Day Zsa Voo wrote:
I feel I’ve read this thread. About this time of year. Every year. For 10 years in a row.
The same paid Nike shills come on here every year being a--holes and trashing footlocker, instead of supporting the kids regardless of what choices they make.
This should all be about the kids and their choices, not all about Nike, certain coaches, and schools.
Any coach that pressures their runners to run one meet or the other is a really bad coach, and you see that a lot in Portland.
NXN Stinks wrote:
When Ewert finishes 3rd to 2 girls who did not run NXN, Footlocker will reign supreme.
I'm sure that fakeTuohy will admit that Footlocker is better when that happens.
I agree with this too ... wrote:
I just want to add, this is why N-ike will always be flawed,
and this is why FL Nationals will always continue to be the best meet for every top high school cross country runner very year, regardless of what school they have gone to.
Do they have to change? No, they do not. They can change if they want to, but in the meantime FLN continues to be the best and only high school National Championship cross country meet in the country.
By the way, I am fine with N-ike keeping their team meet for privileged school kids, almost all of whom wouldn't have qualified to run at Footlocker Nationals. The more meets where more kids get to compete, the better. I still don't like that it's a preferential meet for kids who go to privileged schools.
Fortunately, Footlocker Nationals is open to everyone who qualifies in one of their regionals.
I'm confused...can individuals not go to NXR's and qualify as an individual? And does Nike not have more regionals than FL, which gives more kids an opportunity to compete?
Pretty sure the answer to both is yes...so what the blip are you talking about???
Yep. wrote:
Day Zsa Voo wrote:
I feel I’ve read this thread. About this time of year. Every year. For 10 years in a row.
The same paid Nike shills come on here every year being a--holes and trashing footlocker, instead of supporting the kids regardless of what choices they make.
This should all be about the kids and their choices, not all about Nike, certain coaches, and schools.
Any coach that pressures their runners to run one meet or the other is a really bad coach, and you see that a lot in Portland.
Funny thing...I'm not seeing many NXN supporters bashing FL. Most are saying they feel FL needs to make some changes for the good of the race...more regionals, add some invites etc etc.
On the other hand, certain FL supporters are calling people a--holes and slamming people who support NXN. Nice work!
Jedsdead wrote:
I'm confused...can individuals not go to NXR's and qualify as an individual? And does Nike not have more regionals than FL, which gives more kids an opportunity to compete?
Pretty sure the answer to both is yes...so what the blip are you talking about???
You N-ike trolls are not only confused, you are apparently also quite ignorant.
Runners who just miss qualifying at one of the Footlocker Regional races wanted to qualify for the finals, are obviously better runners than most of those who qualify to run at the N-ike meet on their preferential teams.
Probably many of those teams don't even have one runner who would have qualified to run at Footlocker Nationals.
Maybe N-ike should invite the 11th through 30th place runners at the Footlocker Regionals to compete in their race in Portland.
Also, perhaps they could represent teams from each of their regions.
Jedsdead wrote:
Funny thing...I'm not seeing many NXN supporters bashing FL. Most are saying they feel FL needs to make some changes for the good of the race...more regionals, add some invites etc etc.
Actually that's not true.
Someone asked what Footlocker could do to improve, and I offered some suggestions on page 1 as did others.
I never said that I felt they need to make changes for the good of the race, nor to keep up with NX. I 100 percent that FLN stays the way that they are, and IF they make any changes that they KEEP their current format and don't change it. I don't like the NX format, so for you to try and misinterpret what people taking about Footlocker are saying is disingenuous.
Regarding trolls and a--holes, I have not seen anyone supporting Footlocker say "oh my the Nike race is dying, they need to make changes to keep up with Footlocker" etc etc etc,
Stop the trolling. wrote:
Jedsdead wrote:
Funny thing...I'm not seeing many NXN supporters bashing FL. Most are saying they feel FL needs to make some changes for the good of the race...more regionals, add some invites etc etc.
Actually that's not true.
Someone asked what Footlocker could do to improve, and I offered some suggestions on page 1 as did others.
I never said that I felt they need to make changes for the good of the race, nor to keep up with NX. I 100 percent that FLN stays the way that they are, and IF they make any changes that they KEEP their current format and don't change it. I don't like the NX format, so for you to try and misinterpret what people taking about Footlocker are saying is disingenuous.
Regarding trolls and a--holes, I have not seen anyone supporting Footlocker say "oh my the Nike race is dying, they need to make changes to keep up with Footlocker" etc etc etc,
First of all, I don't have an issue with either race...actually quite like them both. But I do feel that FL needsd to make a few steps to make it better.
Regarding your comments...you gave suggestions on how you feel they could improve FL...in my books any improvement to FL or NXN si good for the race. I didn't mean to infer that you were saying they had to make changes. ..completely my bad.
This Thread is titled what changes can be made to help FL to compete with NXN. Your right, people are not posting what can Nike do...because NXN seems to be becoming the race of choice. Not for all...not for everybody...but it certainly is increasing in popularity whereas FL seems to be losing ground....which I am guessing is why someone created this thread.
Again, I like both races...not trying to knock FL ...but I do hope they make some changes to help keep pace with Nike.
I will explain it to you. wrote:
Jedsdead wrote:
I'm confused...can individuals not go to NXR's and qualify as an individual? And does Nike not have more regionals than FL, which gives more kids an opportunity to compete?
Pretty sure the answer to both is yes...so what the blip are you talking about???
You N-ike trolls are not only confused, you are apparently also quite ignorant.
Runners who just miss qualifying at one of the Footlocker Regional races wanted to qualify for the finals, are obviously better runners than most of those who qualify to run at the N-ike meet on their preferential teams.
Probably many of those teams don't even have one runner who would have qualified to run at Footlocker Nationals.
Maybe N-ike should invite the 11th through 30th place runners at the Footlocker Regionals to compete in their race in Portland.
Also, perhaps they could represent teams from each of their regions.
I'm just going to assume you have been chomping some mushrooms....
Nike has a team aspect and an individual aspect...yeah, thats pretty well known by most people on the board. So you are saying Nike should get rid of the team element??
Hmmm...well thats a fairly silly idea...since that is what NXN was originally created to promote, and something that XC has always held important. I'm not sure why you carry such anger towards an event that is supporting the team and individual side of XC.
How about scrapping all of the FL regional meets. Use NXN to identify the top 40 runners. Invite them to compete in San Diego the following week.
Make all the footlocker regionals in the warmest part of the region possible. Then have them the weekend after Nike Nationals.
Then move footlocker to the weekend after Christmas.
Why?
The two then don’t compete
Footlocker is about a few elite individuals. Play up that focus and how it separates it from the team aspect of NXN.
No school that week so qualifiers and their families can spend more time in south cal.
It’s South cal, so the weather isn’t an issue around new year.
Snavely wrote:
Footlocker has to change the dates (West Reg on 14th and final on 21st?) so that California runners can do both NXN and Footlocker. Footlocker can never be the top race or get back to being the top race without the best California runners.
Or someday convince California to run their state meet before thanksgiving like normal states.
Another simple idea is to have the top 10 finishers at NXN get auto to Footlocker.
With the Foot Locker West regional meet being the same day as NXN, it would be foolish for them to turn down an invite to a national meet they have qualified for to try and qualify for a different one. A few individuals have done it, but not many. I know Conner Mantz did it and Matthew Maton abandoned his team to run NXN without him to run FLW, but not many would or should.
Three of the four qualifiers from Utah ran NXR SW and didn't qualify for Portland so came to Mt. SAC. Boyden didn't run NXR.
Is the Foot Locker Midwest region the only one that is timed so that kids can qualify for both national meets?
CoachStucki wrote:
With the Foot Locker West regional meet being the same day as NXN, it would be foolish for them to turn down an invite to a national meet they have qualified for to try and qualify for a different one. A few individuals have done it, but not many. I know Conner Mantz did it and Matthew Maton abandoned his team to run NXN without him to run FLW, but not many would or should.
Three of the four qualifiers from Utah ran NXR SW and didn't qualify for Portland so came to Mt. SAC. Boyden didn't run NXR.
Is the Foot Locker Midwest region the only one that is timed so that kids can qualify for both national meets?
Maton isn’t the only runner that went to Oregon who did this.
Why not have Nike and Footlocker alternate years? That way there would be no diluting of talent and "teams" could have more time to take care of the travel costs. This would also keep it interesting rather than running the same courses every year.
Footlocker fixer wrote:
Another simple idea is to have the top 10 finishers at NXN get auto to Footlocker.
isn't that pretty much what they did when they went from 32 individuals to 40? And it didn't really work so they went back to getting them all though regional qualifying.
fastTuohy wrote:
FL should invite those in the top 10 from NXN who were on teams - it might be a short list and perhaps noone would accept, but give the top kids who go with their teams the chance to run in SD for themselves.
Something like this would work.
The only real way for Footlocker to remain competitive is to begin extending invitations. Perhaps to the top finishers at NXN plus a few wild cards.
A scoring/speed rating points system throughout the season would also draw up interest and attention if they came with automatic qualifiers. Reduce the prestige of the regional and increase the prestige of the event itself.
Additionally, it would absolutely have to move its race a bit so CA has a chance to compete. I know a race later in December would be difficult but it would feel more like a special event.
Footlocker fixer wrote:
Another simple idea is to have the top 10 finishers at NXN get auto to Footlocker.
While I don't think using NXN would ever be on the table...it's too bad (as many others have suggested) that they wouldn't look at using the same regional meets...while keeping the same standards for each race. There would be more regionals for FL, and gives more kids a chance to try and qualify. Still keep it so that only the top 40 (maybe 50) individuals qualify - and so FL remains an elite individual race.
Nike also keeps their same structure, teams and top individuals. So now there would be one less meet in some regions, and everyone has the ability to attend one or both if they qualify.
Costs to run regionals now would technically go down for both, and then there is no FL vs NXN ultimatum in the kids minds. May even give the opportunity to get an extra week between the two races, which again makes attending both races more plausible.
I'm sure there are many items that would cause issues, least of which in that this would require co-operation between the two organizations, but certainly is a good move for the kids.
CoachStucki wrote:
Is the Foot Locker Midwest region the only one that is timed so that kids can qualify for both national meets?
Those who run NXR South can double at FL South. This is mostly Texas athletes. NXR SouthEast is the same day as FL South.
Footlocker the meet is the only reason I know Footlocker the company still exists
