I cannot divine the essence of your comment.
Track IS a wimp sport--and this from someone who participates, who loves it, and who also participates in "non-wimp" sports like combat.
Any sport that doesn't involve direct human opposition is viewed as a "wimp" sport in comparison to those that DO involve such opposition (except for soccer, which is increasingly gaining acceptance). All forms of combat are the most direct examples, but oppositional sports like basketball, football, hockey, waterpolo, european team handball, even baseball and cricket also embody some human opposition.
But so what? OK, it is a "wimp sport". There are many wimp sports, but only in the USA are they disparaged. Go to Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Russia, and you will see a PACKED auditorium for weightlifting. Same goes in many parts of the world for gymnastics, t&f, swimming, etc--all "wimp sports".
Why do "we lose" because you couldn't sell a track meet with betting in Vegas? How exactly would I, as a t&f participant and fan, benefit from such a thing? There is a sufficient number of high-level meets, and access to the performances, right now to sustain my interest. Would it generally raise the profile of t&f such that t&f "in general" would benefit? i.e. that the little guy would ultimately see benefit? Did the Bailey-Johnson match race do anything of the sort for t&f? No.
It's about the underlying culture--and I can't see how having a betting meet in Vegas will change that culture.
Americans are lazy fat pigs, on the whole. Without the basic level of participation in something physical, like they used to have in some countries (and still do have in some), the average person will have no personal appreciation of the individual athletic ability that is exhibited in the "wimp sports".
Wimp sports might be dying in other parts of the world as well, that have increasingly adopted the American model of sloth--but here, they will all continue to die unless the mentality of kids is changed.
Also, look at who is interested in the wimp sports in the USA--it is ALL ex-athletes. The coaches, the trainers, the administrators, etc.. The notion of the betterment of the individual in the 18th-19th century conception has been dissipated in the US--now it is about integration, about homogenization, about cooperation--and concepts like competition, hierarchy, prowess, are out of favor.
t&f, like the other pure "wimp sports", seems to embody these values to the utmost, and has therefore fallen out of favor to the utmost--but that is a perception born of the ignorance that is the result of a lack of participation.
I just ran a meet where I got 4th in a 100m. It was my first meet after injury and in 2+ years, so I didn't go all-out, and I didn't medal. Do you think it made any difference to the other 7 guys in the race? No. We all respect each other. I beat some guys, and got beaten by some guys--but everybody who was there respects everybody else who lines up for the race. I have NEVER seen it otherwise, except for instances of personal animosity.
For those who actually participate, it is NOT just about those values that have fallen out of fashion, it is about the participation itself. I WILL medal in my next race, but it doesn't matter--what will be important will be BEING there. I know because I AM there, but those who don't participate themselves, or who have never participated in anything similar, will never understand. Do I hate the guy who won, who is trying to get the standard, because he beat me? Of course not. Do I feel diminished? Of course not--he trains year-round, is more than 20 years my junior, and has Olympic aspirations. I'm HONORED that I finished 5m behind him.
A betting meet in Vegas won't change any of that going forward--what needs to happen is that an essential fan base needs to be built for the future, and such a meet in Vegas won't bring that about in any way. Money won't change that in any way, making it seem "professional" won't change that in any way--the ONLY thing that will change it will be to change the kids.
Gym class needs to be made mandatory again. Gym teachers have to be actually interested in the betterment of each individual through participation in sport, to help everyone find something in which they can have that basic level of ability that will allow them to appreciate other abilities in other sports. Kids need to be exposed to as many things as possible--once they have TRIED an olympic lift, a single axel, an iron cross, an inward 1.5, they will have appreciation for it--but not before.
My generation was the last that had some reasonable level of interest--Gen X--and even that level of interest wasn't particularly great. The following generations are clueless, in general--and all the boomers care about is reliving their partying youth through shopping, viagra, alcohol, and cosmetic surgery--all of which require either money or fraud, 2 things at which they specialize, and which enable self-delusion, another thing at which they specialize.
Moving t&f to Vegas would only feed the mentality that is anathema to the survival of t&f. The betting that would occur is just as much an essential part of the crap lifestyle as are alcohol, cosmetic surgery, viagra, rampant materialism, etc. Are those types of things "successful" in that they have huge participation and attract a huge amount of money? By those metrics of success, yes. Do we want to pair t&f with the companion vice of gambling so that the same level of success can be achieved?
No, because the success would be based on the vice, not on the t&f. Gamblers don't really care WHAT it is that they are gambling upon--it is the gambling itself in which they are interested. The gambling will instantly be the essential component, and the dominant component, of the pairing--and the instant it left, t&f would dissolve.
IMHO "the solution" lies elsewhere.
BTW, the ultimate "wimp sport" has got to be synchronized swimming...
...but those women have the BEST bodies I've ever seen, BY FAR. Let their hair down and take their nose plugs off, and wow. Wimp sport? I AM THERE. The beauty of sport.