One reason is it's hard to follow. It's common to get to the day before a meet, and still not know who will be running each event. Athletes have this weird need to shroud the appearances in secrecy - it was a revelation last season when Craig Engels and Clayton Murphy actually posted their entire racing schedule on social media ahead of time. If you want eyeballs on the sport, then you need to tell us when you're running to build hype. The Olympics and World Champs are the only meets where you can guarantee who will be running (barring injury).
Imagine if the NBA or NFL didn't tell you which teams would be playing in a given game, you just have to turn up at a stadium and see who shows up. That's what T&F is like for most meets.
We've covered this many times. Track and field is boring. There is no continuity from one event to the next because there is no team scoring at the pro level.
Marathons are particularly boring. It's two hours of typically nothing for a hour and a half! It's like NASCAR without the crashes, pit stops, cautions to bring the field back together, mechanical failures, risk of being drawn into someone else's crash, or the possibility that any of maybe 20 or so drivers could win, depending on luck. And in spite of all that, NASCAR is boring most of the time, too.
We've covered this many times. Track and field is boring. There is no continuity from one event to the next because there is no team scoring at the pro level.
Marathons are particularly boring. It's two hours of typically nothing for a hour and a half! It's like NASCAR without the crashes, pit stops, cautions to bring the field back together, mechanical failures, risk of being drawn into someone else's crash, or the possibility that any of maybe 20 or so drivers could win, depending on luck. And in spite of all that, NASCAR is boring most of the time, too.
this is a silly take. Marathons are very popular. There’s a reason why runners can make a living racing the marathon when an equivalent time in a track event would leave them begging for just airfare and hotel to a race. Marathons bring in huge sponsors and lots of money. The sponsorship opportunities are much greater than in track where, at the big meets, athletes can only represent a shoe sponsor. The average person sees the marathon as the end all be all of running, and as much more impressive than the shorter events.
Running is primarily a participation sport, not a spectator sport. It's popularity is usually measured by how many people run, rather how many people watch. People who don't run (or haven't run in the past) generally have no interest in watching it regardless of how good the athletes are. It's boring to non-runners, and even to most recreational runners. I enjoy watching athletics but I would generally choose to run myself over watching someone else run.
I don’t get it. Graham Fischer broke an American Record last night in spectacular fashion but not even a mention of of on ESPN or similar media platforms. Only on running specific platforms. I bet you ESPN will post about who...
I will add that there is enormous public interest in running marathons, and track & field has very high levels of participation at the high school age and younger. But participating and watching it on TV are totally different things. Revisit the above thread for all of that discussion.
Running is primarily a participation sport, not a spectator sport. It's popularity is usually measured by how many people run, rather how many people watch. People who don't run (or haven't run in the past) generally have no interest in watching it regardless of how good the athletes are. It's boring to non-runners, and even to most recreational runners. I enjoy watching athletics but I would generally choose to run myself over watching someone else run.
The athletes and coaches themselves usually aren't that interested in athletics. It's so funny the number of times an interviewer will ask any athlete who their inspirations were on the track and it will always be some vague "well, gosh, there were just so many great women/men when I was growing up." You can hear the disappointment in the interviewer's voice, since they are usually track nerds. I heard an interview with Jon Green in which he said he didn't really follow track or marathon results unless he was looking up Molly Seidel's competitors. I wonder how many US 1500m runners could even name 10 non-US 1500m runners - they'd tick off the US-based internationals, Jakob, and Tim, then we'd be in struggle territory.
We've covered this many times. Track and field is boring. There is no continuity from one event to the next because there is no team scoring at the pro level.
Marathons are particularly boring. It's two hours of typically nothing for a hour and a half! It's like NASCAR without the crashes, pit stops, cautions to bring the field back together, mechanical failures, risk of being drawn into someone else's crash, or the possibility that any of maybe 20 or so drivers could win, depending on luck. And in spite of all that, NASCAR is boring most of the time, too.
this is a silly take. Marathons are very popular. There’s a reason why runners can make a living racing the marathon when an equivalent time in a track event would leave them begging for just airfare and hotel to a race. Marathons bring in huge sponsors and lots of money. The sponsorship opportunities are much greater than in track where, at the big meets, athletes can only represent a shoe sponsor. The average person sees the marathon as the end all be all of running, and as much more impressive than the shorter events.
Nobody has tried to make it a big deal. Sports TV devotes many hours every day to the NFL, even in the off-season. If track had those fawning announcers talking about it for hours, people would start to follow it and watch the meets. It is a function of promotion, not of popularity.
So many reasons. Most recently this focus on times as opposed to competing. Everyone goes to BU to run a fast time —- I think almost all would rather put up a quicker time and lose as opposed to win on a slower time. These staged BTC time trials—I like Fisher but if he runs 26:40 to break Rupps record in this upcoming “race” with the staging / shoes etc— is it really so much different than the sub 2 charade. I mean, what is our sport now—- is it not a competitive thing but rather a series of exhibitions? what exactly is a pro distance runner — a person that chases times ?
this is a silly take. Marathons are very popular. There’s a reason why runners can make a living racing the marathon when an equivalent time in a track event would leave them begging for just airfare and hotel to a race. Marathons bring in huge sponsors and lots of money. The sponsorship opportunities are much greater than in track where, at the big meets, athletes can only represent a shoe sponsor. The average person sees the marathon as the end all be all of running, and as much more impressive than the shorter events.
Marathons a very popular? By what standard?
By the standard that hundreds of thousands of people run them.
The general public gets hyped about the Olympics because the best athletes are going to be there. Worlds also brings great match ups but it is not promoted to regular sports fans.
Imagine if UFC operated like track? They get you all amped about a huge fight, convince you to buy the PPV package, and Joe Rogan talks nonstop about how awesome the event is going to be. Then 48 hours before the fight, one fighter drops out to train for a future fight and the other one decides to exhibition box Logan Paul instead. The much hyped match up gets replaced by an undercard of no names that you have no emotional attachment to. Worse? Your favorite American fighters won’t commit to any televised matches but only offer low quality livestreaming of intrasquad sparring from their own gym. The powers that be act like this is acceptable and you are a bad fan if you don’t like it.
So many reasons. Most recently this focus on times as opposed to competing. Everyone goes to BU to run a fast time —- I think almost all would rather put up a quicker time and lose as opposed to win on a slower time. These staged BTC time trials—I like Fisher but if he runs 26:40 to break Rupps record in this upcoming “race” with the staging / shoes etc— is it really so much different than the sub 2 charade. I mean, what is our sport now—- is it not a competitive thing but rather a series of exhibitions? what exactly is a pro distance runner — a person that chases times ?
From the first time I started competing Usatf junior olympics in order to get into any meet you had to run a qualifying time. In college you went to time trial meets(mt sac, Stanford,penn,) to hit qualifying times ... it always has been about times until the very last races of the season
this is a silly take. Marathons are very popular. There’s a reason why runners can make a living racing the marathon when an equivalent time in a track event would leave them begging for just airfare and hotel to a race. Marathons bring in huge sponsors and lots of money. The sponsorship opportunities are much greater than in track where, at the big meets, athletes can only represent a shoe sponsor. The average person sees the marathon as the end all be all of running, and as much more impressive than the shorter events.
Marathons a very popular? By what standard?
How many people come out to watch the NYC marathon compared to watch the Yankees if they played the same day?
I agree track and field is unpopular for viewing but marathons are extremely popular,both in terms of runners and spectators.
NBC played the usatf indoors on their business channel, but the announcers on the business shows are more animated and intense than the announcers for the track meet. It was a step down in production value. They missed a lot of the drama. My biggest issue is when they cut away to the winner of the race as soon as they cross the line, while there are incredible finishes for fourth or fifth place, maybe by up and coming athletes, or rivals, or just athletes trying to get themselves into the upper levels. That is real drama and excitement, and they completely miss it, they don’t even announce past second place. There is plenty of time to cut back to the winner and show the replay of their finish.
Get someone who is genuinely excited about racing to produce and announce the meets. Show how thrilling every race is. I have never seen a boring race, and I go to junior high meets. I don’t know how they can’t reveal that intensity on a broadcast.
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