I'm sorry, but where are the Fans at USATF's!!!!!

i wonder if it has anything to do with U of O being out.

less students, less people in general?

just a thought...

Indy Smack wrote:

No!!!!

Indy is in the middle of nowhere and has nothing to recommend, and that's coming from an Indiana native.

You gotta go to the track towns at sea level and there need to be amenties for families--Indy has none of this.

My recommendation:

WEST COAST

Eugene (the running capital of the US)

Palo Alto (close to San Francisco)

Los Angeles (Coliseum)

REST OF COUNTRY

Chicago (somewhere around there, but NOT Indy!)

Austin or other SW US site (hot weather is a problem)

New York (Reebok site)

Now the common denominator on my list is that these are all places peole would enjoying visiting after the track meet.

Yeah, and all those places are EXPENSIVE. How many casual fans, or high school/college kids that are still really interested in the sport, can afford to spend 3-4 nights in New York? Are you kidding me?

Sure, Indianapolis sucks. BUT -- it's in the middle of the country, which means it's easy to drive to. It has CHEAP hotel rooms. It has a brand new airport that isn't expensive to fly into. And, yes, there are things to do there (granted, not like LA, NYC, etc).

I also agree with the Iowa suggestion.

Indy WOULD be a good place before the track gets torn out. Who cares if it is in the middle of nowhere - its in the MIDDLE! The flights would be a Lot cheaper, more people could drive, there are tons of hotels.. When you are there to watch track you aren't there to go site seeing.

I would have been at the meet in a heart beat if it wasn't on the opposite coast that I live.

The Trials and or USATF Nationals should be in Philly. Smack in the middle of the mid atlantic corridor. Large stadium for huge crowds but teired stadium makes it so you can make it look even more full for TV cameras. I do not wanna hear about oh PENN fills because of the Jamaicans.

mikeintx wrote:

i wonder if it has anything to do with U of O being out.

less students, less people in general?

just a thought...

yeah, this is one small factor.

the dorms are a ghost town right now, and probably the school is too.

also with so many of the usa athletes being defending world champions, they don't have to race to win here.

that has take a huge shine off a lot of events, the 400, the 1500, the 5k and more.

Wejo should have a poll on the frontpage to see where the preferred site would be..

1. Eugene

2. Indy

3. Philly

4. Drake

5. Other

NYC

Where did you read that the track is being torn out at Indianapolis?

Is there any facility capable of hosting it in Boston? There is a decent running community in Boston and the BIG have always attracted a decent crowd. I think that if there was a place that could host it in Boston, it would do really well, especially if they hold the USATF Jr. events throughout the day, like they're doing in Eugene.

USATF might want to see whether an NFL (or even NCAA) football stadium can be converted into a part-time track facility. I've seen that in Seattle.

We need to build proper track venues and morph them with other sports so they are financially viable.

SF Bay Area needs a track stadium. Sacto at 105 won't cut it. Palo Alto, San Francisco State (or potentially Kezar?), perhaps Berkeley would work, weather is usually perfect.

LA near Santa Monica or the beach would work too. Perhaps further south in San Diego if possible.

Eugene is OK but the vibe is a little smug and overrated. I'd prefer to see Portland, Ore. build a top-flight track stadium, which would save the big trip down to Eugene. Would adidas or Nike buy into helping that out? Maybe Portland can get an NFL team and also combine it with a track stadium. Or maybe the minor league baseball team stadium near downtown can build a track facility there. They did hold the women's world cup soccer matches several years ago there.

A high-altitude venue near Denver-Boulder would likely sell out, that is a rabid and untapped fan base, probably more rabid than Eugene's.

Really the coasts are where it's at. Probably too humid east of Colorado. East coast: Boston, Philly, NYC, maybe DC or someplace like Charlotte, NC.

Gonna take some corporate sponsorship and someone who knows how to promote. Out with Doug Logan and in with Dean Karnazes. At least he knows how to promote the hell out of himself, why not TnF in the USA?

Boston is funny. Great running community, but did you see how empty USATF indoors were? Every man had the adjacent 5 seats to themselves. No energy in the facility. Very boring. Thought it was because no big names were there...Well, now we have the same situation in Eugene with the big names. The issue is fan interest. We need to convert the fan energy present at the high school and college level, to the pro level. Ever go to a Heps track meet. The stands tend to be rocking. We need to take some of that and bring it to our pro meets. Olympic trials last year was a great meet. Is there anyway to re-create that?

I really like watching track - but I think the big thing people aren't talking about here is that for the average person, and even track runner who understands the sport a 4 day meet with events every day seems daunting. If we want the sport to become more popular to watch than we need to make it more spectator friendly - if at all possible no longer than one day - or less. I know that means cutting either events or flights, or both - but if you want people to watch it is what has to happen.

One possible reason is that the home crowd has had a lot of meets this season. The season ticket holder has had their season package of meets (Oregon Preview, Pepsi Team Invitational, UCLA dual meet, and Oregon Relays). They would have then had to add: Pac-10s, Western Regionals, and Prefontaine Classic before they even put down their change for the USATF meet.

If people don't remember, our economy sucks right now. I would bet that many people had to prioritize their ticket buying. I would guess that some of the Eugene based fans would be more apt to getting their non-season package tickets for Pac-10s and Western Regionals and then getting a day ticket for the finals on Saturday or Sunday.

My theory is exactly the same as Pre841 -- so many big track meets in Eugene in such a short time, most people won't go to all of them. That, and the fact that many of the biggest names have made no secret about passing on their main events (Wariner, Gay, Lagat, etc.)

We are all at home watching it on the internet. Why would anyone spend their summer vacation watching a track meet?

Seriously, unless you are in the meet or connected to someone in the meet do you actually pay to sit there for 5 days? Who has that type of $ to give to the USATF?

Maybe I'm too ADD but the last time I was there(reasons above) I left after my event and drove to the Oregon coast to see the the dunes and walk along the beach.

d35krunner wrote:

I really like watching track - but I think the big thing people aren't talking about here is that for the average person, and even track runner who understands the sport a 4 day meet with events every day seems daunting. If we want the sport to become more popular to watch than we need to make it more spectator friendly - if at all possible no longer than one day - or less. I know that means cutting either events or flights, or both - but if you want people to watch it is what has to happen.

I think you're right about cutting out events if you want a lot of people to watch. If the average person who has never competed in or been to a T&F meet is channel surfing and they see ESPN or NBC is showing USATF Championships, they might watch only to see that there's a combination of about 4 different races, 2 jumps, a throwing event, and the pole vault all shown within 5 minutes. The average person is probably thinking WTF is going on here, so they change the channel. Let's say the average person is stumbling around on the internet and they somehow come across this:

I'm guessing they are thinking WITFH is this?

There are way too many events in T&F for most people to follow. I bet most people who come to letsrun.com only care about the 800 - 10,000. They sit through the sprints, hurdles, jumps, throws, and I almost for got race walking at a meet anxiously awaiting the middle and long distance races, but most do not follow the other events on a regular basis.

I think USATF Championships could be successful over a 3 or 4 day period, but there would need to be a lot less events, so everything could be completed in a 3-4 hours each day. Maybe if the only events in Track and Field were something like the following, more people would watch.

100

800

5,000

high hurdles

steeple

long jump

pole vault

shot put

javelin

Of course, this will probably never happen. IAAF would need to cut the events from its championships first.

What about the fact that ESPN does a horrid job covering the meets. From what i watched on friday night, the announcers couldnt care less

They made it seem like it would be more boring than watching a nascar race unfold and the races are about less than a quarter of a time of a nascar race.

Move USA's to the REAL Track Town, Fayetteville! Best place in the world to run!!

I second or third INDY! The other cities mentioned have too many yuppies.

Sacramento, Palo Alto all those upwardly mobile places.

Only people with "beemers" with theUSATF stickers inthe back window would be going to these meets.

INDY is where middle america is, where you can appeal to more of the average person, which is the idea behind USATF in the first place, based upon the school visits and all that you see in between events on TV.