How To Re-Popularize Track and Field, What's Your Take?

More races recreated in claymation:

http://vimeo.com/29392902

1. Go back to having USA Vs other countries meets (ie like the old ussr USA dual meets)

2. More tv coverage

3. Get rid of other spring/winter sports that compete with it (ie the non major sports like ultimate frisbee Mtn bike riding)

Well informed, articulate, entertaining British announcers would certainly help.

Star athletes with personalities and personal stories and rivalries.

Go back to racing the mile so the general public will actually understand what's going on - ironically we still do this with the marathon and half marathon and talk about people breaking the 4 minute mile but no one but a track wonk has any clue as to what a 1500 meters is or what the times mean.

Stop concentrating on world records and focus more on competition.

Showcase a few major events in the context of other major sporting events - most general audiences have no desire to sit an entire day and watch a track meet, but a good, hyped mile race with good announcing would be watched.

The ship of popularity left the port and track & field remains on the sands.

Why?

When we tried to board the captain refused us, saying "Do you think we're Noah's Ark? You have two of EVERYTHING - short sprinters, long sprinters, middle distance runners, long distance runners, high hurdler, intermediate hurdles, steeplechasers, relay runners, high jumpers, long jumpers,triple jumpers, pole vaulters, discus throwers, shot putters, hammer throwers, javelin throwers, decathletes, heptathletes! You're not a sport, you're a three ring circus! The only thing missing are clowns."

Which is, of course, why the USATF office was started.

This might be a little controversial. Why don't we separate women's and men's meets? Isn't this pretty much the only sport where men and women compete at the same time? With only men and only women the meets would be shorter and easier to present to TV.

We should do this at all levels. High schools, NCAAs, USAs and even the Olympics (men and women on alternating days or something similar). Marathons should be more separate. How many times have the Brojos complained about watching the 10th place woman cross the line while all the big moves are happening in the men's race?

Yeah - maybe the best idea that has been mentioned thus far.

Women and men should not run the same meets - and for those who say we'd be missing out on sex appeal - you are nuts. If I want to see hot girls I'll watch porn, if I want to watch boyish-girls running fast... I'd watch track.

Pull USTAF out the picture , privatize the sport away from the volunteers , coaches and ex-athletes. To date the structure that has been in place clearly has its short comings.

Running as a whole has exploded as a sport , race participation and shoe sales are at all time highs. Nothing has been to capture these possible fans and sponsors looking to connect with the sport in some way.

Well, there are a lot of legitimate ideas floating around. Someone said, "it can't happen, this isn't the cold war."

I agree that the Cold War was an ideal condition, much as the original Olympics were an ideal super-competitive situation. Unfortunately, we are off the "gold standard" now. But that doesn't mean track can't be big again.

Other sports have got on just fine without the Russians. Why? Because they are entertaining and consumers relate to them.

I think we don't have a vision of what track ought to look like, if it was competitive in the market for viewership.

So, if we want a working idea, not only ideologues on the good old days, what would it look like?

"synthesizing" some ideas on here, it seems like people think an ideal working model would be: Meets with fewer races, no women competitors (they can form their own WNBA of track), free media rights or access, and real professional teams operating in a league.

Does this sound realistic, or are there any other ideas out there

But, I do remember when it was the 2nd most popular spectator sport behind soccer and that was in the 80's. What changed? Head to head match ups? Maybe, but Coe/Ovett avoiding each other got press and raised the intrigue.

In the U.S. blame ESPN for being so biased for Baseball, Basketball, football but still. I don't get it.

I DO like the idea of street races for sprints and mid-distance and you can do HJ, SP, PV, too. Bring it to the people in a cool setting.

Also, yes- Byers, Pre, and others were personalities and were cool.

Athletics has the issue of competition against the clock and the tape as well as between athletes. I think sports fans are spoilt by selective media reporting of awesome records, they expect some sort of record every time.

Another perhaps related issue is sponsorship and endorsements; the elite athletes are like prizefighters today, they don't want to harm their value by losing competitions and they don't want to compete unless they're ready. For team sports you can peak once a week in terms of your preparedness for a game, for T & F your body can only peak so many times a year. In absolute terms you can only peak once, your SB.

Finally T & F is very low participation; only 8 lanes on a track and only time for at the most 12 field eventers. Meanwhile the elite in every event are the same few guys and gals and they're increasingly precious with their time as mentioned earlier.

Maybe Hollywood could make a couple of movies about Prefontaine.

>> Maybe Hollywood could make a couple of movies about Prefontaine.

Yeah that's all we need is another movie about a drunken Coulda Shoulda Woulda.

Coulda Shoulda Woulda wrote:

>> Maybe Hollywood could make a couple of movies about Prefontaine.

Yeah that's all we need is another movie about a drunken Coulda Shoulda Woulda.

Gotcha!

I think about this often and feel the best way for the sport to be appreciated by the masses is for the masses to see us, the hardcore fans/participants, talking about the professional aspect of our craft in an enthusiastic manner.

A few times I have recommended letsrun.com to new running fans who want to keep up with professional news. After a few days, their new-born attraction to the sport leaves with a message of "it seems everyone is doping, right?"

After such comments/questions, a thought clicks... how could I blame them for being turned off? ...who would want to devote time to a sport where success means you are accused of being an unethical cheater, doper, liar, etc.

Who would want to be part of such a sport at the professional level if such character attacks are directed at the top athletes? Yes, there will always be us die-hard fans who already love running, but such treatment added to the fact of financial struggles for most athletes pursuing Olympic participation will likely not appeal to the masses.

I am sure I do not have all the answers, but our own attitudes about our fellow runners could sure use some tweaking.

t&f is already popular. i don't understand why people don't know that.

Errrryep...you are actually one of the few posters that make any sense..i have been involved in this business of athletics on the media end for years and have watched the level of popularity go up and down. We are on the verge on a mini upswing at the moment.

FIRST...media coverage is terrible. The coverage is aimed at people who don't know nor who care and will never really care. Solution Aim at the NERD fan. ie. People who read Lets Run. Gotta cater to the rabid fan base and build from that. Every year literally hundreds of thousands of fans are created at the high school level through track and field teams nationwide. We must retain that group.

SECOND...TEAM competition based on a draft for cities. A Major League Track format..with a team made up of 15 individuals male and 15 female. The compete on a schedule that encompasses all disciplines so a Bolt figure will run for Miami Sun team and end up having to double by running a 100 and 400 meter relay. The team events are MOSTLY RELAYS.

THIRD...A track and field WORLD RELAY Team AND World CHAMPIONSHIPS... 3 days of ALL RELAYS thus all the World Teams have a chance and people will get excited even if the Kenyans, Ethopians do win the 4 X 10,000 because the USA is fighting for Bronze against France. And then Americans and Europeans can cheer for team champs and be happy to have Africans on their team for a change.

A defined season with a start and a ENDING at the WORLD CHAMPS. The OLYMPICS is not helping as it is siphoning off the importance of regular season.

I could talk about this all day but I have to go and run.. BUt believe me the current level of marketing people are NOT track people and they don't really get what makes us track and field people excited. Thus we are floundering and will continue to do so. Wejo and Rojo are brilliant guys and at the moment leading the real track revolution. It will not come directly from NIKE, Gatorade or any of the other go to guys. But like a bad neighborhood that has been gentrified this can happen...

I don't think the team concept will help.

Most people already don't care about team standings. One of the biggest complaints from people I know about the coverage of the NCAA track championships is the emphasis on team standings -- most people just don't care.