The myth of the “casual fan” in track and field

The only thing I'd dispute is your line about track having one winner. A meet with two dozen events has two dozen winners. And I think that's a problem because when you have multiple winners you really have none unless it's a meet where team scores are kept.

While not suggestions for increasing tv/streaming experience, Some things Ive seen at various meets that if combined in bigger, championship meets might increase local spectatorship and pull in true fans from further away.

1. Move championship meets around and spread the love. Ive been all over the country and the culture of various regions/communities was about 1/3 of the excitement of going somewhere new. Prepare "Other Things to Do" while you are here lists for a wide range of interests.

2. Promote meets to youth groups and make them affordable to help fill stadiums. Give them something to do outside the stadium when they need a break. Music to bouncy houses. Employ their social media skills and engage them through their phones for prizes a few times.

3. Horn and drum ensemble by Brazilians. Probably a soccer thing but it was a cool part of my first international meet experience at 87 Pan Am Games.

4. Party Zone, stage, live entertainment outside stadium at Hayward Field 2016 Olympic Trials. Pesentation of athletes and Awarding of medals for later events there since fans left the stadium to get to the party zone.

5. Hire that Squatch mascot from Eugene Worlds. He was funny as Hell. His signs were a riot.

6. Just have big meets in Des Moines 3rd week of May when Drake Stadium fills up to the gills with parents, fans, etc...and hire Mike Jay to announce the meet. He is very well prepared with the right information to help fans stay focused. The multi event announcer in Eugene is also one of the best.

7. Make the athletes wear their team/country/custom/favorite superhero etc. uniform and get rid of the corporate unis. Too hard to tell athletes apart from a distance when they are all wearing the same kit.

8. More display boards are better to keep track of field events durimg and between running events.

I like all these good ideas, problem?

World Athletics and It's regulations. Especially in regards to athlete's influences.

Please no. Yes to some of the other suggestions but please not this!

The Brazilians only did this when their top athletes were contending or winning. Joaqim Cruz, Robson DaSilva etc. IUPUI facility had a metal floor so they stomped rhythmically in combination with the horns/drums. It was kinda cool to a young fan getting into the sport at an international meet. Not everyone was doing it so it was adding flavor from their culture. Yeah, Lord Coe said, "There shall be NO vuvuzelas at the 2012 Games" with good reason. I agree totally with that! I dont need the air filled with constant blaring music like you find at a lot of collegiate contests these days either. A throwers yell on release, a pole vaulters pole rattling post jump, hurdles clattering in a hot race etc are the best sounds at a track meet. A large, enthusiastic crowds' unfiltered response to a failed or succsessful high stakes attempt and most certainly the creschendo ROAR of a large crowd to a dramatic race is music to my ears. Mo Farrah, Michael Johnson, Cathy Freeman....bringing down the house in front of the home crowd on the most imlortant stage and moment of their lives, living their dreams right in front of us! Just glad to be a witness.

There's a reason it's called broadcasting not narrowcasting.

Another issue (to the casual fan) the season doesn't end with the World Championships.

I DID have some people last year ask my about why there were meets after the WC's and then we have Worlds and the Diamond League Final.

It can be confusing for the person who follows the NFL to the Super Bowl and that's it.

I don't get your point here.

The in-person product is simply un-appealing. It's even more challenging to change the perception of the otherwise most likely casual fans, those that competed or had kids or other family members in the sport. Their perception is that track meets are 8 hours of waiting around for the 1-4 minutes of action you've been targeting to see.

How to make the on-track product more appealing in person.

1. Eliminate the 400m track outdoors. Only contest meets on 200m banked tracks, so you can easily see the whole race, everyone has a decent enough view of the finishing straight, and is size appropriate for crowds. A sold out 200m track venue is way more exciting to be at than a spacious 400m track layout that don't even have stands all the way around.

2a. Expand into other fledgling olympic sports - weightlifting, wrestling, ninja racing etc. Eliminate boring events and replace downtime between running events with other matches or fights. Introduce new combined events that might include distance running and wrestling combined (top 4 finishers in the mile fight to determine final 4 places), as an example. 500 lb deadlift - mile race, etc. Enough combinations would lead to a lot more opportunity for fans to witness world records.

2b. OR just eliminate non-track events all together. Make it the sport of running speed only, which would have a lot more appeal than when mixed in throws, jumps, etcs. In modern times the field events are basically just outdated tests of athleticism, putting the sport as a whole in an awkward middle.

OR, just embrace our sport as what it is. A sport that is generally unappealing to watch except by a select few. Market it as an exclusive nostalgic european centric sport and it might eventually catch on to whomever the next hipsters are.

After the most exciting weekend in track and field in recent history, I am sure discussions about this weekend will dominate the water cooler Monday morning at the office!

LOL, I'm like 99% positive I'm like the only one in my town who even knows what happened in Paris on Friday