Let's stop complaining about how little publicity track gets and do something about it!!!

I agree about all those identical uniforms. The 5 Marathon Majors have instituted color schemes, Baldini, e.g., wearing gold as the defending Olympic champ, the New York winner wearing one color scheme and Chicago's another.

In cycling, each national champion wears a special jersey no matter what team he rides for or who sponsors his team and only a current world champion can wear the rainbow jersey. And they came up with the yellow jersey for the TdF and pink jersey for the Giro so spectators could identify the race leader.

As USATF X-C champs, Alan Culpepper and Deena Kastor could wear special red, white, and blue Nike and Asics uniforms.

"The female athletes in this sport can help it gain popularity.

The home page of the Hurculis Meet is an example. But, besides being beautiful, they are great athletes and a race is a race. It's not like watching women's basketball or soccer- which are simply inferior levels of play. I have been a track fan since the late 60's and I enjoy women's events as much as men's."

But that's the point, you already are a track fan. You appreciate races on a different level than the average fan we would be trying to attract. Just as a real basketball fan may enjoy women's basketball because it emphasizes team play, ball movement and quality shooting, a real track fan can appreciate a well run race by anyone regardless of gender. The point I was trying to make is that to win over the general public you need to win over the sportcenter crowd. The guy that will tune in to watch Tyson Gay because he may be the fastest person on earth, that will tune in to watch alan webb win one for the Americans, are the same fans that like the NBA because Lebron James can jump really high and gets into contrived feuds like the Shaq-Kobe squalor, and lets face it, make up the majority of the audience. If you really want to grow the sport you need a few very marketable stars, a few interesting and basic storylines, (webb the great white hope, powell v. gay, wariner v. history hell maybe get ritzenheim to say mottram has small balls, whatever) and most importantly you need to come to grips with the fact that the majority of the sports audience is male, that the majority of them, in general, do not give a crap about female athetics, save the occasional progidious female athlete whom is either very attractive, american, or a marketable personailty. These athletes like wie or the williams sisters can help the sport while they compete because of their celebrity but do little to grow the actual fan base, you'll notice the backseat women's tennis took in america during the hiatus of the wiliams sister pre-sharapova, it seems damn near impossible to actually grow a women's sports fan base in any country for an extended period of time. Simply, it is much easier to market the fastest person in the world than the fastest woman equivalent to a good high school sprinter, end of story.

Thanks for all the discussion thus far. As of right now, it seems like we have a good list of the problems with track in generating/maintaining attention, and also a list of many potential solutions... and a wide variety of them, which is great. Please continue to post and share your thoughts and contribute.

I know many of these thoughts have surfaced before and some are new, but regardless, they probably won't be implemented unless we try to do something about it (the basis for this thread). What I am thinking is developing a formal proposal to send to some of the groups mentioned here (media and sports companies, USATF, etc.) As part of this, maybe developing some kind of "task force" or council or group to help out, getting people with a variety of experience/backgrounds to contribute. Is anybody seriously interested in contributing in that manner? Please contact me if you are and hopefully we can put something together.

I don't think it has been really mentioned here yet, but one further example of a sport that rose from a cult following to mainstream is the X-games. For the most part, it is a series of various individual sports (much like track). Years back, skateboarding, BMX, etc had almost no media coverage, and then the X-games took off on ESPN and it was in the spotlight. Consequences included more televised events (ie, the Gravity Games), fame for people like Tony Hawk, many video games, a changed reputation for the people that do X-sports, and the creation of more town skate parks, etc.

Surprisingly the X-games has somewhat faded away from the mainstream TV coverage (compared to a few years ago), but is still considerably more popular than it previously was. Granted, it may be more visually appealing to general viewers (as there is the possibility of an amazing performance or a big crash with every competitor), but it does show a group of individual sports taken together and marketed correctly can capture the public. If you watched it on TV the first few years, the fans were mostly young adults, but somehow that fan-base transformed into more of a junior high age group (perhaps the reason it isn't quite as popular in the public anymore - it is now a "kid's sport" even though many of the top competitors are in their mid-to-late 20's or even their 30's).

Again, that is just one more example much like Nascar and many of the other sports mentioned, showing this can be done. It doesn't mean we need to sell out and make a circus out of track, but that we can improve the mainstream popularity.

Keep your ideas coming!

What do you guys think about a return to the old scheme of international duel meets? The biggest meets in the world during the cold war was the USA vs USSR duel. Yeah we don't have that type of anymosity against any other nation that would be fun to race against but perhaps its a clue towards something that could work.

It's always these people new to the scene that bring this stuff up like it's something they suddenly realized...

Track and Field and especially the distance events will never be popular to the public or any local news media.

If some sports journalist even acts interested, you should look upon him with suspicion.

I have loved the life of a distance athlete for decades and for decades i have realized that if you want publicity, appreciation or a date with one of the cheerleaders, you better take off the training shoes and pick up a basketball.

Quit crying.

Just for the record, I am not "new to the scene." I started following track when I began competing in high school and that was 15 years ago. Like many others, I care about the sport and hope to create some more interest in it.

fea wrote:

It's always these people new to the scene that bring this stuff up like it's something they suddenly realized...

Track and Field and especially the distance events will never be popular to the public or any local news media.

If some sports journalist even acts interested, you should look upon him with suspicion.

I have loved the life of a distance athlete for decades and for decades i have realized that if you want publicity, appreciation or a date with one of the cheerleaders, you better take off the training shoes and pick up a basketball.

Quit crying.

That's what some here refuse to grasp. Track is not football, basketball, or baseball. Never will be. Moreover, I don't want it to be. Embrace the sport for what it is.

It sounds like there are a few camps of people.

1) People who want more exposure for the sport and have ideas for it and think it will happen.

2) People who don't want more exposure to the sport for various reasons.

3) People who, regardless of their opinion, think this whole idea is pointless because it will never happen anyway.

I personally think more exposure would be a good thing. More people interested in the sport means more support for the athletes. Additionally, more support and more interest means more people will be try the sport and that increases our talent base. One expression I heard was, "Every high school has a 4:20 miler, you just have to find him." If more kids and adults are more willing to try the sport, there could be more Ryan Hall's and Alan Webb's out there. And with more opportunities for rising stars to make more of a career out of it, aspiring athletes may be able to take it more seriously.

I do understand the beauty of the "cult" following it has, and the fact that we don't have to buy scalped tickets for events (in general), but I think the positives of promoting the sport far outweight the negatives. Any other opinions on why it is best not to try?

it seems to me that the last few years when there is a track meet on tv. all of the attention is focused on the sprinters. YA they can run fast. but its over in abour 10 seconds. they spend the full 30min track segment showing bios of the top sprinters, these sprinters start to get more and more popular and then they seem to all end up getting caught using steroids and distroying our sports reputation, and the only coverage that is being shown on espn in between basketball and next seasons football news is talking about another marion jones or tim montgomery steroids scandal for 30 seconds.

i believe that more attention needs to be focused on other athletes primarily distance running or other field events, getting americans to love and follow these athletes until not as much pressure is put on sprinters(to take thier performance to a new level) and try to break a world record. because the only medua coverage that track and field has been getting over the last 5 years or so is all negative.. and usually deal with sprinters in the spotlight.

I agree with a lot of what is being written in this thread, but let me share a little more thought on this matter.

There are a few reasons why T&F is so behind other sports. T&F will probably never be as big as baseball, football or basketball, but it can grow to the size of NASCAR, although I doubt it will ever grow that big either. In the U.S. the track season for the American sporting public lasts from indoor track until U.S. Nationals. After U.S. Nationals all the top athletes go over to Europe and the news media in this country could care less about what is happening over there. If you think about it all the major sports in the U.S. are played for a big portion of the year and all of the events are held in the U.S. American sports fans don't care about what the rest of the world watches, if they did soccer would be way more popular.

Another reason why the sport is not as distinguished as it should be is that our youth programs for T&F are dwarfed by the powers of the other big three, plus youth soccer. One thing soccer is finally starting to realize is that in order to have a strong fan base you need to capture the attention of kids when they first start playing. By the time kids start competing in track and field, which is either in junior high or high school, they already love other sports and no one teaches them to love T&F at the elite level. However, there is a large proportion of T&F athletes in the youth levels that don't love other sports and if marketed in the right way kids all over the sport would fall in love with the elite level of the sport. T&F is the second most participated sport in the country at the high school level, however, the fan base for elite level T&F is increadibly lame.

Here are some of my suggestions on how to improve it all...first, USATF needs to become better organized and really extend itself into promoting the best the sport has to offer (both athletes and events). Also, USATF and other race directors need to somehow figure out how to get more high profile track events in the U.S. during the European racing season. There are gaps in the racing season where this could happen, but it takes a lot of effort and money. On top of all of this, USATF needs to bring together the top meet directors, marketing folks, coaches and athletes together and figure out how to market the sport to all levels of participants. Millions upon millions of people do marathons and other road races every year. They can relate to road races if they are put together properly and marketed. How much of an effort does USATF put into road racing? Minimal effort. It's all about the best minds in the sport working together, something that doesn't happen very often. The one nice thing about the sport is that it is becoming more professional and more business driven. Craig Masback, love him or hate him, has done great things for the sport in a lot of areas and if you take time to email him or talk to him he will explain what USATF is doing now to help the sport grow, much of which is pretty solid.

Back to the point about undervaluing the youth end of the sport...this is the fan base the sport really needs to grab. Other sports market hard to the 14-24 demographic, T&F doesn't. I mean we don't even have a unified website with video, original content and athlete profiles. If someone was able to combine USATF, LetsRun, Flotrack, WSCN and have actual reporters writing original content into one website I guarantee that would help the sport massively. I mean look at what Dyestat has done for the high school T&F community, and even that website is untapped to the extreme. Every other major sport and most of the minor ones have a central news website. Having a website of such can help educate the youth in the sport and help drive marketing efforts to the general mass as well.

T&F needs to really take a look at pro and semi-pro events. Our top tier events are becoming more entertaining and better at marketing themselves. However, second tier events are horrible. Many road races, smaller track meets and such can learn a lot from researching what NASCAR and minor league baseball do to capture a fanbase of substance. State USATF organizations should be held to a higher standard than they are now. While they might be decent at youth events, most are incredibly bad at promoting elite events in their states or organizing them. Think about this...if USATF and all the state organizations worked together to promote more elite level events and really did a great job, more people would go see them, thus increasing money and participation in the sport because of the excitment each event would create. The sad thing now is that the top minds in the sport rarely come together and the sport is so spread out that it doesn't function efficiently.

This post is too long now. Sorry. I may post more later.

Sorry, I have one last suggestion. If there is the Big 5 now for the top five international marathons, why aren't the top race and meet directors working together in the U.S. like that? Wouldn't it be beneficial for the directors of the top track meets to work together and wouldn't it be beneficial for the top road race directors to work together?

I guarantee you- if track were to ever become widely popular (and it never will)- letsrun would be full of threads complaining about how the sport was ruined by the masses.

I couldn't dissagree with you more regarding tactical racing. It is infinately more exciting that the same boring 55 second 1st lap that happens in every single grand prix meet throughoutthe summer. Regarding the TdF, although not in America, it is immensely popular in Europe so to say that there is not much interest in the tactical nature of the racing is completely false.

The olympics were never about who could run the fastest over 1500m, it has always been about who uses the best tactics. That doesn't neccesarily mean it has to be slow however. The tactics are what makes the race exciting. I know I'd watch an olympic 1500m over a rabbited race in Europe any day of the week.

I think the ebb and flow of interest in the MLB, NBA, NHL, NASCAR, and T&F is driven by the presentation of individual personalities such as McGwire-Sosa, MJ, Wayne Gretzke, Jeff Gordan, David Beckham, Lance Armstrong, and Steve Prefontaine. We care about other obscure Olympic competitors every four years, but only after being properly introduced.

The public nees to be introduced to the runners who will represent them in the next year. The media needs to show how a world record race looks different than a HS race. Perhaps Flocasts will work on that.

Scotty B, all very good points. Getting the top minds together is what really needs to be done. In part, that is what I am trying to do here, get all the ideas together from our prespective (a mix of athletes, coaches, fans, etc.) so that we can figure out exactly where we stand (in general) and then maybe somehow start interacting with these other individuals to unite and work towards similar goals.

newyork1 wrote:

if nascar can be so popular there is no reason running can not. Being unbiased as I possibly can be, someone running is more exciting than a car going around a circle

I certainly agree with you but not everybody does. I was at the state meet a few years ago when the 1600m was getting ready to be run. Two heats, one boys and one girls. The person sitting behind me said to his wife, "Oh, this is that long one. I'm going to use the restroom." He came back with nachos. This is North Carolina, where NASCAR rules. People here will sit for several hours watching cars go around in circles and proclaim the drivers the greatest athletes in the world, but they won't sit for 15 minutes to watch two heats of the mile.

To most people at a track meet, the distance events mean piss break and/or food break.

Dr.S wrote:

Scotty B, all very good points. Getting the top minds together is what really needs to be done. In part, that is what I am trying to do here, get all the ideas together from our prespective (a mix of athletes, coaches, fans, etc.) so that we can figure out exactly where we stand (in general) and then maybe somehow start interacting with these other individuals to unite and work towards similar goals.

While I think your intentions are good, I just don't see this thread creating much of a change. These threads pop up every few weeks, people put their thoughts down, and that is the end of it. Notice most people don't even leave their email addresses to be contacted. Changing the capacity of the sport takes time and money, something few people on here are willing to do. If you really want to start changing the sport you should probably take one or two of the ideas that have been proposed in this thread and start emailing people you know that are passionate about the sport to see if they will help you start up a project or two. You may even have to go at it alone for a while, but others will help sometimes if you just ask. Earlier this year I drove to Indianapolis (on my way to NC) and stopped in the USATF offices and met with Craig Masback. I had a few ideas I wanted to share and I had a bunch of questions as well. He told me that very few people that aren't at the top of the sport ever stop in and talk with him and he actually met with me for well over two hours (even on his lunch break). Setting up situations like that will only help you if you want to make the sport more visable. Lets keep this thread going as I do think it is great to share ideas.

The problem is kids today do not know who any of those runners are; the only past runner they know of is Steve Lohan, I mean, Steve Prefontaine, unfortunately.

John Woodruff – Gold – 800m – 1936

Glenn Cunningham – Silver – 1500m – 1936

Mal Whitfield – Gold – 800m – 1948 & 1952

Robert McMillen – Silver – 1500m – 1952

Tom Courtney – Gold – 800m – 1956

Bob Schul – Gold – 5000m – 1964

Billy Mills – Gold – 10000m – 1964

Bill Dellinger – Bronze – 5000m – 1964

Jim Ryun – Silver – 1500m – 1968

Tom Farrell – Bronze – 800m – 1968

Dave Wottle – Gold – 800m – 1972

Frank Shorter – Gold & Silver – Marathon – 1972, 1976

Rick Wohluter – Bronze – 800m – 1976

Earl Jones – Bronze – 800m – 1984

Johnny Gray – Bronze – 800m – 1992

Meb Keflezighi – Silver – Marathon – 2004

16 total medalists, 18 total medals (8 Gold, 5 Silver, 5 Bronze)

How many of these runners do you think young runners of today can name? These are the men's Olympic medalists since 1936, something that Prefontaine never achieved. And yet, he is the only one that 90% of them can name. If there was some way to resurrect Prefontaine from the dead then I think your idea has merit; otherwise, I don't think it will help at all.

I think this is a great idea

Why bother? I mean really? Why is it important to be popular at all? Can't you enjoy the sport by yourself? Why must we struggle to make it a popular sport to the masses? I enjoyed competing in high school, and enjoy TV coverage when I can see it, but I'm not sure why I should try to convince other sport fans that track really isn't as boring as they thought.

What is the goal? Better TV coverage? More prize money for athletes? More future athletes so the sport doesn't die?

Or is there some deeper psychological insecurity problem, that T&F fans lack a sense of belonging in the world, because they aligned themselves with an unpopular sport, and would rather change everyone else than solve there personal issues.