To be far, the US marathon announcers aren't any better. They like to blather on about the city, or some hobby jogger story, or any number of topics having nothing to do with the actual race going on, and they hardly ever capture the break, or replay it after they missed it, and they can't keep splits and pace numbers onscreen to save their lives.
fisky wrote:
Track announcers are terrible. They talk about the leader and maybe the favorite if it isn't the leader.
Meanwhile, there is often an exciting race going on for 2nd and 3rd. Not only do announcers not cover this part of the race, they often don't even announce who finished in 3rd and sometimes, 2nd. They're too busy showing the winner slowing down after crossing the line.
If you listen to British or Australian announcers, you'd swear you were listening to a different race. They know how to call a race.
Fisky, the dream combo for commentating would have been the late John Davies (NZ) and Steve Ovett for running with Steve Backley in the field events and maybe a female on-track post-race interview.
My guess would be that they have government bureaucrats acting as the officials.
lime jello wrote:
Agreed. Lets include marathon coverage/ roads on the tv. 10% of the posts from Tokyo Marathon were about where/how to watching the damn thing. Since coverage of track and the roads (in the US at least)ranges from pitiful to OK (which we celebrate)
"And there off...59 seconds for the first lap... we'll be right back after these important messages for the conclusion of the men's 1500 meters".
Here is Tom Brady in the huddle. He had a very difficult season. We'll be right back after these messages... yes, Jim, that was quite a pass that Tom threw during these messages. I can't believe they scored a touch down so fast. This changes the whole complexion of the game. It's unfortunate that the viewers didn't get to see it. But let me tell you what happened before we show it to you.
Emperors giving the real thumbs up to Alberto Salazar and Galen Rupp
I do not like the fact athletes try to race fall, winter, spring, and summer. I am not sure how they do it in all other countries but in America we are over-raced.
This is especially bad for young athletes.
The sport needs more swag in my opinion. There needs to be a bad boy with some showmanship in the track and field game. Think Kenny Powers if you will.
Soft bunnies wrote:
If you don't like the product why are you watching? Are you simple or something?
That's the title of his thread you foolish linear thinker.
He is saying.. oh never mind. You must be English.
crumpet wrote:
Soft bunnies wrote:
If you don't like the product why are you watching? Are you simple or something?
That's the title of his thread you foolish linear thinker.
He is saying.. oh never mind. You must be English.
He watches a bad product. Why? Do you eat at the same bad restaurant every day then complain how bad it is?
Point is, he's either an idiot who voluntarily consumes something he doesn't like, or he does like it and is just a whiner.
You, on the other hand, are just an idiot. No other options there.
Soft Bunnies wrote:
crumpet wrote:
That's the title of his thread you foolish linear thinker.
He is saying.. oh never mind. You must be English.
He watches a bad product. Why? Do you eat at the same bad restaurant every day then complain how bad it is?
Point is, he's either an idiot who voluntarily consumes something he doesn't like, or he does like it and is just a whiner.
You, on the other hand, are just an idiot. No other options there.
Game, set, match
That was quite the smack down, Jim.
If they're truly the best performers then they'll make it to finals. Sometimes you get outraced. It's ok
That, not which
To make running a real sport that > 1% of Americans enjoy watching, the central running hegemony needs to do all of the following at minimum:
(1) Get rid of all the "in between" distances such as 60m, 300m, 500m, 600m, 1000m, 2000m, 3000m, 6000m, 8000m, etc. There should only be the 100m, 200m, 400m, mile (I cover this more in my next point), 5000m, 10000m XC, and road marathon.
(2) For God's sake, unify the mile-ish event. It's so stupid that kids run the 1600m in high school most of the time, the 1609m a.ka. mile some of the time, in college they run the mile indoors and the 1500m outdoors, then in pros they run the 1500m and maybe once a year the "full mile". The only mile-ish event should be the mile.
(3) There need to be more elite road 5Ks like the Carlsbad one. Certify courses that go through famous, scenic places like over the Golden Gate bridge, through Central Park, Stonehenge, Mayan ruins, etc., and pay the pros to show up and run fast times. Most Americans are not even aware that there exists such a thing as a 5K on a track. The only time there should be a 5K on a track is for WR attempts.
How about "fans" who simply equate winning with cheating? Every athlete strives their whole life to be the best, but heaven forbid they dare to succeed, or they will be demonized, whereas most other sports' fans would turn successful athletes into role models and heros. How can a sport succeed if their fans don't positively reinforce success?
vivalarepublica wrote:
Let's DQ people at the World Champs for non-consequential infractions!
Let's not make it difficult for athletes to get to the country where the event is held!
Let's create qualifying rounds that don't let the best performers get in the finals!
I don't know of any other sport that creates a worse product for its athletes and fans. Well done. Just close up shop and turn it back into an amateur so we don't have to go through the trouble anymore.
Were there any lane DQs in NCAAs? Why are college kids so much more adept at handling the track than HIGHLY PAID PROFESSIONALS?
PMWTK!
Hate to say it, but T&F, XC, and Road Racing are dead.
former college head coach here, fwiw...
-too much going on: field and running events going on at same time make it difficult to follow and see the leaderboard
-can't watch it in span of 2 hours
-men's and women's events concurrently make it ridiculous: What other sport does this?! (Let's watch NBA + WNBA at the same time!)
-Lack of teams make it difficult to build a fan base
-Boring interviews
-terrible announcing "Go out to your local HS track and try to run that pace for just the straightaway! haha, back to you on the field..."
-Poorly marketed by existing companies: Nike, Brooks, adidas, et al do not use their athletes to sell their brands. Why not put pictures of their top athletes in their instagram accounts, magazines, etc.?
-USATF does not know how to market their business, and as such, NCAA coverage doesn't follow what the governing body is doing. USTFCCCA should be taking over USATF, but due to politics, it will not be given the green-light.
"Meanwhile, there is often an exciting race going on for 2nd and 3rd."
Well there's something nobody other than their mom cares about.
moist wrote:
The ought to put razors on the lane lines. Up the stakes a little.
This is the common sense track-reform we've been looking for!
vivalarepublica wrote:
Let's DQ people at the World Champs for non-consequential infractions!
Let's not make it difficult for athletes to get to the country where the event is held!
Let's create qualifying rounds that don't let the best performers get in the finals!
I don't know of any other sport that creates a worse product for its athletes and fans. Well done. Just close up shop and turn it back into an amateur so we don't have to go through the trouble anymore.
I will buy that this past champs was crazy with questionable DQs.
Is it that hard to get to London? It has one of the busiest airports in the world.
We could do away with qualifying rounds and just invite the people with the top 6 times to come. The meet could be done in a day or two then. But in a lot of sports the best team does not make the finals or win. I would argue that a college basketball team that goes through its season 30-2 is the best team but sometimes it loses. Maybe the NCAA basketball tournament should just be the top 2 ranked teams. I mean look how well that has worked in college football...
Baseball is really the worst at penalizing teams that do extremely well in the regular season. A few times teams have won 100 games and then lose in a 3 or 5 game playoff. I will argue that the team that wins 100 games is a better team than the one that won 88, but it might not have been the better team over a short-stretch of games.
Alas, I do not buy that qualifying rounds hold the sport back. Far, far many other things do.
