Will Jakob Ingerbrigtsen ever be a superstar the way Ronaldo, Tom Brady or Jordan are?
Or will running always remain a sport for "not good enough for football", "no coordination for soccer" and "not tall enough for basketball"
Will Jakob Ingerbrigtsen ever be a superstar the way Ronaldo, Tom Brady or Jordan are?
Or will running always remain a sport for "not good enough for football", "no coordination for soccer" and "not tall enough for basketball"
No.
watching cars drive around in circles is very popular, so there's hope for watching people run around in circles
Absolutely, and I think this will be the year.
Yeah, clearly, no.
It's not as entertaining as team sports for the average spectator. Watching longer races, on the track, with peeps running in loops, is not attractive as key moments are few.
Need to make the race more interesting in the process as well as at the finishing line. One idea is to use a segment leaderboard to distribute the prize money around. Say if there is 100k award for #1 overall finisher, they should also have 50k for winner of 1st half, and 25k each for winners of the first and third quarters as long as they finish within an acceptable margin of the overall #1. The other idea is to allow real time gambling on the runners finishing time. Of course they should have band and dancers at each milestone and the finishing line.
No, and basketball, soccer and football players, don’t have the talent to compete at a high level in distance running.
For 2 weeks every 4 years.
Running is a garbage as a spectator sport so no. I bet running is already more popular as a participation sport and that is what is really important. I know more adults that run, even if it is just a few 15 minutes miles a week, than play all organized sports combined.
Internationally it already is more popular than football, is close with basketbal
running as a sport will forever be niche. It will never even catch badminton.
Badminton is massively popular. People from Asian countries living in my neighborhood will stand outside for hours hitting a badminton thing back and forth, without even having a net.
Most races are organized exercise, not a sporting competition.
Kids always tell me their idols are people like Kyrie Irving, LeBron James and Stephen Curry, basketball, or Messi and Ronaldo, if they're into soccer. There are no similar role models in track and field, or even swimming and cycling, for that matter.
Kipchoge could walk down most streets in the world, sadly unnoticed. People would just think "who's that small, skinny old guy?" He could pass for a 50 year old Dude.
Never in a million years. 😕
Nah, probably not. Running's great for personal health, but it lacks the team aspect and flashy highlights that reel in big audiences.
Usain Bolt?
Yeah needs to be more exciting so throw snowballs at the runners or dump a bucket of diarrhea on them from above. give spectators a reason to watch
Pro running is actually in decline as a spectator sport, like boxing, horse racing etc.
Probably won't ever be addressed, but would need some entrepreneurs to create some sort of league.
What's missing is there is no logical structure to meets and how they fit into the season and 'playoffs' and championships.
World athletics and Usatf are not going to fix this as they are basically just admin/bureaucrats. The great leagues in soccer, auto racing, tennis, golf etc. were not created by bureaucrats.