The Culture of Track & Field in America by Tianna Bartoletta

Is she asking why T&F has limited interest as an entertainment form?

Put it the other way around. There are hundreds of sports, yet only a handful have marketable entertainment value in our country.

Football

Basketball

Baseball

massive gap

hockey, soccer, tennis, golf

massive gap

everything else

I don't know. Why is anything popular? Why is a certain kind of music or movie popular?

popular guy wrote:

Is she asking why T&F has limited interest as an entertainment form?

Put it the other way around. There are hundreds of sports, yet only a handful have marketable entertainment value in our country.

Football

Basketball

Baseball

massive gap

hockey, soccer, tennis, golf

massive gap

everything else

I don't know. Why is anything popular? Why is a certain kind of music or movie popular?

No that is not what she was writing about.

let's be honest here wrote:

J. Jones wrote:

That's been the problem with American Track & Field since the 1970s and even many years before that.

Didn't anybody watch the Steve Prefontaine movies? Pre lived was on food stamps after college!

Meanwhile many Europeans got paid to train and even competed into their late 30s or even 40s if they were weight men.

WE can do something about this.

It's not the 70's anymore. Pro runners do get paid, if they're good.

Yes a few of the really good and established runners do get paid. Some even get paid enough to live on. Over all though America just uses athletes we do not develop them!

There is money but it goes to shoe companies, the coaches, and the higher ups in track & field. Track & Field athletes are stars but they do not make the money you might expect. They must sacrifice in order to pursue their dreams. It's not as bad as the 1970s thanks to Pre and a few other people.

But the situation could be a lot healthier.

I think the fact that Tianna Bartoletta is able to pose her question in the way she does, is the problem that Track and Field faces.

the idea that T&F should be viewed as a business, and that the "problems" it faces are popularity with television audiences, how TV stations "market" their product, how money is distributed among the capitalist elite and trickled down to the professionals, that all these questions can be asked in this way is itself the problem that T&F faces.

it is no longer viewed as a sport, but as a product, it is no longer a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon but as a generator of revenue, and fans are no longer just folk who love to watch track, they are assets to be converted into income streams.

it makes me physically ill to hear people talk about track in this way.

whatever happened to making dreams become reality?

cheers.

Vapid wrote:

I wish I dididn't read that.

Because you're a bubble-head.

You’re right. We should go back to the days of forced amateurism. That was great for the athletes! *rolling eyes*

Every sport is a business at the professional level, you ninny. The successful leagues like the NFL, NBA, premier League, etc. are BIG business, and fans happily sink a lot of money into them.

This was my thought as well.

"But can we be honest for a moment, and call it for what it really is?

A culture of selfishness. Track and Field is not a team sport."

Neither is tennis. Boxing. MMA. Many other sports as well that are ALL marketed better and well-paying for their athletes.

1: Start serving alcohol at track meets(college/pro)

2: track meets need to go faster 3-5 hours tops

3: need good announcers that make the race exciting

4: who wants to watch a 10k

5: no more of these jog till last lap distance races

6: promote the marketable athletes so people want to watch them race

7: there should be exclusive college races that only the top NCAA athletes compete at ( who wants to watch the two worst teams in the nfl play)

There’s so many things that could make this sport popular...just a few ideas

tldr

But because wallytommypat was the OP, I can confidently say it's a heap of rubbish.

wallytommypat is a moran. He needs to leave LRC. Did you know he once claimed that taking a BM is a sign of over training? Idiot.

Linkification wrote:

It's from her website:

https://teamtb.snappages.site/blog/2017/07/08/99-problemshttps://teamtb.snappages.site/blog

I wonder if what she says is true for all events? In particular, cross country runners are participating in a team sport and lots of XC runners like the team aspect.

Yeah but those same distance runner don't care squat about the team aspect of track.

Barrmtm wrote: Yeah but those same distance runner don't care squat about the team aspect of track.

It's too bad what you stated regarding distance runners and track & field. Great thanks and appreciation for 400/800 ( and some rare 1500m/1600m/one mile) runners for providing the team attitude in track & field. 400/800 runners have the respect of the entire team. If not for 400/800 athletes, track & field would merely be a collection of mercenaries.

I didn't like running at all because I was 165 pounds at 5'2". Then when I got fit, I embraced it. However, my friends never took a running hobby and eventually, all the dinner talk that came from my mouth became obviously boring.

I think you need to have a track and field influence from high school, which means you need to be involved in extracurriculars if you want to be interested in T&F nowadays.

I don't really think this is a sport that people enjoy watching. Really, it just makes me want to run fast.

When I see a 100m sprint event, I say to myself: "I can do that." And that makes me want to run. I wouldn't get obsessed over that athlete and wikipedia their bio even if they did win that 100m time.

This is because winning times in T&F events are static. I'd rather watch team sports for the unpredicatbility and creativeness, such as soccer skills and dribbling.

J. Jones wrote:

That's been the problem with American Track & Field since the 1970s and even many years before that.

s.

History says the Olympics legitimized running by making it a strictly amateur endeavor. Running has never recovered.

skylon69 wrote:

"But can we be honest for a moment, and call it for what it really is?

A culture of selfishness. Track and Field is not a team sport."

Neither is tennis. Boxing. MMA. Many other sports as well that are ALL marketed better and well-paying for their athletes.

Why would anybody think it is selfish to want to be an individual and not want to be on a team?

Is it selfish that I work for myself and not for some big company that calls everybody a team member?

That individual pursuit is why I have been a lifelong runner.

Not everybody wants to be a sheeple herded through life.

Television-friendliness is the key...

Cross country skiing has the complementary Biathlon.

Biathlon is huuuuugly more popular as a televisionized sport.

The way the leaderboard can totally shift within five bullets and the following penalty rounds in the stadium makes it an amazing show.

And television get to push their ads in between shootings.

Normal cross country skiing is almost down to a Norway vs Sweden affair.

Kinda like normal long distance running is down to Kenya vs Ethiopia vs USA affair.

Or spring is down to a Jamaica vs USA affair.

But in Germany and France Biathlon athletes are superstars and make a lot of money.

I hope it's not because all(most) all the best runners are black that the IAAF doesn't wanna add a weapons/shooting event to it's rooster. But trust me, a running/biathlon x kilometers/miles event would be great television.

Even in middle school, your individual performance was calculated into the overall score BUT you were honored as the winner of your individual event, and maybe just maybe you contributed to the overall victory of your team but nine times out of ten if you won your event AND your team still lost you probably weren’t all that pissed off about it.

Great post and- when I was in high school my team hadn't lost a dual meet in 7 years (I was in about 10th grade at the time).

We traveled 1 hour and lost by 1 point. On the bus one of our coaches was lecturing us about our loss- the team loss.

I mumbled something about how I won MY two events, what do want?

He went ballistic!!!! we weren't allowed to talk on the ride home. BUT- the other "winners" on the team saw my point.

waltertompatton wrote:

Teams aren't the problem........ wrote:

Golf isn't a team sport.

The problem with track and field is that the tv networks can't figure out how to show it and still get their 3 minutes of commercials in every 4 minutes.

Ah but what is the nature of golf? Isn't it a less hostile sport than running where everything is extremely competitive until the race is over? In golf they are usually somewhat friendly all the time.

They are completely different sports in many ways. Golf is much more social. The same can be said of tennis.

I think a lot of it is marketing- golf is a great example- every duffer knows all the pro's and watches them on the weekend.

I remember when Tiger Woods was first popular- you'd see all these guys who couldn't break 100 dressed like him in their Nike gear.

In running- those 60K hobby joggers who run Peachtree and all those millions in 1/2 marathons all around the country have no clue who the top runners are.

I think that local running stores can help by educating the public with posters, showing races on livestream in their stores- even having it on Runnerspace and FloTrack.

Runners World can help bridge the gap AND honestly- when there are 10 Kenyans finishing in the top 10 at a road race people see them as Kenyan and not individual runners with names.

The fields have to be more diverse- Americans and European along with Kenyans- look at the fields in the early 80's when road racing was popular and on TV.

Football is a product- think about this- why do so many people watch the Super Bowl? The commercials and the half time show- they actually EXTEND half time (change the rules!) for the most important game of the season to have a show that is meant to appeal to the viewers.

That's a complete joke. It's not about the game, it's about the production.