There is history, weather and a better experience at Foot Locker (Champs). They need to figure their sponsor out, have the HQ at the Del Coronado again and do a better marketing job. It’s a simple fix.
It’s also much better for kids to be recruited at FL. I’m not sure why anyone would choose NXN except for a high school coach that wants to say he got his team to nationals. FL still more prestigious AND fun.
The Hotel Del Coronado wasn't available this year because there was a massive soccer tournament in Coronado and they booked all the rooms in the hotel.
Whether NXN or Footlocker / Champs is the better experience is just a matter of opinion, not a fact. I talked to one girl at Champs this year who is shy and she said she would never go to NXN because there are too many people there and it's too much of a party atmosphere which she doesn't like. Other kids like the more party atmosphere of NXN. To each their own.
Not sure why you think Champs is better for recruiting than NXN. That has nothing to do with anything. College coaches are going to recruit whoever they want regardless of which race a kid chooses.
Their marketing mistake was when they declined Nike's offer to make Footlocker a team event.
Nike's offer to make Footlocker a team event would have forced the race to move away from Balboa Park because that course can't hold very many teams. And maybe Footlocker wanted the race to stay at Balboa Park.
Also, Nike may have wanted more control than Footlocker was willing to give them. Nike isn't the type of company that likes playing second fiddle to another company.
There really is no fix, unless you want to see Footlocker Regionals on Dec 10 and Nationals Dec 17.
It's not NXNs job to make Footlocker (Champs) more appealing. At some point I see FL disappearing.
Alan
No-the Champs West regional is a week later, because the CA state meet is held the same day all the other Champs regions are held (Sat after Thanksgiving). CA has it's own region for Nike that is done through the CA State meet merge. That is why kids out west can do both NXN and Champs.
No, NXN is literally the same day as FL west and it has been for years
Aaron Sahlman benefited from unfair NXN system that is biased towards Cali, using the Cali state meet as a regional, allowing Cali runners to skip a step. Sahlamn's legs might not have been fresh enough to win NXN otherwise.
If Nike wants to be taken seriously as THE national meet, then they need to stop favoring California.
That makes no sense. If your idea was enacted then the California Region meet would be the same day as NXN.
Exactly, so get rid of NXN or move it. Pretty simple.
Easy solution: drop NXN or move it. There was never any problem until Nike decided to get in the game. San Diego nationals worked just fine for 30 plus years.
Easy solution: drop NXN or move it. There was never any problem until Nike decided to get in the game. San Diego nationals worked just fine for 30 plus years.
OMG!!!!!
Finally someone gets it. You're spot on and absolutely correct. I posted earlier that Kinney/Footlocker (same company by the way), was the FIRST to organize, coordinate, and execute a TRUE prep national championship. It had NOTHING to do with marketing or money. The people who created the meet were all former high school runners and thought it would be a great idea to have a true national competition to establish who was the best girl and boy X-C runners. They pitched the idea to Kinney and the rest is history! The event was so successful it was only then that Kinney transitioned it to Footlocker, which at the time had become a very popular shoe store with high schoolers. The marketing concept was a no brainer and literally was "self created". As per a Nike executive, "Footlocker put together an amazing meet, with NO major shoe brand sponsorship, and we saw a marketing opportunity to add a shoe brand and take over. Footlocker did not want the meet to become a marketing only, exposure driven venture, we did and decided to hold the original NXN meet on the same weekend as the Footlocker Nationals. We basically were going bully them into giving up the meet, an offer they couldn't refuse".
are you aware that NIKE footed the bill for FL for many years until FL refused to add teams... and I quote " Cross Country is not a team sport "...uttered by a FL exec who was in charge of the event.
Never going to happen since states like New York and California refuse to move their state meets to earlier dates.
New York is an easy fix since all they have to do is eliminate the Federation meet.
California has like a five week long state series so I don't know what to do about that other than combining or eliminating an early round.
Its literally just because of southern section. California needs to look at re-making the section system. There are a number of problems with it at this point - stuff like this is an example of the issues associated with it.
As a coach who has multiple teams at NXN and multiple individuals at FL (Champs), I have very strong opinions on this matter. The current setup is a disaster and the kids and spectators alike are getting jipped. I've been out of coaching for the past several years and haven't followed it much so I'm not sure how the quality of each race has evolved in comparison with one another. My last FL finalist was in 2009 and he competed an individual in the 2008 NXN. In 2009 we had to choose which race to go to. FL was the right decision as he ended up as the runner up, an accolade I put on par or higher than an NXN individual title. I had a runner who was the runner up at the original NXN. He went on to place 11th at FL and the NXN champion was 12th. Clearly NXN produced a team champion but FL had the true individual champion. That year FL made a wise concession and allowed the top few runners from the West Region who could not compete at FL West Regionals due to the NXN race to compete at FL Nationals. My athlete got the best of both worlds, competing on a team for a national title and then competing as an individual for a national title. Each race has it's own place as far as I'm concerned. The individual winner of NXN is simply a Nike Invitational winner, not a national champion, unless his team happens to win as well. It's a shame we don't have a race like NCAA's where both champions can be crowned. Until then Nike will crown the team champs and FL/Champs etc. will crown the individual champ. FL/Champs really should allow top finishers from NXN to compete in San Diego. Don't make athletes choose and risk diluting the competition.
Although I agree that top finishers at NXN should be able to compete in FL/Champs, I do not agree that winning NXN is just winning a "Nike Invitational." But rather that, whatever national race it is, whether it is NXN or Champs, the one with the better competition claims the title for individual National Champion. For example in 2019 and 2022, Nico Young(1st at NXN) and Aaron Sahlman(1st at NXN) were both national champions because they both beat the winners of FL/Champs, Josh Methner(2nd at NXN) and Kole Mathison(4th at NXN).