You'd think they'd at least provide a list of athletes in the draft pool. No one seems to know anything about this event and how it works. Is it open to international athletes or just US? Any big names involved? When is the first meet and where?
You'd think they'd at least provide a list of athletes in the draft pool. No one seems to know anything about this event and how it works. Is it open to international athletes or just US? Any big names involved? When is the first meet and where?
Every Diamond League meet has a minimum of $480K in prize money. Why would somebody like Gatlin, Felix, or anyone who can win DL points have anything to do with this? This is probably like a B or C level meet in Europe, and probably just as many people will care. At least if you race some sub-DL meets in Greece (yes, I have) you can vacation on Mikonos or Santorini. Why the hell would anyone want to vacation in Eugene?
^^ This. I can't believe how little info is out on any of this...and unless I'm missing something, a huge number of potential fans and others who would talk it up and get some buzz going are right here on LRC and nowhere else.
Where do I go to view the draft, CSPAN?
Is it an actual meet or a fantasy league based on the Olympic Trials results? Can you place bets? That would be cool.
For athletes that make the Olympics it is actually great timing for a tune up race. Easy travel. Don't need to fly to Europe before Rio. A bit of money. Not a terrible deal.
This event will be very successful. Just like everything else Vin Lananna does.
It's the first year for the summer series. The first time you do anything, there are bound to be hiccups. Al of our questions will be answered soon. However this turns out in 2016, it is a step in the right direction. Vin Lananna is a visionary who has done miraculous things for USA track (we got the World Championships, for one, and that qualifies as a miracle).
Usecase wrote:
^^ This. I can't believe how little info is out on any of this...and unless I'm missing something, a huge number of potential fans and others who would talk it up and get some buzz going are right here on LRC and nowhere else.
Where do I go to view the draft, CSPAN?
Maybe USATF.TV
Going to be fine wrote:
This event will be very successful. Just like everything else Vin Lananna does.
It's the first year for the summer series. The first time you do anything, there are bound to be hiccups. Al of our questions will be answered soon. However this turns out in 2016, it is a step in the right direction. Vin Lananna is a visionary who has done miraculous things for USA track (we got the World Championships, for one, and that qualifies as a miracle).
Yep vin's involvement=success.
Seems like it's a giant cluster f at the moment. No one knows how it works. Picking guys for a pickup basketball games at the local park are more organized than this "draft."
I don't care who's organizing it. Know one knows what's happening, how it works or who is involved.
LRC is a hub of true track fans. If no one here knows about the format, Joe public are unaware of its existence.
How many Twitter follows does the draft have?
Are we supposed to watch Twitter for 144 separate tweets and keep our own lists of who is on each of the 4 teams? How stupid. This should be streamed in high def, and held at the Waldorf Astoria with people wearing tuxedos and each draftee getting to go up on the stage and hug Vin.
Obvious answer to this one: Ashton Eaton.
Fine wrote:
Going to be fine wrote:This event will be very successful. Just like everything else Vin Lananna does.
It's the first year for the summer series. The first time you do anything, there are bound to be hiccups. Al of our questions will be answered soon. However this turns out in 2016, it is a step in the right direction. Vin Lananna is a visionary who has done miraculous things for USA track (we got the World Championships, for one, and that qualifies as a miracle).
Yep vin's involvement=success.
Recent events point to the fact that if you give the IAAF enough money they will grant you the right to put on a major track meet almost anywhere.
bv7mnfkjh wrote:
Agree, how can we get excited when they haven't even explain who will be making the picks. Are there going to be 4 "team owners" taking turns making picks? Or is one guy in Eugene going to pick for everyone? And what does it mean that 16 of the 36 on each team will be drafted, with the remaining 20 coming from free agency? Will the "team owner" have to individually negotiate a big contract with those athletes? I have no idea what is going on.
In the Ken Goe article he notes that the sponsor/owners have chosen to remain anonymous. Translated, that means their are no sponsor/owners. They'll be conducting the draft themselves. Vin gets a team, Reilly gets a team, etc.
obvious111111 wrote:
Obvious answer to this one: Ashton Eaton.
He may not even be drafted. He's really good at 10 events but not the best at any of them. There are prob only gonna be one guy in each field event and 2 per running event per team.
Tonight is when they attempt to spit shine this turd. Could get messy.
Annomous sponsors, means no sponsors. Sponsors sponsor for publicity. This ain't a donation for child disease research.
These fools can't even sell a track meet in track town. No one knows a thing about this turd fest. WTF?
How are we supposed to make any sense of the picks if we don't know how meets are scored and what events will be contested? A given athlete could be a good or bad pick depending on the specifics.
Let's say I have the opportunity to draft a good 800m guy who has relatively poor 1500m ability, but good enough speed to be a solid 3rd leg on a 4X400. If meets include a 4X400 and a 4X800 or DMR, that guy is looking like an okay pick. Without the relays, though, the same guy is a one trick pony.
What if I'm picking between a) a guy who can win his event in most meets, but who doesn't have great range, and b) a guy who can probably finish 4-5 in a few different events, but isn't likely to win much of the time? If scoring is three deep, I'm not even thinking about drafting athlete b. If scoring is 8 deep, guy b is suddenly the better choice.
I don't see anything in the article about who is going to pay for this massively unprofitable venture. But no doubt it will be people of Oregon.
Vin Lannana should be tarred and feathered and run out of the state.
No eaton wrote:
obvious111111 wrote:Obvious answer to this one: Ashton Eaton.
He may not even be drafted. He's really good at 10 events but not the best at any of them. There are prob only gonna be one guy in each field event and 2 per running event per team.
I'm sure he'll be at the US Olympic training camp by then, along with all the other qualifiers.
It appears that there's no money to spend because there's almost nobody to pay. They seem to be about 677 athletes short of what they claimed previously. What if they gave a track meet and nobody came:
http://www.oregonlive.com/trackandfield/index.ssf/2016/06/saturday_morning_news_notes_li_53.html
Ha. The organizers can't even keep the track and field reporter for the Oregoneon, the state's biggest newspaper in the loop about the meet. The organizers don't seem to know anything about marketing.
I'm guessing the money is no longer there and they are hoping this thing will fade into the shade created by the trials.