Pre's Ghost wrote:
If we want to save T&F, this has to be discussed:
What other major sport wastes 50 percent of its time and prize money on women? Women, that are turning in "top" performances that many high school boys would be ashamed of?
The old school days of the hayday in track and field was all about men and them racing. This was back when the average Joe Sixpack was interested, not just washed up high school/college runners that post on heavily censored running message boards. People that watch pro sports want to see the best of the best, not Title IX subsidized carryover with women drawing salaries and entry fees by leeching off the backs of male athletes.
Imagine if we took the NFL model and ditched the pro running women's events entirely. Institute a men's only track meet, with twice as many male contenders (e.g. instead of 3 top names per race, have 6). Double the available male prize money and increase the quality of the fields and the competitiveness of the races.
Maybe put a few pretty cheerleaders on the track so there is some female involvement and put on a highly competitive meet. That will draw in way more crowds than the current women's races which have a bunch of women that don't shave their armpits and have pink hair (Canada I'm looking at you), men running as women (Zambia and SA I'm looking at you), women that look like men and act like men after taking massive amounts of steroids and PEDs, and largely non-competitive slow female races (compare the 1-8 gap in a men's 5000 to a women's 5000 for instance).
Instead US T&F is doubling down by pushing more parapalegic events and other boring, non-relatable, non-entertaining races on us. Am I the only one that just rolled my eyes and fast forwarded when the para events came on yesterday?
US T&F has become the ultimate social equity sport and it's been an abject failure. Really, people will just turn off the tube rather than watch this boring crap being foisted upon us.
You have to ask yourself why this hasn't even been tried one single time in the last 40 years that I know of, when it's so obvious. Prove me wrong, US T&F. Market it correctly and try it at a few meets and let's see.
I appreciate you are trying to think creatively here but gender inequity doesn't seem like a winning solution. Plus, I would argue that the (quite feminine) stars like Sydney M, Athing M, and Allyson F are probably bigger stars to a wider audience than most (all?) male track athletes. Also, I beseech you to get a female family member or friend to read your post with no prior explanation from you. Ask her how it makes her feel... as a competitive female myself (top 100 at the 2020 Oly Mara trials) and someone who is knowledgeable about the history of women's sports and the struggles to achieve inroads in such a male-dominated space, it didn't make me feel great...