American Distance Running: Why is it so UNDER-funded?

somewhatfast wrote:

I like running as much as the next guy, and I wish it was more popular, but I hate listening to a bunch of runners complain about this. Other than baseball, basketball, football, and Nascar, no sport in the united states is popular. Elite ballroom dancers work their asses off (and that is a sport) and all they do is get made fun of. So please, stop acting like you're the only victims of this.

I am a Race Walker and can probably walk faster than many runners. You all think you have it bad? Not even close.

Race Walker wrote:

somewhatfast wrote:

I like running as much as the next guy, and I wish it was more popular, but I hate listening to a bunch of runners complain about this. Other than baseball, basketball, football, and Nascar, no sport in the united states is popular. Elite ballroom dancers work their asses off (and that is a sport) and all they do is get made fun of. So please, stop acting like you're the only victims of this.

I am a Race Walker and can probably walk faster than many runners. You all think you have it bad? Not even close.

Wait, was that directed at me? cause I was defending you.

Actually, I like watching ballroom dancing. Have you seen the female hotties in those competitions and the revealing stuff they wear? Holy fuk.

To be honest, I think it's because the US is much better compared to the rest of the world at...

Golf

Auto Racing

American Football

Baseball

Basketball

Americans don't like to lose. Furthermore, they have a very low tolerance for losing. Cycling only became popular when an American started to win. Soccer started to become popular about when the American women won the World Cup. Olympic sports with a history of American success (like, say, figure skating) are generally much more popular than the ones where other countries smoke the good ol' USA.

I agree, Americans will care about distance running when Americans start winning major international competitions.

I think that distance races are only interesting when you know something about the participants. Otherwise it's like watching paint dry.

Promoters should educate the public about elites and try to hype them up. Everyone watching a 5k or 10k should know the PRs of the participants and how long ago they ran those times. They should know how fast the runners have been lately. They should know how old they are and how they've performed at major competitions. They should know something about their training. When you know those things, it becomes really exciting to see who's got what it takes. Otherwise, it's a bunch of faceless people exhausting themselves and crossing the finish line within a few seconds of each other. Winning has no meaning if you don't know who won.

For all the impact of Lance, I think that the OLN team has had a lot to do with the growth of interest in cycling. Everyone I know loves watching that coverage because those broadcasters know how to make the race exciting. They can make even a novice fan understand the way the sport works, what makes it exciting, and who the athletes are.

Lazy L wrote:

To be honest, I think it's because the US is much better compared to the rest of the world at...

Golf

Auto Racing <---- WRONG

American Football

Baseball <---- WRONG

Basketball

Americans don't like to lose. Furthermore, they have a very low tolerance for losing. Cycling only became popular when an American started to win. Soccer started to become popular about when the American women won the World Cup. Olympic sports with a history of American success (like, say, figure skating) are generally much more popular than the ones where other countries smoke the good ol' USA.

Lets face it; if you are not a runner, watching a 10k on T.V. brings you no entertainment value. In fact, it can be grueling...

you are right, i think it'd be a good idea if they made actual teams from cities that you could grow up rooting for like with baseball and football, rather than having asics team and nike team we should have the denver milers and the boston minute men and different teams like that, and it should be designed much the way NFL is and have a 12 week season in which the team manager has to decide how to run his athletes, as well as having more relay's because you're right those are very interesting races.

I think this could work for cross but not for track.

Could work for road racing, too.

I work in marketing mostly dealing with the "Generation Y" demographic in fashion & entertainment and I'll tell you now, it would suck major ass to market T&F---specifically long distance running---to them. As a sport, there's no constant excitement in it. Sports like basketball, football, hell even tennis, all have frequent moments of action, distance running DOESN'T.

I gave up running a while ago but I used to be a knowledgeable LD fan, as big as any, but even back then I used to find my college's 4x4,400, 4*1 battles to be ten times more exciting. If you want track to be bigger you have to concentrate on those events. It's too bad that the IAAF & USATF can't even get that right.

Just my 2 cents.

Makes me grateful to live in Eugene, where the stands are full for meets on a regular basis, and we are usually awarded with some thrilling performances!

I thought someone might comment on baseball, and I think you misunderstood my post. I'm not claiming that the US is consistently the best at baseball, but rather that it is actually competitive on the world stage, more so than in distance running.

As far as auto racing, maybe there's more to it than I realized...not that you elaborated on it or anything

In any case, I think the general point stands.

One of T&F biggest issues is that it is truely a world sport where the the top sports are not. It is hard to dominate a sport that includes every nation. Do you think people would really care about football if it was a world sport and we were just okay. All the sports that are big are built of Americans stars in sports big in the U.S.

An example - when the U.S. basketball team plays in the Olympics and starts getting beat by other countries they get made fun of by comedians and their viewership goes WAY DOWN... and this is basketball with some of the best NBA players.

College athletics is a good example - Duke football sucks and not many come to watch in comparison to other ACC schools. Duke basketball is probably sold out for the next ten years.

Oregon is putting money into track and people are starting to understand who are the athletes.

There is hope... when NBC and other networks pay billions for rights to telecast the Olympics the biggest sport is track. The network know they have to tell the stories of the athletes and get the public someone to root for or even against (like the former Soviet Union).People care because NBC and every news publication has profiles and basically forces you to be interested in the Olympics because they build up the rivalries and show the hopes and dreams of the athletes. So people have someone to root for. People do like running and like watching it. I have a store and sometimes put in running footage of marathons and track meets and people will just sit there and watch the runners and mark how amazing they look. Or if I put in a local road race footage people will watch it to see a person they know, etc. If people know someone or the story about someone they will watch - but if it is just random people nobody cares.

Watch what happens to the Tour de France once people have no one to root for because the media isn't writing about an individual. The Tour I predict will lose over half its viewership from the last two years because Lance isn't riding and no one else has captured the public imagination.

I don't buy this argument. Distance running might appear boring to the casual observer, but no more boring than golf.

Rupp's parents are LOADED, the only reason they could be struggling is because they spent so much getting all the best trainers for him and shit. He's f***en good don't get me wrong and talented but he sure has gotten the best f***en treatment possible. Boo hoo.

And American Distance running blows because the only people that win anymore are sit and kickers. Oh wow how fun to watch, I'm even tired of these days.

Lazy L wrote:

I don't buy this argument. Distance running might appear boring to the casual observer, but no more boring than golf.

Yes, maybe. I still think that golf has more noticeable shifts within a match than a race does, but that's besides the point.

The reason why gold is more successful is because of the personality/lifestyle of the sport as a whole. It's a sport that is embodied by luxury; and that's easy to market. What does track have? What is the public perception of T&F? Most people would have to go back to high school to find a connection with track, and back then it was the sport all the weak guys did. They couldn't do football, they couldn't do basketball, so they did track. As whole that's how I saw track; it might not be the same for all but I'm sure for most it is.

Steps need to be taken to change that image, and if i were in charge, LD running would not be a part of it. At least not yet.

How do you go into $45,000 into debt for training expenses? Answer the question.