Diamond League cutting steeple, 200, discus, and triple jump from 2020 Diamond League and adding 3000

Track is dead unless they actually bust the African dopers. No one watches it at my school and we are all on the Track team!

colorunner123 wrote:

One of the best 10,000 meter races this year took place at a non-DL meet in Hengelo, Netherlands. This unfortunate decision is an opportunity for non-DL meets to step up to the plate and shine.

This. Who knows? They could even turn out more popular than the DL. Maybe a resurgence for forgotten meets like Rieti?

How about spending less time covering a 10 second race. The over analyzing, nauseatingly long intro's coupled with the repetitive and predictable post race winners interviews take up the majority of the broadcast window. Blow this up and you would have plenty of time to cove the events taken out.

I wouldn't worry too much about your precious 5 and 10k races being eliminated. IAAF is always subject to change. Nothing is ever set in stone.

Nate K wrote:

Track is dead unless they actually bust the African dopers. No one watches it at my school and we are all on the Track team!

This is why news reporters never ask privates and corporals their tactical and strategic opinions about waging war. Thank you private. We now know how you and your 16 year old teammates feel about T&F.

Is the DL also going to cut out those stupid, silly, ridiculous bouquets of flowers handed to the winner of each event?

AncientRunner wrote:

How about spending less time covering a 10 second race. The over analyzing, nauseatingly long intro's coupled with the repetitive and predictable post race winners interviews take up the majority of the broadcast window. Blow this up and you would have plenty of time to cove the events taken out.

Agree with this 1000%.

I have never understood all the brouhaha over a 10 second race.

sky wrote:

AncientRunner wrote:

How about spending less time covering a 10 second race. The over analyzing, nauseatingly long intro's coupled with the repetitive and predictable post race winners interviews take up the majority of the broadcast window. Blow this up and you would have plenty of time to cove the events taken out.

Agree with this 1000%.

I have never understood all the brouhaha over a 10 second race.

Neither do I. As far as I recall when I started watching Athletics in the mid-1980s it was not like that. Sure, Carl Lewis was a superstar, but mainly because he was not only good in the 100m. The 100m was an important race but the middle distances were more exciting and the king of athletes was the gold medalist in decathlon. I don't know when the broadcasting and public image of athletics became so narrowly focussed on the short sprint events. I think that ANY narrow focus is detrimental to the true spirit and main attractivity of t&f, namely that it encompasses so many different events.

I can't speak to whether this will help the diamond league's ratings and attendance, but I'll speak to my nonexpert opinion on what this will do to distance track racing - weaken it. The problem at least in the US, with diamond league viewership is there is no PAY PER VIEW option. To watch diamond league, one has to pay $70-90 for nbc sports gold which includes some road races one may not even be interested in. Then a lot of the meets are on at weird times and days in the US, meaning it may not be worth it because one can't fit watching T&f on a wednesday afternoon in one's schedule. Instead of trying to fix nonextant problems, the IAAF, or world athletics, whatever they call themselves these days should insist each competition and meet be individually viewable without having to pay to view anything else. Why would a polevaulter care to watch a 10,000 anyways..

Now as to distance track racing, this will make it a time trial affair. Anyone interested in competing in the 5 or 10 in the olympics will move to the marathon, but run some time trial meet in oregon or california to meet the standard and then run the olympic trials. Most the best runners will just forgo the 5 and 10 altogether as the only big money will be in the marathon. World xc used to be cool because all the best 15-marathon runners would line up and race each other. We'd know who the best marathoner was. Now instead of seeing the best distance runner over xc, we'll see the best 5-marathon runner over a marathon.

It will do nothing for viewership. It's just done to help broadcaster shorten thei coverage and nothing more.

The dumbest choice is the 3 000m, it's purely for shortening the whole event. The 3000 is not even an Olympic or WC event. It also give better advantage to faster finish runner. The 5 000m was the perfect event for every distance runner, from 1500 to 10 000.

I've never been involved with a sport that works so hard to lose me as a fan.

Here's the biggest problem with the new DL format: it continues to have the same number of men's and women's events. No other sport is burdened with this requirement. Imagine the NFL or NBA if they alternated men's and women's play each quarter. Why not have a separate mens' DL and a woman's DL and see which one draws better? Might that not be a better indicator of what is actually popular than social media clicks? Think women won't be fans if they don't have the same number of DL events? Then check out the attendance and viewership stats of the NBA and WNBA and get back to me.

At the Oslo DL this year I saw: a group of people with shaved heads who they told me were women running far ahead of the pack in distance events. A group of people they told me were women throwing the shot. A group of people who actually looked like women crashing into the HJ bar set at a towering 6 feet. Gripping stuff.

We're supposed to get excited when a "World Class" woman breaks 2:00 in the 800, when high school boys do so routinely in dual meets. I'm told to value the "competition" among women, when no other sport requires I do so in order to see men actually perform at a world class level.

My suggestion to the DL if they actually want me to continue paying to attend meets or pay to watch on TV: Run the full slate of mens' events. Sprinkle in a few women if you must in mixed relays, or heats of the 100 (with the final run the next day, when the "women only" DL is held in the same stadium.)

I actually think women event are good, especially sprint and jump. They are competing against other women so the physical gap with men is less evident. It's not like Basketball or football where it's like another sport. It's purely physical so it's just less fast, less high, less strong.

Throws are unpopular. Jump, pole vault, sprint and distance running are fine. The sport will never be as popular as the big sport but it has some potential. The marketing is not good, stars are not being created. The last star was Bolt and the sport lost big when he left.

There is no story telling, no record chase, no drive. The athletes have little background . Diamond league events are not anticipated.

We should unfollow IAAF anda DL from all social media. Just todo make them know that they are wrong

Agreed on the Noah Lyles angle. And cutting the 200 will save a lot of time?

This is ridiculous.

They may as well just combine all the events into one big multi-athlete relay, where the 100m guy hands off to a high jumper to a javelin thrower to a steeplechaser until all the events are complete, and then see who wins. It'd be stupid but think of how much time it would save.

Putting non-Olympic events like the 3000m in an OG year just seems absurd to me.

bbt200 wrote:

Agreed on the Noah Lyles angle. And cutting the 200 will save a lot of time?

I don't understand people who say that Noah Lyles is popular. How? When? Where? I could walk past him in the street and not recognize him.

osm wrote:

Sad day for distance fans, as the 1500 will now be the longest DL event. The IAAF is also eliminating the primary event of Lyles, arguably the current face of the sport.

Discus...or not

LRC Note: The original post is incorrect and we've updated the title to reflect the correction. The DL is cutting the events listed above, but is going to have a 3,000m for some reason

https://www.iaaf.org/competitions/iaaf-diamond-league/news/diamond-league-disciplines-2020

Not worth watching anymore.......

Nate K wrote:

Track is dead unless they actually bust the African dopers. No one watches it at my school and we are all on the Track team!

Yep, and its not helpful when Nike puts them all in the same outfit