I'm promoting a meeting in Europe, nothing major but am looking for innovative ways to make the meeting more exciting for the crowd and also to ensure that the event is promoted properly. Someone suggested hiring a DJ to play at the event when some of the middle distance races are in progress. Any ideas or suggestions how to beef up a track meet? Thanks.
Have a soccer game going on in the midfield? Light the hurdles on fire?
Okay seriously though, just have the meet running on time. Don't let there be a lot of "dead time". Have an entertaining announcer, and I like the idea of music during the distance races.
he's right
you'll see in like the ESPN telecast...immediately after the 100 went off, guys were on the track for the next race
have many people to move hurdles quickly
have signs for stuff like PV so people can pay attention to that when there's nothign on the track
Yeah, definitely make sure the signs for the LJ, HJ, PV and other field events are kept up to date, run on time, and probably the best thing is to have an announcer to give the play-by-play on the distance races.
i thought that having land mines in the throwing fields would be pretty fun...
updates of who is in what place in the field events so people get into it and watch the progress. there is often great final throws, etc
That's it. Track is not boring, it is exciting. Waiting for the next race to start is boring.
Big hurdle crews, fast moving clerk and officials- that's the key.
Put the distances last in the schedule so people can go home after the last 400. Fans are bored with anythng over one lap.
Have long jump and throws going at once, say 3 people jump at a time so you can compare properly and add that competitiveness.
I think replays could be better aswell, i remember before they used to put the speed of the 100m runners in mph, to give people a better feeling of how fast they are really going.
Just other stuff like, not everyone wearing the same outfit, for the avid athletics fans you might be able to tell the difference but for your casual fans, they wont be able to tell the difference between 10 kenyens.
mcordi wrote:
That's it. Track is not boring, it is exciting. Waiting for the next race to start is boring.
Big hurdle crews, fast moving clerk and officials- that's the key.
Thank you! If only the people who televise track in the US would figure this out. Everyone loves a good race.
The only thing I would add would be that a knowledgable announcer, giving a play by play (only as needed) can sometimes add to the crowd getting riled up.
-electrified pole vault/high jump crossbars
-pirhana/alligators in the steeple pit
-javelin for accuracy, not distance, with blindfolded midgets/Carol Lewis as targets
-hurdles that randomly pop up anywhere on teh track
-lions that eat the person in last place after each kilometer of the 5k and each mile of the 10k
BEER
In a non-championship meet, after a false start, there should be a time limit for the next start. I'm sick of waiting "forever" between false starts.
Granted this wouldn't happen... but when false starts are numerous, the race official should would say, "Okay we're done. Since you sprinters can't handle it, we're not running this event today." Then we'd go to the next event. I'd love it.
Please - no music and no DJ.