Vin Lananna says that college track & field competitions are dreadful

The author of the article was Ken Goe, one of the best writers in the track and field community. I thought he retired though? Anyway, here is the link:

oregonlive.com

Is the future of college track & field, including Oregon, in jeopardy? ‘If we don’t act now, we’ll never save it’

https://www.facebook.com/ken.goe.3

College track & field finds itself in peril with a shrinking fan base and athletic departments moving their resources toward high-interest spectator sports.

Link:www.oregonlive.com/ducks/2025/05/is-th...

He is 100% correct.

Bring back dual and tri meets

Reform NCAA qualification so that conference champions get auto bids with any remaining slots filled by top seasonal performers.

More regionally and rivalry focused competition. Oregon vs. Washington. A quad meet of Stanford / Cal / UCLA / USC. Florida vs. Georgia. These pique fan interest and viewing, not trying to catch section 12 of the women’s 800 at the Enormous Pre-National Invitational Relays (Day #3 - Afternoon session) on a Runnerspace+ pay stream.

Get back to racing that means something! Not chasing time qualifiers nor sending split squads to three different meets each weekend.

p.s. I want to be clear, by asking if people go to track meets, I wasn't trying to be judgmental. I am just genuinely curious if people just go to meets to watch...

BU could easily have a 1 hour “hot window” and sell marked up tickets, but instead WR attempts get the same treatment as a 17 minute 5k.

Track doesn’t deserve fans if the “best” races are at meets with endless heats.

Which leads me to my question: When was the last time you went to a track meet that you (or one of your children) were not running in? Heck, have you ever gone to a track meet just to watch? Why or why not?

I've been to track meets where I knew some of the kids running.

Back in the early 2000's I went to Millrose regularly in MSG.

I don't remember the last time I went to watch any sport event that I didn't know someone (or maybe it was the school I taught at).

Americans just have a different attitude about sports.

Going back about 25 years I took my son to a minor league baseball game with his Boy Scout Troop. I honestly think I was the only person there watching the game.

People were distracted by gimmicks and games and kids were running around playing throughout the bleachers.

Think about a Super Bowl Party- I don't go because no one watches the game. They watch the commercials and halftime show.

This is so true. The "Hot Window" should be at the end of every real meet and have two or three races of high quality. If you want to watch me run a slow 5000m, come at 1pm. If you want to watch Cole Hocker run an 800m, come at 7pm for one hours worth of track. And tickets should be $7, not $37.

p.s. They do it right down in Portland. Look at how they combined an all-comers meet with a pro (World Athletic Bronze) meet:

portlandtrack.com

Portland Track Festival — Portland Track

Portland Track is home of the Portland Track Festival and the best resource for all competitive distance running news in Portland, Oregon.

Link:www.portlandtrack.com/ptf

It is interesting that track has always had a hard time showcasing itself. They need to think about packaging the distance events better and also adding the 3k back into the mix. It is easier to watch than the 5k because its shorter. The irony of all of this is that American Football is one of the truly awful spectator experiences out there, but has been package just for TV. I went to a pro game not long ago and the amount of interruptions and breaks in the game were stunning. At home these are commercials, but live they are excruciating to see. No one ever envisioned that the sport would be played that way. Huge opportunity in track at the moment with such an elite class of distance runners competing.

I didn’t know vin lananna was still alive.

I went to the UNC indoor meet, Indoor Nationals, Raleigh Relays, the 2 Duke home meets and the Wake Forest invitational this year.

I went to NCAA Indoor Nationals and X-Country at UVA.

There are a number of things that could enhance the experience that are not being done.

Bands, food trucks etc nothing earth shattering

I'm sure Vin Lananna doesn't know you are still alive either, brother.

I agree!!! Part of the problem is that times are marks don’t count for the ncaa unless a “full meet” is completed. You need a certain amount of running and field events with competitors from X amount of DI schools. That’s why the 10 times don’t count for the first round.

Pole vault summit? Nah you need 6 running events!!! You can’t do a quick one hour meet because the marks won’t count. Give me a Shot Put only event like it’s the Metrix strong man competition.

When I was coaching we had a kid break the school discuss record and then a huge thunder storm rolled in. 4 hours later we had to get out and have the freshmen long jump and high jump to complete the meet so the mark would count. The rest of the teams went home already!! How is that good for the sport?

Also duel meets were much bigger on the West coast because they did not compete indoors or rarely did indoor races. Not to negate the Arkansas dominance of the olden times but half the teams weren’t there.

I like banana wine aka vin bananna.

He's right. College track meets are brutal for spectators.

I haven't attended a track meet in many years. The last time I did, it was an invitational at my alma mater. The first scheduled event of the afternoon session was the steeplechase. So many of the runners scratched that they cancelled the event. My first thought was, if the athletes don't care about this meet, why should I?

So they made up the scheduled steeplechase time with... nothing. Everyone just sat there staring at an empty track (and field) until the next scheduled event time rolled around.

When they finally got a race on the track, it was all heats against time. Who actually won an individual event? Unless you were timing and writing it all down, who knew? Of course there was no team scoring either. I had never in my life been so bored at a sporting event. And I had run track at that very school.

I left early and haven't attended a track meet since. It was like they were actively trying to chase off the few fans who were there.

I decided that if they don't want spectators, I am happy to oblige them. They hosted a conference championship meet a few years later...I didn't even consider going.

I don't go to much of anything anymore but when I did, being near Boston gave me plenty of meets to go to and I'd go to 2 or 3 a year. But I absolutely agree with the quote in the box and have said similar things here myself.

Who's going to go to a dual meet? The fan interest isn't there and the athletes don't like running in dual meets.

From my experience, the dorms were across the street from the track at Tennessee but no one just casually came over to watch a free track meet unless they had a friend competing. Those were big meets like the Sea Ray Relays.

Why would spectator interest increase just because it's a UT vs Kentucky or UT vs Florida dual meet?

The Oregon State\Oregon meet usually sold out. Washington \ Washington State, USC/UCLA, heck, most PAC dual meets drew big crowds.