The sport of running is slowly dying :(((

ALL of the drivers and ALL of the teams show up at EVERY NASCAR event. The fans can count on seeing their favorites race each other week in and week out. Imagine if a big stock car racing team like Roush Fenway or Team Penske acted like Bowerman Track Club.

"Daytona is just too early in the season for us and The Brickyard doesn't have enough bank in the corners for our liking. We'll run a private test session at Charlotte next week and then see y'all at Talladega in October!".

Track suffers from not seeing rivalries and hotly anticipated match-ups at every event. Someone is always ducking or has a niggle or just isn't feeling themselves and misses meets. As fans, why do I want to buy a ticket is there is a better than 50/50 chance that a marquee showdown isn't going to happen?

Have you seen interviews for the major team sports? All of the questions are setups for cliches. I’ve rarely seen an interesting interview with a MLB player.

A lot of LRers are obsessed with commentary but people tune in to watch the sport. I went to a Chargers game and 80,000 fans did not need someone telling them what they were watching. After listening to Kara Goucher during the women’s Tokyo marathon, I muted her for the men’s and put on some music instead.

I was watching the Mets the other night. They gave the mic to one of the players in the dugout and he commented almost a whole inning. He talked a little smack, he was better than the broadcasters. His teammates, out of the shot, threw sunflower seeds at him. It was fun.

Commentary during a race/event can definitely be dumb, and I can't stand Kara Goucher, so I partially agree there. I don't think you need someone in a stadium announcing every little thing live for a football or baseball game. But for the people at home, they'll need it. And for a 10,000m or marathon, that can make or break the race for those who aren't quite tuned into the sport.

I can't stand the F1 TV commentators, it ruins the race. I intentionally switch audio coverage because I want to hear some cheeky British banter, it's 10x more fun that way.

Also, just wanna say, I'm respectfully disagreeing with you here over a lot of this stuff. Nice to have some actual conversation on this site for once, granted, I'm usually sh*tposting and stirring the pot.

so many reasons, USATF corruption, drug use, nike in general, the sub 2 nonsense, people like flotrack trying to make track the NFL, shelby houlihan, alberto salazar, but most of all it's the springy shoes, the comical and unrealistic times. basically all of running history is meaningless in the current climate because people ran those times before they were go go gadget tech-aided. it fabricated excitment with the sub 2 project and related BS, and the concurrent flurry of robot world records has killed interest in the sport.

It sounds like that killed interest for you. Not for everyone else.

Repair T&F by

Having major meets where ALL of the athletes are incentivized to attend.

Don't have USATF Indoor Championships if Bowerman decides to skip and MU doesn't show (she skipped Prefontaine as well).

Finally, the TV coverage has sucked for decades. If you are going to show commercials for 10 laps of the 5000 then why show it at all?

Also, if the announcers were subject matter experts. That would help.

I appreciate that. In regard to the miked players it’s often done with players out on the field and some of it is funny, but it would have to be a pretty slow pace for that to work well during a distance race.

Really? Tell that to the 28,000 runners I was with in Boston in April. It may not meet a snob definition of the "sport of running" but it sure looked like it to me.

I think it's easy to conflate marathon participation with the popularity of the sport. You don't measure professional football's popularity in America by how many fans go and play football. You measure it in TV ratings and merchandise. The vast majority of people who run a marathon are far from fans of the sport. I've had multiple people tell me I need to run a marathon ASAP because "a BQ will look great on your resume." Marathoning is often just something type-a people aspire to do, just like they might aspire to drive a G Wagon even though they don't know what a locking differential is. These people don't buy tickets to meets, they don't buy spikes, they don't buy merch. They spend a couple hundred dollars, a couple times to a year, and it goes to BAA or NYRR and whatever corporate sponsors they have. Better than nothing, but definitely not a perfect statistic.

Okay this might be a bit of a lie. Casual marathoners love to spend $200 on a BAA jacket. But again, that's hardly helping the sport grow in my opinion.

Oh no! Fat subhumans don't watch our sport while swilling Budweiser! Well that just eliminates the enjoyment I get out of actually participating in the sport.

I think this is a red herring argument. If people want to run a slow marathon, be my guest. I wouldn't advise the average person run a marathon personally. Too much risk and stress on the body. But big marathons are largely a money making scheme, the hyper-capitalist arm of the sport, if you will. Can you honestly tell me how Joe Schmoe, who has never run in his life, doing a 5 hour marathon helps grow the sport? He spends a bit on sneakers? Sure. Virtually none of this money gets to athletes, and this thread has been by and large about the professional aspect of the sport.

Not sure what most of your post has to do with anything I said.

There are two ways a sport can be popular. A sport can be popular as an activity to participate in, or as a spectator event. I get very excited about large numbers of people participating in the sport, whether it's at the pro, collegiate, HS, or hobby level. I really don't care even a little bit about the sport attaining a high level of popularity as a spectator sport.

No disagreement from me here.

Not a red herring. That 5 hour marathoner helps grow the sport because HE IS THE SPORT!

First you said he can be your guest and run a marathon, but then you stated why he shouldn't run a marathon. You know what's too much risk and stress on the body? Inactivity. Guess what watching track is? INACTIVITY!

I do not care in the least if the professional side of the sport grows. In fact, we'd probably be better off if it didn't. There are countless entertainment options available, and we do not track to be another one.

What we do need is more people getting active, and participating in recreational running (yes, HOBBY JOGGING!) is a great way to do that. We have a health crisis in our country. We do not have a lack of entertainment crisis. We're already entertaining ourselves to death.

I didn't watch one second of any track meet this weekend - evidently, there was one on tv. I didn't even know about it. Guess what I did do? I ran local 5ks on both Saturday and on the holiday Monday. That's the sport - that's what we should be trying to "grow." Not sitting on the couch watching tv.

Do you have any stats to back this up? As long as I have been following the sport the Chicago Marathon has almost never been on national tv. Was it in the 80s?

I went camping and fishing. I stand by my decision. I caught the highlights on youtube. It would be cool to watch in person, but it's not worth the travel. It would make more sense if I lived in Oregon. That "Track Town" can only get those few spectators to show up is concerning. The middle school meet in my small town had almost as many spectators.

I guess we're simply arguing two different thing then. Most of this thread has been about the professional and spectator side of the sport, not the average American's involvement in the sport. This thread wasn't started to address America's health crisis, it was started with "Why are the stands empty." I'd happily participate in another thread about our health crisis.

I agree, we have a health crisis and we need more people active. Arguing that growing the spectator side of the sport leads to inactivity is silly though. Arguing that track shouldn't be an entertainment option is also silly. Like, I don't care for the NFL, but I would never say it shouldn't be televised because we have Netflix. I would never say it shouldn't be televised because you should be out exercising instead. You're basically arguing against all forms of sedentary entertainment at this point.

Yes, we need more people active. More people running, in general, is great. I think, and I'm too lazy to look but I bet there's a lot of research out there, that marathoning isn't the safest way for an average person to exercise. I've known countless people who go from barely active to "I'll run a marathon" to "I have bad ITB syndrome" to "I'll never run again I just get hurt." If they weren't so invested in completing an arbitrary, very long distance, they may have enjoyed the sport more.

NASCAR races are also a big tailgate party with the RVs on the infield. Also a bit of a traveling circus vibe.