The sport does have a problem in that it isnt an exciting sport to watch and that is not a good thing when trying to attract young people. Track is like fine wine. It is an acquired taste. It isnt a surgery soft drink. For this reason we are losing interest in watching the sport. Participation is still solid but if you go to a high school track meet you recognize only 10-20% of the athletes truly care and have passion for the sport. For the rest it is just social.
all sport attendance is down overall with only a few exceptions. This phenomena carries into track and field.
the new hayward field is cool but it sucks. It is luxurious for the sport but is overbuilt for the sport with the possible exception of the world championships. Ego got in the way (lananna and phil knight) when it comes to world championship. We are left with a stadium with all the bells and whistles but no one attending.
The new stadium also doesn’t provide rain protection for the majority of the crowd. The old stadium covered the majority of people and you could walk away with a souvenir sliver.
Personally, I looked at tickets, saw it was going to be $50-125 dollars to sit near the finish line on Friday and decided to save myself 4 hours of driving and watch it on USATF TV.
That's ridiculous for 5 "races" (only 3 of which properly met the definition) and a couple of field events.
It wasn't much better on Saturday. I hope they're able to fill the stadium for Worlds, else it will be a bit embarrassing for America. We don't want another Doha 2019!
Kobbs Hessler wrote: "...even many hardcore fans don't care about random Africans no matter how fast they run."
The problem is that many Americans are too parochial. In Europe however, the crowds appreciate great performances wherever the athletes comes from.
Back to the economics. The sport is not a charity at any level. It take revenue to fund but the typical domestic fan is reluctant to part with any cash. Everything about our sport just looks and feels cheap down to this very website. If it is too rich for your blood, fine. Just don't go watch live meets and follow the action for free through the often dumb posts on this board. Otherwise, prove your fandom and lob some lucre at it. I find it so laughable when people complain that Eugene is too expensive, too dirty, too hard to get to, etc. but then the same tightwads brag that they will max out their credit cards to fly to Budapest for the next WC. I've been there and, newsflash, it's more expensive than Eugene and you still can't smuggle a Subway $5 Footlong into the stadium! In fact, that will probably get you jailed in Orban's Hungary.
This sport isn't for coupon clippers and folks that demand a senior discount. Pay if you are passionate! The less you support the sport financially, the shorter its lifespan gets. Otherwise, stay home and watch it on your laptop and keep whining about the lack of exposure and respect it gets.
In 2019 Nike's profit was $17.5 BILLION. That's where the money's going. Throw some of that back at the grass roots and you're winning.
Had a room for NCAA Nationals but canceled, partly because the plane ticket would be $1200, more than twice what I payed last year. That plus scarce, overpriced hotel rooms might be factors.
Do You think you are being funny? Thousands of Americans moved to Eugene for a career in sports, media, marketing, sales. Now Eugene is a ghost town. We have to move and find other work.
Without the vitriol of a few here and while Im not a coupon clipper, it does take a committment first, then time to do some research and plan through your options. Maybe its age/wisdom, etc... but whatever keeps you from going for it is what you have to settle for. I chose not to go to some big meets a couple times but more often than not I found a reasonable way to have those experiences. You live once.
I went to the 87 Pan Am games in Indianapolis on nothing in 87 and found a way to get in the stadium for several days to see the likes of Scott/Spivey/Cruz battle it out in the 1500, Mike Tully jump a PV AR, Jacki Joyner Jump 24+, Carl Lewis, Anna Quirot, Judy Brown King, Valerie Briscoe hang her gold medal on a kid in a wheel chair, tell him she loved him and walk away after her awards ceremony and on and on... We camped, starved, got overheated, probably smelled, figured out how to make ourselves presentable, met, conversed and partied with world class athletes and just didnt give up on ourselves.
Yes inflation, whatever... If you really want something, Figure It Out!!! Geez! But stop bitchin!!!
Just because Im a multimillionaire doesnt mean I HAVE to spend a million to have a good time. And if Im scratching by on a shoestring, theres still a way if you want it bad enough! Ive done it several times!!!
Commit to something, plan ahead, go work a side hustle and JUST DO IT! For you married people, Maybe its not a family vacation but you can plan ahead as to how you will make it up to them for being selfish and self centered with track by working together and earning a vacation together. Maybe you lead with that as you propose your selfish track trip to soften the edge unless you want them to be there too, then plan for it! But dont take food off the table or clothes off their backs because you are too lazy to make it happen then cry to everyone else about it. Its YOUR choice! And its ok if you choose not to go but at least be honest instead of being a victim. Nobody is going to make it happen for you but you.
Cool story. Had a similar outer body experience attending a Penn Relays one year. Can’t compare to a sanitized two hour event with little to no outside ambiance.
I always complain about the quality of US TV coverage and this one is another good example. Friday night, we had superb coverage on the web but of course no network TV coverage for those who were interested. Long build ups to the races, intros of the runners, knowledgeable presenters (e.g. Tim Hutchings). The field events stream was excellent despite the lack of narration but you got to see it all. I highly recommend that people ante up for Runnerspace and go back and watch Friday night. (Great to see Natosha Rogers make the team!)
Saturday was the expected disaster. Here you have an assembly of the finest athletes in the world and as usual with NBC it's hurry up, hurry up. Forget about good info on the race such as projections in the women's 1500m. What a loaded field in that race and no time to even see who was present. THAT should have been the big race of the night.
And what about Laura Muir? She just kinda dropped off the radar with no explanation. It was like she didn't exist anyway. Elle Purrier St. Pierre? She may as well have not even been in the race, barely a mention. The US fans need some intros do the US stars regardless of whether they are going to get beaten by the Africans.
And field event fans who relied solely on the NBC telecast got next to nothing (as usual). NBC does a great job on Diamond League with its other meets on Peacock but the US market for many domestic meets forces the entire experience to be so truncated that it is difficult to enjoy. This could have been three hours and it would have been a totally different meet for the viewers. We need to let our US presenters have more time to present the event instead of providing hurried up executive summaries.
I've posted this before, but if you are going to host a track meet like Diamond League or NCAA championships, you need to put it in Des Moines. You have Minneapolis, Chicago, St Louis, Kansas City and Omaha within an easy day drive.
Also, it needs to be a 1 day event. No prelims except for the 100. Nobody cares about watching runners let up before the finish line or coast in. And it becomes too expensive to spread it out over 4 days.
If the CBP had not detained/deported me, I would have attended last year and would attend as long as I had money to travel from Argentina. I think its an unmissable event.
Please help this international T&F fan here. What's so special about Des Moines in regards to T&F?
Genuine question. I had never heard about this city, yet I have heard about Eugene and Oregon since my youth days.
Des Moines hosts a big meet, the Drake (University) Relays in mid April. The meet is very well run and draws big crowds so one can imagine there is a decent sized base of athletics fans there. And as someone said, it's a manageable drive from three much bigger cities so you can imagine an even bigger base of nearly local fans.
You could make a similar case for Philadelphia which hosts a very similar meet at the same time, is a much bigger city than Des Moines and is within reasonable driving distance of two other very big cities. There's probably a noticeably bigger fan base there than in Des Moines. Whether that would translate to a big crowd at a pro meet is not clear. The Drake and Penn Relays are very different kinds of meets than a pro meet is. A LOT of the fans at those meets have kids, friends, boy or girl friends, university teammates, etc. competing. What sort of crowd a meet where almost no potential spectator has a personal connection to any of the competitors might draw is unclear.
Please help this international T&F fan here. What's so special about Des Moines in regards to T&F?
Genuine question. I had never heard about this city, yet I have heard about Eugene and Oregon since my youth days.
Drake Stadium is a top rate stadium, in a centrally located state that doesnt get super hot. Eugene is also a great stadium, in a non centrally located state, that doesn't get too hot. Except last year, when it was 102 during the Olympic trials. Des Moines has better summer weather than most places they host these meets, like Doha, or Birmingham, or almost anywhere in Europe. University of Texas would also be a great place to host, except it's way too hot.
Please help this international T&F fan here. What's so special about Des Moines in regards to T&F?
Genuine question. I had never heard about this city, yet I have heard about Eugene and Oregon since my youth days.
Des Moines hosts a big meet, the Drake (University) Relays in mid April. The meet is very well run and draws big crowds so one can imagine there is a decent sized base of athletics fans there. And as someone said, it's a manageable drive from three much bigger cities so you can imagine an even bigger base of nearly local fans.
You could make a similar case for Philadelphia which hosts a very similar meet at the same time, is a much bigger city than Des Moines and is within reasonable driving distance of two other very big cities. There's probably a noticeably bigger fan base there than in Des Moines. Whether that would translate to a big crowd at a pro meet is not clear. The Drake and Penn Relays are very different kinds of meets than a pro meet is. A LOT of the fans at those meets have kids, friends, boy or girl friends, university teammates, etc. competing. What sort of crowd a meet where almost no potential spectator has a personal connection to any of the competitors might draw is unclear.
Philly is also a great location. The track would be better suited for the Olympics than a Diamond League meet, if the goal is to fill the seats.
There is nothing wrong with the venue. It is a palace and beats the hell out of the old place. As I see it, the problems are as follows:
The old guard Eugene super fans of yore are dead or very elderly. The fans that packed the house 40-50 years ago are that much older.
Too many foreigners. Sorry to say it but, why buy tickets and travel to see someone you have no emotional investment in take the victory? Today’s women’s steeple was a prime example. Two laps in, it was obvious that Coburn and Frerichs were non-factors. You could feel the crowd check out.
Too many entertainment options. Why buy a minimum $35 seat and pay $15 to park at U of O when you can watch on NBC for free? Or stream movies? Or read posts on Let’s Run?
Oregon track is no longer the only winning sport in Eugene. Crowds at old Hayward started to thin when the Ducks football and basketball teams started having success.
The track coaching staff does no community outreach. Bowerman, Dellinger, and Lananna were active in the community and hyped up the sport. Martin Smith and Robert Johnson have acted more like technocrats than salesmen. As a result, Eugene just doesn’t care as much.
The drive from Portland on I-5 sucks. The road is terrible, needs widening, and there is simply too much traffic. Locals know exactly what I am talking about.
The obvious: track isn’t very exciting. The same athletes win week in, week out. They are sort of non-descript. There is no drama or stakes involved. What does the Diamond League champion win? Obscene amounts of money? Guaranteed Olympic berth? Do you get sent back to minor league level road racing if you don’t finish top five? Who is the franchise MVP star that just makes the average fan’s jaw drop? Track has none of that.
Cheaper tickets. A night focused on domestic competition. More hype. Races where a WR setter gets life changing money. How about announcing both the metric and the imperial mark? These things generate interest. Not tactical races that start with an easy jog. Not seeing races where a dozen Africans make our best look like JV scrubs.
I think this post covers all the bases. In the 1970s and early 1980s I used to visit Eugene in the summers. I remember middle aged neighbors of my grandparents telling me that they say Pre, or Salazar or Chapa running down their street on occasion. They would talk about Burleson, or Roscoe Divine breaking four minutes in a meet they saw. Oregon was pretty much horrible at all other sports despite having the occasional superstar athlete.
Now of course, those neighbors are gone or elderly and I'm sure the people in those houses are talking about Duck football and basketball. Talking about those sports pretty much they do in most other college towns.