The world's first-ever track and field draft is tonight at 8 pm ET - Who would you take #1?

This is really insulting to the pros. They're holding up their end of the deal by tweeting and acting excited, and the organizers didn't do *anything* to support it.

Deer Negative Drunk Nannies of Let'sBeNegativeAholes.com.

Please stop following the sport and try not to kill yourself when you look in the mirror and confirm what utter bellends you are.

Seriously, how are track fans so terrible?!? You should be EXCITED by this!!! We can't get anything off the ground because we tear apart every machine we build.

No, it wasn't marketed well. No, we have almost zero details. But come on, try and be supportive of something for once. It's definitely not good as is.

Good stufff wrote:

Seriously, how are track fans so terrible?!? You should be EXCITED by this!!! We can't get anything off the ground because we tear apart every machine we build.

No, it wasn't marketed well. No, we have almost zero details. But come on, try and be supportive of something for once. It's definitely not good as is.

How will competitions work with this?

Some teams have no high jumpers, yet frisco has Erik kynard?

Will frisco get auto points?

which teams drafted them?

Let me internet that for you wrote:

https://twitter.com/GoTrackTownUSA/status/746907645735370752

ThankYou

Good stufff wrote:

Seriously, how are track fans so terrible?!? You should be EXCITED by this!!! We can't get anything off the ground because we tear apart every machine we build.

No, it wasn't marketed well. No, we have almost zero details. But come on, try and be supportive of something for once. It's definitely not good as is.

1) Rojo or someone thought this was pretty interesting and gave it front page coverage.

2) What's wrong with criticizing it? The draft has been done and we don't even know who was drafting. You can support the concept but still point out the flaws.

3) Are these races only going to have 4 people in them? Do we even know the events at the meet? Or the scoring? That'll be really different.

wejo wrote:

Good stufff wrote:

Seriously, how are track fans so terrible?!? You should be EXCITED by this!!! We can't get anything off the ground because we tear apart every machine we build.

No, it wasn't marketed well. No, we have almost zero details. But come on, try and be supportive of something for once. It's definitely not good as is.

1) Rojo or someone thought this was pretty interesting and gave it front page coverage.

2) What's wrong with criticizing it? The draft has been done and we don't even know who was drafting. You can support the concept but still point out the flaws.

3) Are these races only going to have 4 people in them? Do we even know the events at the meet? Or the scoring? That'll be really different.

The concept is very good and much needed. Whether it fails or is a success will depend on execution. Ideas are easy but implementation is where the money is at.

Big kudos to Vin and Tracktown for stepping forward with this. They have a vision and they are acting on it. This is the kind of progressive thinking that we desperately need.

One of my main concerns would be the substance of the teams. Will athletes be competing on same team potentially have never even met each other before? I would have thought building out the current team structure (eg. NYNJ/Beasts/Bowerman/OTC) would have made more sense and been more authentic. For example, give each team 250k to participate and build out roster.

My concern is that the team pride for athletes could be seen as slightly unauthentic, whereas with NYNJ for example, they really are competing for the team that they train with day in day out, and will carry more pride/passion in the vest on their back for this reason.

I guess there is a lot of unknowns until we know the format, and I'm sure that Tracktown has a great ling term plan for this. Looking forward to seeing it develop!

John Boy wrote:

Big kudos to Vin and Tracktown for stepping forward with this. They have a vision and they are acting on it. This is the kind of progressive thinking that we desperately need.

Then you're the one who can pay for it, when they run out of money and go begging Oregon politicians for money. Tens of millions for Worlds, 75 thousand short on this year's OT. They think all their shit should be supported by taxes. Hell no. YOU pay.

Vin should be sent to Vietnam to live with the rest of Phil Knight's slaves.

Coburn in the 4th round is a steal.

(Granted, we don't know what events they're racing or how anything else works)

Definitely a steal.

To answer some questions...

There will 18 athletes per team covering 7 running events and 3 field events.

It's up to each team how they spread their athletes out but a likely scenario would be 2 per event per team in the running events and 1 athlete per event per team in the field events. So each running event would have 8 competitors and each field event would have 4 competitors.

There are two phases to the drafting of athletes. Yesterday's draft was phase one. These athletes actually receive a cash bonus for being drafted in this "draft phase".

But yesterday's draft only accounts for 8 of each team's 18 man/woman roster. The remainder of the athletes will be selected on July 16 thru a "free agent" draft. This will give team managers a chance to see how athletes do at USA's before finalizing their rosters.

The 7 running events for men and women are:

100

400

800

1500

110 hurdles

Steeple

4 mile road race (as part of a local Eugene road race. Community will have an opportunity to run with these drafted men and women in the same race).

The 3 field events for women are:

Shot put

Pole vault

Long jump

The 3 field events for men are:

Shot put

High jump

Triple jump

The Tracktown USA has more info on their website and if you google "Tracktown summer series" there are numerous articles that have been published on the event that you can read.

Hope this helps!

Fake teams, watered down races, terrible marketing, misinformation, and a 4 mile road race.

The guy who said the sponsored teams who train together should have been the teams has a good idea. How about university alumni teams, or conference alumni teams?

The organizers didn't even have the foresight to inform the track and field writer for the Oregonian, Flotrack owners, or LRC about the details of the draft or the meet.

Why are the only foreigners Canadian?

This seems like the concept was dreamed up while drunk. Then, when everyone involved sobered up, they became much less interested in pulling it off. This is an embarrassing slap in the face to the athletes and fans. It's unprofessionalism realy revealed the bush league status of our sport.

What happens to teams that have selected athletes that qualify for the Olympics and are then at the US Olympic training camp, which starts July 25?

The marketing team for this event need firing!

New idea but stupid wrote:

Why are the only foreigners Canadian?

Wrong. Only 2 of the 6 are Canadian.

Williams-Mills JAM

Saina KEN

Ahoure CIV

Cedenio TRI

A team made up of non drafted US athletes would destroy those teams.

Emma is running the 1500 not the Steeple.

She seems in primo shape, will be curious to see what time she can rip off.

Will there be rabbits?