Letsrunners: "The US Open pays the winner $3m! Why can't elite runners get paid well?"
Tennis fan: *pays $13K for a seat at the US Open final and flies in from LA for the match. Has a Rolex and a Mercedes because Roger Federer made them look like a neat things to have.*
Track fan: *won't pay $15 for a ticket and drive an hour to watch his sport. Mumbles complaints about price gouging and being eaten alive by inflation the one time per year that he drops $120 on new running gear.*
Letsrunners: "I just don't get it. The pay disparity between sports just doesn't make any sense!"
BINGO! This is the unadulterated truth. Our sport's fan base is mostly participatory tightwads. Which is ironic since these people don't give a second thought to driving two hours and paying $75 to jog a holiday themed 5K because the t-shirt looks cool.
If you were to draw a Venn diagram of the people who jog holiday 5ks and the people who buy tickets to track meets, there would be very little overlap. VERY little.
Which city wants to host? We can't even fill NY and LA grand prix.
NY meet was sold out but I don’t know if it would be were there bleachers on the other side of the track. But it’s on Randall’s Island which isn’t exactly the same as these European cities with the stadiums in the city. If you had an outdoor stadium actually in NYC hosting a DL meet I’m confident it would sell twice as many tickets as Millrose at least.
You mean Millrose, the meet that moved from MSG in Manhattan to wherever TF Randall’s Island is because fewer and fewer tickets were sold every year? That Millrose?
I consider myself to be an ardent fan of the sport and the only way that I am going to even remotely interested in Wiley is if she totally dissociates from Huntington and the Johnsons. Until then, I couldn't care less about her or what she does.
Yeah I can tell.
What can you tell? That not many are fans of AW because they rightfully question the legitimacy of her improvements in the span of less than a year? Does a 12+ second improvement in the 1500 and a 6.5 second improvement in the 800 even seem feasible to you?
I've been following the sport for a lot of years and never have I heard about a runner that was already at a high level improving by that much.
What can you tell? That not many are fans of AW because they rightfully question the legitimacy of her improvements in the span of less than a year? Does a 12+ second improvement in the 1500 and a 6.5 second improvement in the 800 even seem feasible to you?
I've been following the sport for a lot of years and never have I heard about a runner that was already at a high level improving by that much.
I heard about a runner that was already at a high level improving by that much in such a short period of time *
What can you tell? That not many are fans of AW because they rightfully question the legitimacy of her improvements in the span of less than a year? Does a 12+ second improvement in the 1500 and a 6.5 second improvement in the 800 even seem feasible to you?
I've been following the sport for a lot of years and never have I heard about a runner that was already at a high level improving by that much.
I heard about a runner that was already at a high level improving by that much in such a short period of time *
I've been following the sport for a lot of years and I have never heard of a high-level runner *who* improved that much in such a short time.
No one wants to go to pre classic. Just got my hotel room for $3. The guy on the phone was begging me to take the room and threw in a flight as well as a complimentary bottle of wine and a rental car as well. Tickets may be whatever online, but word is that you can buy them from a scalper in the streets of Eugene for a nickel.
Can't forget what has become of the city itself. People living in tents at all open greenspace in drug induced zombie haze. Restaurants that can't handle the traffic. Used to be magical, now like a post apocalyptic movie.
You know a few people so I can just extrapolate on that to make broad generalizations about thousands of people. That's almost as dumb as the "I don't know anyone in my town of 2500 people who voted for Biden, so there's no way he won."
You mean Millrose, the meet that moved from MSG in Manhattan to wherever TF Randall’s Island is because fewer and fewer tickets were sold every year? That Millrose?
Millrose couldn't sell out a 16,000 person arena, but I doubt hosting it on Friday nights on a sub-standard track with continually declining star power (stars skipping indoors, not wanting to run on a 180 yard track etc.) was helping things. It sells out now in the Armory with much higher prices that you'd have to charge if it were in a bigger venue.
The Pre Classic can stay in May. It has usually attracted big names, especially Nike athletes. It makes as much sense as any of the DL tour stops. Eugene in September, after WC, that was a foreseeable issue. Hearing Warholm begrudge having to fly to the west coast of the US to finish the season gives you an idea that combining two factors like distance and post WC sets up for athletes pulling out. It will still be a good meet.
Which city wants to host? We can't even fill NY and LA grand prix.
NY meet was sold out but I don’t know if it would be were there bleachers on the other side of the track. But it’s on Randall’s Island which isn’t exactly the same as these European cities with the stadiums in the city.
If you had an outdoor stadium actually in NYC hosting a DL meet I’m confident it would sell twice as many tickets as Millrose at least.
That's not saying much. Millrose left Madison Square Garden because it was half empty. Now it gets maybe 2,000 fans per year in the Armory. So you think a Diamond League meet in NYC could get twice that? Big deal.
I know a lot of die-hard track fans who won't go to Eugene from Portland. It is just the fact that as much as we love the sport, it doesn't require us to be there and watch it live. You can watch it on NBC/Peacock and still talk about it on your next long run with the guys.
The original ticket prices had something to do with it... I think I paid $80 per ticket for my family and they (unlike myself) aren't really that into it. It starts to add up when you are taking the whole family.
The "product" at an NFL game or U2 concert is worth a lot more than watching three events I love (mile/3000/5000) over two days and embedded in hours of events I don't really care about (sprints, jumps, throws).
You can tell how attendance will be by the hotel cancellations and the plummeting ticket prices. Many of those that reserved hotel rooms are now cancelling them as the free cancelation window closes, so there are now a bunch of available rooms where just a week ago, there were very few. Also tickets are $15 for the same seats that people paid $50-$100 for in March.
Pretty sad.
Source? Hard to believe there are hotel cancellations when the Duck's game is on Saturday. The Hawaii team isn't a big draw but, due to the Lahaina fires, being there will be worthy of attendance. Mariota may be there as well.
I know a lot of die-hard track fans who won't go to Eugene from Portland. It is just the fact that as much as we love the sport, it doesn't require us to be there and watch it live. You can watch it on NBC/Peacock and still talk about it on your next long run with the guys.
The original ticket prices had something to do with it... I think I paid $80 per ticket for my family and they (unlike myself) aren't really that into it. It starts to add up when you are taking the whole family.
The "product" at an NFL game or U2 concert is worth a lot more than watching three events I love (mile/3000/5000) over two days and embedded in hours of events I don't really care about (sprints, jumps, throws).
They should have child, student and senior tickets. That's how they price every Diamond League and championship in Europe.
I keep looking into going—have been fine with the ticket prices for a while. But everything affordable 30 miles around Eugene looks kind of seedy and disgusting to me. Hotels around $140 in Portland look like a good deal. But I'd have to drive 5 hrs from Seattle to Eugene, and then 2 hrs back and forth to Portland. That's 7 hours of driving on Sunday and 7 hrs of driving on Saturday for about 15 minutes of running I'm interested in. Or 4 hrs Friday, 4 hrs Saturday and 7 Sunday if I booked one more night. I think the effort would drain the fun out of it.
That's not saying much. Millrose left Madison Square Garden because it was half empty. Now it gets maybe 2,000 fans per year in the Armory. So you think a Diamond League meet in NYC could get twice that? Big deal.
Track is in a tough enough spot, you don't need to blatantly make crap up to make it seem bleaker than it. Millrose sells out and has over 4,000 people there. That is with high prices. The Icahn meet that is Commonwealth Gold sells out at around 5,000 people. Not that any of this is all that impressive, but yes a Diamond League Meet in the actual city could sell out a smaller (10-12K) stadium. Considering the inconvenience of Randall's Island I don't think you could go much higher than it is right now.
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