American Distance Running: Why is it so UNDER-funded?

and we (as a country) don't care about distance running. you're asking pretty silly questions. it's not about marketing or money or anything else you suggested. europeans don't care about baseball and football. americans don't care about running. no amount of marketing or money is likely to change either.

The article you read is mostly sensationalized.

There are better sports to spend that money on, plain and simple. The same is true in much of Europe, what happened to UK, Finn, German, etc. distance running? The best athletes and therefore the money is going into other sports, like soccer and F1. Near as I can tell, most Euro meets are dying off, too.

I'm European and I can't say that things are any different over here than in America. The majority of people don't care about the sport, it's the same everywhere you go.

The Prefontaine Classic in Eugene always seems to be sold out every year with standing room only if you buy tickets the same day of the event. I would argue that this meet is just as well attended as any big Golden League meet in Europe.

At the same time I agree that instead of watching important things on tv like world affairs, Star Trek, and track and field, most Americans prefer mindless TV shows like Laguna Beach or American Idol.

Here's My Opinion --- Americans are EVENT -DRIVEN. How many people going to Kentucky Derby Parties today are horse racing fans?

The Stanford Meet was on the same weekend as the PENN RELAYS. Most casual sports fans have heard of the Penn Relays. Build off that. Have Stanford another weekend. (Like the Preakness.) Then you create stars.

Track was popular during the Jim Ryun era and prior. The stands were packed. It was actually, believe it or not, the 2nd most popular sport in the world.

In my opinion, there are a list of factors that had to work together to put us in the hole we are in now (not in any order).

1. Rise of video games, internet, etc.. other venues of entertainment.

2. Mass media not covering track like they used to.

3. Mass media not hiring the appropriate commentators. This means a long jumper is NOT qualified to commentate on an entire track meet, much less a World XC meet (re: wcsn). We have to get more passionate folks in there. Who is the ONLY person who can keep your attention if any game is boring? The commentator.

a. Watch some of the old track meets on youtube and you'll see what I mean..the race is sooo much better with a GOOD commentator.

4. Americans are fat. Runners are usually not. This will never work unless obesity is conquered.

Penguin:

You have plenty of space and gu and water stops and time to plod along in the middle of the course. You are very well taken care of, there are first responders on site that make sure you don't pass out from exertion or have to run on an unbearable blister. The people at the front of the pack are not very well taken care of, they would like to go fast and be able to afford running ridiculously fast on a daily basis. You are spoiled, you are overfunded, the elite need the help.

transplant wrote:

Penguin:

You are spoiled, you are overfunded, the elite need the help.

I am not spoiled. I am paying over $100 to run Chicago. I am helping the elite. My entry is paying for the prize money.

It is the elite that are spoiled, these are people whose names no one even knows and yet they are getting paid to appear and paid to run.

The high price of entries tells me that the elites need to agree to take less money so the price of entries can come down. The elite and their demands for high paydays are choking out the support of the people who run for pleasure.

..yeah yeah yeah ...americans dont want to watch people run.

they dont want watch people ride bikes either, but lance armstrong is a hero..

American professional running is full of runners who afraid of competing, and are much happier running PR's..

yeah i know they dont need anyone to tell them want to do, but i tell you what....they cant expect people to get excited win they set 10k PR in races that dont even matter...i dont like watching people RACE..but i would NEVER watch people set PR's...

so if they are underfunded(which they are not...it is called a free market)..its their fault...not anyone elses.

The Peguin Brigade wrote:

I am not spoiled. I am paying over $100 to run Chicago. I am helping the elite. My entry is paying for the prize money.

Who keeps bringing up this stupid point? You're WRONG, it's paid for by sponsors.

It is the elite that are spoiled, these are people whose names no one even knows and yet they are getting paid to appear and paid to run.

They're unknown only to the ignorant.

The high price of entries tells me that the elites need to agree to take less money so the price of entries can come down. The elite and their demands for high paydays are choking out the support of the people who run for pleasure.

The high price of entries comes from paying for roads to be open about twice as long as is really necessary to hold the race and man them with cops and EMTs.

Yes, exactly. I love the sport of distance running, but even a 5,000m race is a bit of a stretch to sit through as a spectator. If it were essentially a time trial then I'd just check-out and look for the results later.

Sam F wrote:

..yeah yeah yeah ...americans dont want to watch people run.

they dont want watch people ride bikes either, but lance armstrong is a hero..

American professional running is full of runners who afraid of competing, and are much happier running PR's..

yeah i know they dont need anyone to tell them want to do, but i tell you what....they cant expect people to get excited win they set 10k PR in races that dont even matter...i dont like watching people RACE..but i would NEVER watch people set PR's...

so if they are underfunded(which they are not...it is called a free market)..its their fault...not anyone elses.

5. The rise of the "other" two majors (NBA & NFL) along with MLB. Back in Ryun's era and earlier, the NBA was barely better than a barn-storming carnival league and the NFL wasn't even half as popular as it is today. NFL is king and the NBA is doing so well because they are both tv-friendly sports, easy and enjoyable to follow. Track (at least the distance racing above the mile) is not, even MLB regular season games are pretty boring for the average sports fan. People get so used to the watchability (for lack of a better term) of NFL (and college football) and NBA games that asking them to sit through even a disjointed half-hour T&F telecast without a distance race over 800m or 1500m is a lot to expect. It's just not tv-friendly and it probably never will be.

Peguin-

You obviously have NO idea what it takes to compete at an elite level. The elite distance runner has to format his entire life around training and racing. The recreational jogger just has get in that long run on Sunday mornings. The elite has think about how to improve EVERY SINGLE aspect of his/her life, down to even the slightest detail. You, as I'm assuming are an every day jogger, have to realize that running at the elite level is a totally different sport than what you do every weekend or before work. That's why you have to pay that $100.

Pay up. Go jog a few miles. And shut up.

A 5000m race is a long time to sit through? 13 minutes. That's a long time to sit there and keep your attention span? 13 minutes? That's amazing. I'm guessing you don't read much either.

i'm not sure how you can separate the money that comes in from sponsors and the money that comes in from entrants. you can slice and dice the revenue and expenditures however you want but it's pretty tough to make the argument that the entry fee wouldn't be a bit lower if the prize purse was also lower.

It staggers me that people sit around saying oh why oh why don't people care about distance running in this country? I ask, why should they? Yes, it's a great sport and so forth (I know this from the inside), but America is a second-rate distance running nation, dwarfed by former "third world" East African nations and by athletes from many other parts of the world. The Olympics roll around and the country gets excited (sort of) about its runners and field athletes, but the distance and middle distance runners are not the athletes that shine. Look at the recent past: There hasn't been a gold medal produced by an American middle or long distance runner since 1972. People got all excited aboutthe two American marathon medalists (man and woman) in Athens. But why should this generate some huge groundswell of interest in the sport? Quite frankly, I don't see this changing at any point in the future.

I love distance running, practiced it myself, but I cannot get myself worked up about average Middle Americans not getting excited about it. I just don't see why it should happen.

That said, we can still generate more support for the development of these runners, and I predict it will happen. But there will be no revolution in the level of interest in this country. Just won't happen.

Here is your answer. Go to a competitive meet and watch the 4X400 and the 10,000. Which race was more exciting? Enough said.

JohnnyMack wrote:

Here is your answer. Go to a competitive meet and watch the 4X400 and the 10,000. Which race was more exciting? Enough said.

You're right. there's nothing worse than a 4x400 meter relay.