that it would take the best of the best regardless of country affiliation. Competition at WCs ends up being watered down because each country is limited in the number of athletes they can send. Also, the finals at WCs are often difficult for the athletes because of the heats, semis, etc. With a playoff format, the WC race would be a single final race with no heats, semis, etc. Everyone would be ready to race and whether someone had a fast heat would not be an issue.

Finally, the event would be action packed. Every race would be a final. You would be able to compress WCs into two nights. Doubling would be easy because the athletes would not have to worry about heats, etc.

I think it would be interesting to have more one-on-one duels in track and field. Maybe you have a field of 16 runners, and they are paired off in a single elimination bracket. Each runner competes mano-a-mano with another top 16 runner. Winner advances, loser goes home.

You'd have a lot more strategy, I think, in the distance runners as folks would evaluate their profiles and decide whether to push the pace or to sit and kick.

With sprinters, you'd have the drama of one-on-one matchups and a series of races that are single elimination, win or go home. You could watch the top talents race multiple times in meaningful races, rather than one final.

You do this instead of rounds, maybe over the course of two weekends?

Interesting idea but I prefer things the way they are.

This is an incredible stupid idea. Its like saying Olympics draws a lot of attention, so we should have olympics every weekend.

Unfortunately this idea is garbage

Too many events.

Back when you could see Lindgren or Salazar or Coughlan one of the big three networks would show just that event. Those were the stars. You didn't have to sit through a bunch of events you don't understand with people you don't care about, you got to see the person you wanted running the event you wanted to see.

Who's the biggest star in track and field right now? Show that person competing in their event, on networks, and you'll get eyes. We just got over a writer's strike in Hollywood, they were killing for content, and we had T&F all summer. Tough one, that.

Another individual sport that had a similar popularity problem to track and field was NASCAR. They created a playoff like system across races to crown a champion. Maybe track and field should try adopting their system, or one similar to it.

A flash in the pan every second year doesn't mean that the kitchen is ready to pass a health inspection. Track and Field as a whole is losing ground to other sports - in terms of the number of athletes that are able to make a living - in terms of spectator popularity in arenas - in terms of television/media interest - they even went to commercials during the men's and women's 5000 meters final in Budapest this year. E-sport pros are making better living than runners. Strongmen athletes are doing better than throwers. Gymnasts are making better living than jumpers. Track & Field is the most accessible sport in the world, but in the global media arena it's being pushed further and further back under the bleachers.

Wrong! For one sumo wrestling have six big world champion meets per year, they don't call them that but they are - and it's working great in terms of money, television and the number of athletes that are making a living from that one single event.

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You won't have to travel long distance for a once-in-twenty-years chance to see a championship in North America after paying inflated entry fees and inflated hotel room prizes - you will be able to take your kids to the nearest one of probably at least three every year - and it will cost you less. Three out of six marathon majors are held in the US and it's an easy prediction that at least three of the new T&A finals will land in the US and Canada. The total number of kids that are being taken to see World Championships finals will go way up. Don't underestimate that part - possibly the most important metric for future T&A.

Sumo wrestlers are big and fat, totally different from track. Many of them could not even complete a 400m race.

But seriously, fighting sports don't generally have a "season," so of course a champs can be anytime. Usually whenever the champ fights a challenger

what mcrunnin said. by spreading worlds over 14 meets, we now have 0 meets that matter.

Much easier solution... have Taylor Swift fake date Yared Nuguse.

I think a few people are misunderstanding a key point. I'm not saying get rid of the Worlds. It currently drives me nuts that once ever four years - 2026, 2030 - there is no global championship. You'd run this in the 'off' year.

So instead of having nothing in 2026, we spread the Worlds out over the whole season. It's a win-win. The runners get their Worlds related bonuses and track fans have more reason to pay attention to the DL. Plus, it makes the runners be in shape and competing all season long if you spread out say the 100 and 200 Worlds or the 5000 and 10,000 Worlds?

Remember Helsinki 2005 when there was wind and rain most of the week? Events had to be delayed and postponed and television schedules fell apart on almost a daily basis, not to mention that people in the stands were miserable much of the time. Bad weather killing the big PR event is yet another risk with putting all the eggs in one basket once a year.

You mean that one time it happened? Mmk

Make doping illegal worldwide.

You can combine a Track event with a concert later.

You are welcome.

Thanks for clarifying. This passage from your proposal made it sound like you want to alter normal years in which the world championships already take place:

“If it proves to be a success, you could break out the Worlds over the DL season in the odd years (2027, 2029, etc) and then host a “regular” Worlds once every four years — 2030, 2034, etc.”

You also wrote about 14 meets vs 1, which gave me the impression you wanted to strip away the 1.

If we’re *only* talking about that fourth year in which outdoor track championships aren’t scheduled (2026, 2030, 2034, etc), then your proposal is more palatable. Scattered championships are certainly better than none.

The key would be asking the athletes what they think. I would imagine they would object to the idea of having championship events at the start of the year, which would cut their offseason recovery/training time, particularly if they compete indoors or run cross country.

There’s also one major complication you haven’t addressed: how would qualifying work?? Would you expect each country to run multiple national championships throughout the year? That seems like a big ask.

I still like the proposal from Bad Wigins the most. I believe championships should be a culminating crescendo.

Seeing a few family friends post numerous selfies about earning their first "Star" at the Chicago Marathon expo the day before they run a 5:30 at their first "Major" marathon gave me an idea...

In the Diamond League Meets that struggle to fill the stands. Stage a road race the morning of and part of the post race festival incorporate a ticket to the Diamond League Meet. Maybe makes a series where 4 Diamond League meets a year have a different distance and over the course of a an Olympic cycle a hobby jogger can make it their goal to go to one per year.

I think World Athletics is already exploring this idea as a revenue stream, which is why the World Road Running Champs involved a mass participation race.

The diamond league this year was exciting from start to finish and in my opinion was much more entertaining than a professional marathon race. Yet we have seen professional marathon running explode the past decade. This is because the money is easy to find... it's provided by the entry fees and travel cost of the 30,000 other participants in the race.

The problem is the runners are in the race and can't watch the professionals compete. This model gives a runners an opportunity to get their next PR and be exposed to the exciting professional side of the sport.