Meets that matter in track and field (World/Olympics/Olympics Trials) are super popular. Thus to make track more popular we need more meets that mattter, not more meets. This is a simple way to solve that prolbem.
not a bad idea, but I would rather a fair dinkum DL season that year where champions are decided on accumulated points qualifying for final week (with much bigger prizemoney) than currently exists. Winners should get prizemoney on a par with WC for DL held in a non-WC year.
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Thank you, pretty similar to what I have been suggesting for years, recently as late as during the World Champs in Budapest (though "Benefit 05" should probably rank higher):
If anything World Championships should be stretched out over a longer period so as to allow more doubling and tripling and prolong the enjoyment for us fans! :-)
Weekend 1: 100 meters, men and women, seniors + at least one youth category
Weekend 2: 200 meters, men and women, seniors + at least one youth category
3: 400 meters, etc, you get the idea by now
4: 800 meters
5: 1500 meters
6: 3000 meters hurdles
7: 5000 meters
8: 10000 meters
9: 110 meter hurdles
10: Half marathon
11: 400 meter hurdles
12: 4 x 100 meters
13: 4 x 400 meters
14: Marathon
Field events can be spread throughout the 14 weekend period.
Benefit 01: Allows doubling and tripling (and possibly quadrupling) for runners.
Benefit 02: Allows that same thing for throwers and jumpers too.
Benefit 03: Prolonged media coverage (for almost three months there's always a World Championship coming up or going on).
Benefit 04: The Diamond League and rest of T&A can proceed as normal - the horrible from a PR standpoint three-four weeks almost total disappearance of T&A during its high season can be dispatched to the trash heap of PR mistakes history. With a World Championship every Saturday-Sunday and a Diamond League every Wednesday or Thursday there will always be something about to come up for us fans! :-)
Benefit 05: Hosting can be spread over more than one city - i.e smaller nations can also get in on the hosting - that's a secondary BIG PR move opportunity right there!
I appreciate your creativity, but I think spreading out the championships over several months would have the unintended consequence of diminishing the prestige of each one. Championships are special because they only happen once a year (or 3 out of 4 years in this sport). If there were championships happening every week, they wouldn’t seem as important.
I understand the concern is that there is only one meet a year that truly matters, but at least we have that one meet that draws a lot of attention and interest. By diffusing the championships, we would go from one very special meet to zero. I’d rather see WA find ways to raise the profile of Diamond League meets than take away from the special nature of the annual championships.
I also disagree with the objective of making doubling and tripling easier. A big part of what makes those attempts so intriguing and amazing is seeing how athletes manage the fatigue factor.
One additional note as someone who went to Eugene last year for the world championships: that trip would not have been as exciting if there were only three championship finals to watch. If I’m going to spend significant money, travel a long distance, and use up limited vacation time, I want to see all the top stars competing for championships, not just a handful.
Why not have more than one world championship for each event per year? Make it like boxing, any time a world champion loses, a new world champion is crowned. The world championship race could take place anywhere that gets sanctioned and the athletes agree to competing at. If athletes don't show to defend their title a minimum number of times in a calendar year (say twice for marathon, 4 times for sprints), their title is stripped. Entrants to the world championship races would be based on world rankings, so every other athlete would be competing regularly to improve or maintain their world ranking.
I appreciate your creativity, but I think spreading out the championships over several months would have the unintended consequence of diminishing the prestige of each one. Championships are special because they only happen once a year (or 3 out of 4 years in this sport). If there were championships happening every week, they wouldn’t seem as important.
I completely agree with this. Frankly I think rojo’s idea is a bad one.
If you want to make DL meets more compelling (personally I find them plenty compelling as is), I think the best you can do is to tie them to the World Championship in a fashion similar to how they’re currently tied to the DL final. There would be no byes into the championship races though, and the DL fields would be filled through an objective system based on a combination of season’s bests and current standings. If you designed this correctly, you could ensure that every top athlete who wants a chance at a Worlds medal has to show up to at least a couple DL meets to score enough points to qualify for the WC (straight final, fairly small field). In the later DL meets there would be a fair bit of drama as everyone tries to lock up their spot in the final.
I don’t think I like that as much as the status quo though. I do prefer it to rojo’s idea.
People won't go for naming a champion before the end of the season. That's against all sports tradition. Only aliens from some weird planet would do it that way.
But to make every meet matter, and get rid of pointless rounds and 2-week wannabe olympic spendfest champs meets, have the Diamond League be the qualifiers. Other meets too.
Not qualifiers to get into the champs. Qualifiers for the finals. Top 8 sprint times all season are in the final. Top 12 middle distance times, in the final. All season long, everyone will be trying to grab a safe spot on that leaderboard and bump each other off. Every meet matters.
Why not have more than one world championship for each event per year? Make it like boxing, any time a world champion loses, a new world champion is crowned. The world championship race could take place anywhere that gets sanctioned and the athletes agree to competing at. If athletes don't show to defend their title a minimum number of times in a calendar year (say twice for marathon, 4 times for sprints), their title is stripped. Entrants to the world championship races would be based on world rankings, so every other athlete would be competing regularly to improve or maintain their world ranking.
I appreciate your creativity, but I think spreading out the championships over several months would have the unintended consequence of diminishing the prestige of each one...
On the contrary! What's really diminishing the prestige of each one is when a champion in just one of them gets busted for PEDs or something and the general public automatically assumes that pretty much all the other 40 champions are dirty too. One bad apple spoils the whole T&F basket PR-wise and mainstream media gladly clickbaits themselves silly.
Do not put all the apples in one basket!
Do not put that basket in just one city!
Do not eat that whole basket in just one week!
We've tried that already for too long - it doesn't work the way it's intended and it never will!
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I appreciate your creativity, but I think spreading out the championships over several months would have the unintended consequence of diminishing the prestige of each one...
On the contrary! What's really diminishing the prestige of each one is when a champion in just one of them gets busted for PEDs or something and the general public automatically assumes that pretty much all the other 40 champions are dirty too. One bad apple spoils the whole T&F basket PR-wise and mainstream media gladly clickbaits themselves silly.
Do not put all the apples in one basket!
Do not put that basket in just one city!
Do not eat that whole basket in just one week!
We've tried that already for too long - it doesn't work the way it's intended and it never will!
Good post.
I've long said, "We need more meets that matter. What is currently the only meet that matters? Worlds."
By spreading Worlds over 14 meet, we now have 14 meets that matter.
Similarly, I've long thought you could hold USAs in a bunch of cities in a given year. Have the shot put final in the hometown of Crouser, the 10ks in Eugene, the 100s in Austin, etc. I wouldn't do that most years - but maybe the year when there is nothing to qualify for.
In terms of my Worlds proposal at DLs, the events listed are actually Jonathan Gault's. I had taken a stab of which events at which DLs myself which you can find in this spreadsheet:
We've tried that already for too long - it doesn't work the way it's intended and it never will!
In what ways do the world championships not work? Budapest was an unequivocal success. It doesn’t make any sense to strip away from an experience like that.
I dispute Rojo’s premise that the sport needs saving. The last 3 years have been as exciting as any 3-year stretch I can remember since I first started following the sport nearly 30 years ago. We have had a number of all-time great athletes dropping incredible performances regularly, world records being broken, and thrilling competitions and rivalries. The high school and college levels have been on fire, showing that the future is bright. Globally, we see a large number of countries producing medalists. Eugene may struggle to draw spectators, but that’s a Eugene problem.
Again, I understand the desire to make the Diamond League matter more. But that can be done without taking away from the world championships. It doesn’t have to be an either/or proposition; it can be both/and. I love the idea from Bad Wigins above to have the Diamond League meets serve as the qualifying system for world championship finals. That proposal would make the Diamond League meets matter more and preserve the special quality of the world championships.
I completely agree with this. Frankly I think rojo’s idea is a bad one.
If you want to make DL meets more compelling (personally I find them plenty compelling as is), I think the best you can do is to tie them to the World Championship in a fashion similar to how they’re currently tied to the DL final. There would be no byes into the championship races though, and the DL fields would be filled through an objective system based on a combination of season’s bests and current standings. If you designed this correctly, you could ensure that every top athlete who wants a chance at a Worlds medal has to show up to at least a couple DL meets to score enough points to qualify for the WC (straight final, fairly small field). In the later DL meets there would be a fair bit of drama as everyone tries to lock up their spot in the final.
I don’t think I like that as much as the status quo though. I do prefer it to rojo’s idea.
Yeah, we're coming off our best DL season in some time right? Seems an odd year to forcibly add more meaning to the stops on the circuit, when almost all were really good.
In terms of circuit events that were lacking this year, you'd probably go:
M400: This is where there should be a DL requirement/process for athletes like Antonio Watson to have to race in a big-boy meet or two (at least Continental Tour Gold) after a breakthrough. Between July 9 and August 20, he ran just one race and it was at the Ed Murphey Classic (zzzzz). Silesia or London DLs meanwhile were in that span. Steven Gardiner's act (I get that some is injury-related) of avoiding the DL except for one race and blasting low-key US meets is also lame. See next point.
MST: This one just had a significant amount of dodging by Girma (presumably). I get that he did run a 3k. For well-established athletes, it feels like mandating 2x appearances at their chosen distance (3x for sprinters) is not too high a burden.
The women's events were pretty good, though you'd want Mu to have to run on the circuit in the new model.
IF you were going back to last year, you'd have the M800 as a bad one, and that'd mainly be because the Algerians and Wanyonyi hit the circuit late. So most of your top performers were barely present in the DL, cheapening an already down event. This year, it was much better with the actual top athletes consistently on the circuit.
There is too much delay in having the DL fields reflect current form. Guys like Yohan Blake, Clayton Murphy seemingly will get lanes for life when really let's just make sure everyone who actually will make a final at Worlds gets their chance on the circuit.
What would be the qualification process? How would that work? I think I’m general, and in most sports, people start to watch and pay attention more during the championship part of the season which usually happens at the end of the season. Holding so many “world championship” events could lead to fan fatigue as it’s just too much to keep up with.
Maybe incentiving indoor track could help, such as giving the World Champion a bye into the outdoor championships in their respective event. Instead of just showing replays of races/events, ESPN or other sports tv segments could show more of the intriguing storylines/rivalries in the sport. I would love incorporating a team aspect to the professional level. Especially at the Olympics or Worlds. Like a trophy to the top three scoring countries. Something similar to the high school and collegiate systems. Or maybe awarding a prize to the top scoring club teams at some regular season meets.
I think having features in the programme that showed more rivalries would be a great idea. That's the kind of thing that actually captures the public's interest.
Been going to track meets for a long long time have never left disappointed have always got my fix. Same with watching meets on TV have never not been excited and entertained. So I don't get all this talk about saving the sport, I had a great 2023 season, so what's the situation that needs to be saved?
No it an't compete with the NFL, NBA, College football but when could it, try never and we all get that.
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Rojo seems to have this belief that track would be more popular than the NFL or Premier League if only WA would follow his half brained ideas. Honestly the sport is doing pretty well.
