Is T&F really dying? Or should we accept that it's always been a marginal side show?

Many years ago when he was still running professionally, Nick Symmonds said track needed a couple things to make meets more interesting.

Betting and beer.

Imagine betting on finals! Heats would be problematic as people don't always put out their best or care about placing.

It could be like horse races! I'd get into that.

Fortunately or unfortunately interest in T&F would skyrocket if it was a betting sport.

I've thought for years about where track lost public interest. The following may be important:

1. Switching to metric. The mile was the one race Americans could understand. Four laps in 4 minutes. The mile has symmetry. 1500 doesn't.

2. Elite runners dodging competitors except championships. Snell, Clarke, Ryun, Keino showed up for every meet. The sport could develop brands. The closest to a brand today is Ingebrigtsen (who shows up).

3. African dominance. We're talking about American audiences.

4. The Diamond League. No respectable meet in the 60s would consider leaving out any of the 100, 200 (220), 400, 800, mile and 3 mile. Now it's one or two plus a steeple and some hurdles squashed into two hours for TV.

5. Drugs. We all know they exist. So does the public.

All or some of these may be important causes. But I'm certain that at least one matters.

The beer part I could get into. In fact I save mountain dew bottles to put beer into before going to track meets.

The gambling part, I'm not so sure about that. We've already got doping allegations and "cheater shoes." The last thing we need is to have someone being accused of "taking a dive" in a high profile track meet. A scandal like that at the highest level might kill pro track'n'field for a good long time. Not to forget mentioning what happened last night in the mens 110H DQ.

You have been able to bet on track and field for years. American sports books hardly take bets on track and field because the general public doesn't care enough to gamble on it less maybe the 100m dash.

This is like saying football (soccer) is dying because professional leagues don't draw huge crowds in the U.S.

“You may recall the description of the Man with the Muck-rake, the man who could look no way but downward with the muck-rake in his hands; who was offered a celestial crown for his muck-rake, but who would neither look up nor regard the crown he was offered, but continued to rake to himself the filth of the floor.”

- Theodore Roosevelt, reminding LetsRun posters that there are not only other days but other DECADES where you can spend time bitching about the sport in America but right now there are magnificent performances going on in Eugene.

I mean, can we enjoy our nice things or do we need to carry on like the incels of the sports world? Or should I start another thread about Cooper Teare lying, crap on some Newberry Park kids, declare all sprinters dopers, or embrace Peter Thiel? We get the sport we deserve, I swear.

We don't want track to become a spectacle like football and basketball are. Those sports are way overhyped and I wouldn't want to be a part of that.

Promote track and field for what it is: the fastest people in your city, state or nation. Its a healthy sport. It is the most equitable sport in that anyone can join. It is the purest sport in that either you get to the finish line in time or you don't, there are no timeouts or second chances.

People are starting to realize how stupid football and basketball are, with all their arguments with referees, and penalties decide who many games. Put all that behind you and watch the pure sport of track and field.

Football and basketball have gotten 99 percent of the marketing and media coverage for the past 70 years, and still track and field is the most popular sport for high school athletes. That should tell you it is not fading.

Flawed analysis. Trends are based on what is happening on the margin, the directional movements. Soccer in the US is seeing both stable to increasing paid attendance and TV air time. T&F continues to experience the opposite trend line. Based on a continuation of these directional trends of the past couple of decades, the gulf between the two in the US is only likely to widen.

Track & Field's heydey was maybe the 50s and early 60s, at least in the USA. The crowds in the USA likely peaked in the early 60s, with the cold war duels between the US and Soviets attracting massive crowds, full stadiums.

I've never had a moments worries about the "size" of T&F or running, it is what it is, and I enjoy it as such. Of course, I did have the exquisite pleasure of being at the finish of the Boston Marathon (at age 18) in 1975 when Bill Rodgers surprised with an AR 2:09:55. I think there were at least 60,000 people on the Boylston St. stretch that day, I have never seen anything like it, or HEARD anything like it.

Exactly. Terrible optics. You can't host a World Champs in a hyped, shiny new stadium like that and not fill it for the marquee events. Eugene itself is a storied spot steeped in tradition, it should be easy to get fans to show up in droves. They used to in old Hayward just for the OT. Even European fans should want to visit. Somebody lost the plot.

At the pro level, it's still losing ground among sports fans and the general public. The saving grace is that running is a hugely popular participatory recreational activity, so the dinosaurs and the start-ups in the industry likely have more dinero to put towards marketing via athlete endorsement sponsorships. But it's a shrinking portion of recreational runners who follow the sport, even among those who participated in high school and college. The fact that it's so difficult to follow only hurts the cause. The fact that you can't go on ESPN or SI and find any and all meet and race results speaks directly to that.

This^

yes, athletics not as big as the past, but i think there will always be enough interest in running especially because many can relate with running times.

Definitely a side show...tonight's men's steeple final and women's 1500 final will be shown on tape delay so they can show American Ninja Warrior and a reboot of the Weakest Link game show on NBC. Pretty embarrassing to have a world champs on home soil and still not even have all the finals on live TV.

As a businessman and track fan, I’ve wondered why The Running Channel doesn’t exist on cable like the Golf Channel?

It could help address a tremendous problem that T&F has: There are tens of millions of serious runners in America and a small % follow Track.

Golf and basketball are played by millions of adults (unlike football and baseball) and a large majority of them follow the PGA and NBA.

I am also curious if anyone has insight into the USATF and other governing bodies of track. Their history is well known how they kept the profits for themselves, five star hotels and first class travel and the athletes were called “amateurs” which was a good scam.

My guess is they’re like the NCAA and still running game on the system and they control everything without the scrutiny necessary for beneficial change.

Until they allow alcohol in stadiums and mini bars, the sport will die gradually. Other forms of running have more participation than anything in the world right now because you can drink right after.

10 years from now.........is track dying?

I will attend a 100 meets between now and then.

Horse racing is a pretty dead sport, too. In fact, I would say that track and field is in better shape than horse racing. Could betting on track and field help? I'm not convinced that it would - at least not in this country.

Tonight's HR Derby drew a larger paying crowd than the WC session for the men's 100m final. The incorrigible SoCal honks may actually be right, host this meet there instead of at Hayseed Field and it sells out every session.