No one should not be complaining about the size of the crowd when they made no effort to be in the stadium watching the meet If the size of the crowd really upsets you book a flight to be there Sunday.
Haha so you saying that nobody can ever talk about crowds ever because duh go to the track yourself? What a silly comment. I'm sure you're a millionaire and you could fund us all to go, yeah?
You can criticise GST for holding an event here, yes.
The races were decent, but even as a hardcore fan, I was bored. Diamond League meets are tighter, faster, and more exciting. Two hours is perfect. But three hours a day for three days? Way too much.
The commentating does tie into my biggest critique so far, which is the program pacing. Could easily have shaved half an hour or, if they're not going to shorten the time between races, there's gotta be something.
These are it for me.
I feel like I remember hearing both MJ and Merber on podcasts a few years ago (probably when I still listened to Citius mag) talking about how athletics meetings are too long and asking too much of people to tune in - obviously referring to the Olympics and Worlds. As I mentioned to Kyle in the other thread, the DL is so tightly packaged and it's such an easy buy in. My wife enjoys (not an athletics fan) watching because its really well produced, and besides the frustration about cutting away from distance events, there's no dead time.
This was a bit of a mess. Loads of dead time. I don't get the drone shots ending up being potato-quality - Night of the 10k PBs has had a quad bike on the track for YEARS. So have other DL meetings.
I reguluarly tune into events like Podium here in the UK and they have a better idea of putting together an event - where the filming is actually an afterthought because its just a big event of graded 5k's.
I'm sure a response to the 3-day buy in will be about events like F1 spanning 3 days, but I only have to tune in for the race to understand the outcome of the weekend. I'm still strugging to get excited for 3 days of this event and especially so when it's painful to watch.
It's a bit ironically funny to me that some of the reasoning behind this event (besides those involved making boatloads of $$$) was making athletics more accessible to non-fans that want quick and easy content to consume... and we get a slow-paced 3 day event, filmed and produced badly, with Kara Goucher and John Anderson shouting nonsense on comms!
I wasn't even interested in watching the post race, because you knew you weren't really going to get any interesting takes. It's tough being interesting when you have to toe the company line in an overly formal manner.
Tomorrow, when Rojo, JG and Wejo go live after the show, that will be something to watch.
The races themselves were fine. The 5000 was a jogfest, but the payoff was good. Womens 800 was interesting because of the convergence of two distinct groups. WOmens 200 was interesting for similar reasons, and the long group 400 will be as well.
The hurdles groups are a waste of time imo. Short sprints aren't all that interesting either. missing too much important talent.
i won't miss any of it this weekend, but im a diehard like anybody else commenting in these threads. not sure what it's doing to grow track.
im sure they'll learn a lot over the first couple meets and throughout the whole season. how they adapt will be interesting.
The Eurosport broadcast didn't show Jess Hull's Jamaican snack adventure. In between the races, we were stuck with shots of cheerleaders who looked like they wanted to be anywhere else, close-ups of people in the crowd eating popcorn, and wide views of an empty stadium. There was definitely no strong storytelling element like Johnson has been going on about. I felt like I didn't get to know the runners or "rivalries" at all.
Like others have said, the broadcast felt way too slow and drawn out, especially in comparison with the Diamond League. Athlete interviews can only keep your attention so long when they've been saying the same platitudes in the days leading up to the race, "I'm here to win" or whatever. In the age of TikTok, people are going to need more action to stay interesting. Especially as a European viewer I'll plan to watch the replays I'm interested in in the morning instead of staying up for such a slow moving broadcast.
The other issue I had with the broadcast was the lack of stats and data during the races and even after. No split times, lap counting, or listing who set a PR in the results. I've seen some comparisons to cycling on this thread and in those races you get a running clock, how many km are left, the time difference between the different groups, and km per hour. I felt lost without the data, especially because it wasn't filled in by the commentators. I was also surprised about the lack of commentary on the point system. What does Jess Hull need to win? Is there any chance that Kwemoi could take the overall win?
It's great to try something new, but this was far from revolutionary. A lot of great athletes are there, but the product leaves a lot to be desired for the viewers and this "game changing storytelling" was completely lacking. I wondered if they spent more money on trying to make it look good instead of the experience itself (a common mistake by big events).
I'm curious to see if and how they adapt to create a better viewing experience and am hoping for the best!
I remember looking at the GST website weeks ago with an initial "Oh yes!" reaction at its design and user experience, thinking it was really well done for a new league at its infancy, especially with not having much data and content yet to offer to fans like the Diamond League or World Athletics sites. I was impressed, (even with those gorgeous illustrations of the athletes on each of their individual bio pages,) and provided me with a hopefulness that, if the meet itself could live up to this "cool" quality, then we're in for a treat.
Then I remember visiting the site a few weeks later, still excited, looking to catch up on what to expect for the inaugural event at Kingston. I took a look at the tickets experience, and my "Oh yes!" turned into an, "Oh no–really?" The venue/stadium seating chart still widely empty (denoted by the color grey,) and I had to convince myself that the "Buy Tickets" experience, at least from a visual perspective, was just not behaving as expected. We were only a few weeks out from the meet at the time, and I wasn't able to believe that there could be so little tickets sold with all of that money being invested into the league.
Fast forward to a few days ago, in eager anticipation, (still impressed with the site's look and feel,) my reaction shifted to more of a panicky, "Oh $***.–no way!" It couldn't be...those greyed-out empty seats from weeks prior were still...empty. "No way," I thought. (This has to be a problem on their web ticketing side.)
Then last night, so excited to share this "awesome new Track format that's going to be on TV!" my two little kids, I put on Peacock, (having to rewind to the beginning because we were a bit late to the action,) and "Oh $***. no way!" turned into, "Oh my god. They really didn't sell any legitimate amount of tickets. It really wasn't an issue with the site." I thought I was looking at COVID coverage. The stadium was embarrassingly, and shockingly empty.
With all that money supposedly being thrown into GST, I have a hard time getting on board with putting this mostly on the culture of Jamaican fans. Could they have even paid people to attend, even if to fly them in from another country, to prevent a potential disaster of a production? I imagine a lot of folks would've loved to go on an April vacation in Jamaica, to watch something that was supposed to be new, cutting-edge, and filled with "Only the fastest" athletes, (which we all witnessed as an additional, significant detail that sadly didn't live up to the hype.)
As far-fetched as paying people to fly in could sound, I'm speaking to the assumption that there are millions of dollars to spend, and millions of doIlars already spent/invested that could end up being wasted if the league becomes a massive flop. Protecting the investment should've started with a huge bang by filling those seats with Paris Olympics style energy. Instead, we were looking high school dual meet numbers.
I really hope the next two days pan out differently, but I truly, (perhaps naively,) expected the inaugural, Day 1 of Grand Slam Track, to be huge. I hope they come around and fix this for events in the US. I really want this new format to succeed. Also, I've mainly only commented about the piss poor attendance–not going to bother highlighting the piss poor production itself.
Let's just accept that the sport's spiritual home is in Europe and enjoy it the way it is. Maybe it doesn't need to break the Americas.
It's not good for US distance running to accept that. More meets at home with good competition is hugely important. You can't run your best after a 12-hour trip from Flagstaff across eight time zones.
And you can't overstate the value of free TV and streaming coverage. It was subpar this time, but let's give it a chance. Or do you want Flotrack to own track and field forever?
I think the Diamond League is an absolutely incredible advertisement for the sport, especially the top European meets. The quality and variety of the events packed into two hours is a standard that fans of any sport would be happy to aspire to. The level of commentary and atmosphere also makes it accessible to the non-fan, never mind the statistical detail (timetable, etc) available on the website for state nerds.
DL distance meets are almost always tactical, it's just that they're at such a high level that they're also fast. Kejelcha and Kiplimo in 2023 running 12:41 was tactical! The reason it might be less competitive when Jakob's in the race is not because there are no tactics.
GST is a poor solution to a problem that doesn't exist (at least not for European track fans) and the one thing which they and other similar initiatives consistently undervalue is the importance and meaning of history for any sports fan (even when they're just starting to watch a new sport). The heritage of Monaco and the Bislett Games adds depth. And when you start watching a new sport, that stuff is a draw.
I actually don't understand why shoe companies or sportswear don't make it more of a deal for their athletes to lean into the DL - and do more promotion around it. It's a brilliant product but would probably do better with more support from the companies that actually have a financial interest in its popularity (having said that, the economics of running shoe companies has always been unfathomable to me).
I think the Diamond League is an absolutely incredible advertisement for the sport, especially the top European meets. The quality and variety of the events packed into two hours is a standard that fans of any sport would be happy to aspire to. The level of commentary and atmosphere also makes it accessible to the non-fan, never mind the statistical detail (timetable, etc) available on the website for state nerds.
DL distance meets are almost always tactical, it's just that they're at such a high level that they're also fast. Kejelcha and Kiplimo in 2023 running 12:41 was tactical! The reason it might be less competitive when Jakob's in the race is not because there are no tactics.
GST is a poor solution to a problem that doesn't exist (at least not for European track fans) and the one thing which they and other similar initiatives consistently undervalue is the importance and meaning of history for any sports fan (even when they're just starting to watch a new sport). The heritage of Monaco and the Bislett Games adds depth. And when you start watching a new sport, that stuff is a draw.
I actually don't understand why shoe companies or sportswear don't make it more of a deal for their athletes to lean into the DL - and do more promotion around it. It's a brilliant product but would probably do better with more support from the companies that actually have a financial interest in its popularity (having said that, the economics of running shoe companies has always been unfathomable to me).
Looking forward to the summer!
DL meets pay $10K to the winner. It is a total joke. At least GST has forced the DL to pay the athletes more.
Why are the folks at Citius Mag bigging up this event without offering up *any* criticism at all? They seem to be nothing more than a PR/propaganda arm for Grand Slam Track. Everyone can see that the stands are absolutely deserted however much Citius tries to spin the event as a game-changer for the sport.
Thank you to LetsRun and Jonathan Gault for covering this meet (the good, the bad and ugly) honestly. I'm grateful there are still some proper running journalists out there.
The races were decent, but even as a hardcore fan, I was bored. Diamond League meets are tighter, faster, and more exciting. Two hours is perfect. But three hours a day for three days? Way too much.
The commentating does tie into my biggest critique so far, which is the program pacing. Could easily have shaved half an hour or, if they're not going to shorten the time between races, there's gotta be something.
These are it for me.
I feel like I remember hearing both MJ and Merber on podcasts a few years ago (probably when I still listened to Citius mag) talking about how athletics meetings are too long and asking too much of people to tune in - obviously referring to the Olympics and Worlds. As I mentioned to Kyle in the other thread, the DL is so tightly packaged and it's such an easy buy in. My wife enjoys (not an athletics fan) watching because its really well produced, and besides the frustration about cutting away from distance events, there's no dead time.
This was a bit of a mess. Loads of dead time. I don't get the drone shots ending up being potato-quality - Night of the 10k PBs has had a quad bike on the track for YEARS. So have other DL meetings.
I reguluarly tune into events like Podium here in the UK and they have a better idea of putting together an event - where the filming is actually an afterthought because its just a big event of graded 5k's.
I'm sure a response to the 3-day buy in will be about events like F1 spanning 3 days, but I only have to tune in for the race to understand the outcome of the weekend. I'm still strugging to get excited for 3 days of this event and especially so when it's painful to watch.
It's a bit ironically funny to me that some of the reasoning behind this event (besides those involved making boatloads of $) was making athletics more accessible to non-fans that want quick and easy content to consume... and we get a slow-paced 3 day event, filmed and produced badly, with Kara Goucher and John Anderson shouting nonsense on comms!
The races were decent, but even as a hardcore fan, I was bored. Diamond League meets are tighter, faster, and more exciting. Two hours is perfect. But three hours a day for three days? Way too much.
The commentating does tie into my biggest critique so far, which is the program pacing. Could easily have shaved half an hour or, if they're not going to shorten the time between races, there's gotta be something.
These are it for me.
I feel like I remember hearing both MJ and Merber on podcasts a few years ago (probably when I still listened to Citius mag) talking about how athletics meetings are too long and asking too much of people to tune in - obviously referring to the Olympics and Worlds. As I mentioned to Kyle in the other thread, the DL is so tightly packaged and it's such an easy buy in. My wife enjoys (not an athletics fan) watching because its really well produced, and besides the frustration about cutting away from distance events, there's no dead time.
This was a bit of a mess. Loads of dead time. I don't get the drone shots ending up being potato-quality - Night of the 10k PBs has had a quad bike on the track for YEARS. So have other DL meetings.
I reguluarly tune into events like Podium here in the UK and they have a better idea of putting together an event - where the filming is actually an afterthought because its just a big event of graded 5k's.
I'm sure a response to the 3-day buy in will be about events like F1 spanning 3 days, but I only have to tune in for the race to understand the outcome of the weekend. I'm still strugging to get excited for 3 days of this event and especially so when it's painful to watch.
It's a bit ironically funny to me that some of the reasoning behind this event (besides those involved making boatloads of $) was making athletics more accessible to non-fans that want quick and easy content to consume... and we get a slow-paced 3 day event, filmed and produced badly, with Kara Goucher and John Anderson shouting nonsense on comms!
The racing was good.
Too many Hiltz interviews, especially when she didn't win😬
I had to fast forward almost 42 minutes of the day 2 tv program to get to the first actual race. Just awful. The empty stands looked like an all comers meet at Icahn Stadium. This is the future of track and field? Athletes not running close to their best in empty stadiums with no buzz and minutes upon minutes of empty filler by tv announcers. This is going to last one year before the finders of it wake from their fantasy slumber.