Introduction
This thread's title is, obviously, poking fun at the thread titled "USATF has RUINED Cross Country," which has spent the better part of the last week near the top of the message board's first page.
While I'm not sure that I agree with the premise of that thread (I don't know whether XC in the US is in better or worse shape than it was back in the good ol' days—and I'm not even sure that the standards people are using in that thread to attempt to judge its well-being today are the correct ones), I do agree that there are ways we can improve Cross Country in the US. And, just to be clear, by "improve" I mean: raise the visibility of Cross Country (in particular) and USATF and the sport of running (in general) in the United States; provide greater opportunities for all USATF members to compete in quality, well-managed Cross Country races; provide greater opportunities for elite and sub-elite USATF members to race against high-caliber fields in quality, well-managed domestic races; produce a greater number of medals and high finishes in international Cross Country events and championships; and make Cross Country not just a financially self-supporting endeavor but a revenue-generating endeavor for USATF.
In the keynote address at this past November’s Road Race Management Race Directors' Meeting Tony Reavis proposed that road running in the US is limiting its success due to the “one and done” nature of road races in the US; media is drawn to events which have storylines which evolve over time—as modern media, especially modern sports media, traffics as much in narrative-construction as it does in actual news coverage—and with increased media coverage comes increased public awareness of the covered event, increased revenues (advertising and otherwise) of the covered event, and increased participation in or fanhood of the covered event. According to Reavis, American road races are shooting themselves in the foot by not forming a media-friendly series culminating in some sort of series-long championship being awarded.*
(*There are at least two high-level road running circuits in the United States: the Professional Road Running Organization and USATF’s USA Running Circuit. Although some of the events involved in the circuits are successful one-off events, neither series is structured in a way that generates substantial and continuous mainstream national media coverage for road racing.)
Cross Country finds itself in much the same plight as road racing, but to an even larger degree; while some of the larger American road racing events (events like the World Marathon Majors, the Falmouth Road Race, and Bay to Breakers, Bloomsday and the other PRRO events) have developed a substantial niche in their local communities and even receive some mainstream national media coverage, there is not a single American Cross Country race which can say the same. As such, Cross Country is a grossly underappreciated discipline at the elite level. With no presence on the Olympic stage and no large, annual community events on the scale of America’s successful one-off road races, years frequently pass in which there is no mainstream national media coverage of Cross Country at the elite level.**
(**High school and NCAA Cross Country both garner greater coverage than elite American Cross Country. This is likely due to a combination of the sheer number of competitors; the existence of annual high-level, well-managed championship meets; and the strong infrastructure of the organizations that back these events.)
Much of this problem can likely be solved, and the state of the sport of Cross Country be greatly improved, if USATF were to put resources into developing an annual Cross Country Series, which I propose it call the USATF (Title Sponsor Here) Elite XC Series. (Obviously, that would be a real sponsor for the real thing. But for now, let's call it that.) This series could be constructed in any number of ways, but I will propose what I believe to be the best one in the paragraphs that follow.
USATF (Title Sponsor Here) Elite XC Series–Structure
The series will consist of six races, two of which will be the two already existing high-level domestic Cross Country meets: the National Club Cross Country Championships (in early December) and the USA Cross Country Championships (the World Cross Country qualifying meet in early- or mid-February. The other four races will consist of two pairs of races held on the same day or weekend across the country from each other. The four non-national championship meets will each be labeled “USATF (Title Sponsor Here) Elite XC Races.” The way in which all of these races will be connected (other than all being a part of the USATF [Title Sponsor Here] Elite XC Series) will be through a point system.
USATF (Title Sponsor Here) Elite XC Series—Point System
The top-8 finishers in each of the non-national championship races will receive points (10, 8, 6, 5, . . . 1) as will the top 16 finishers at both the National Club Cross Country Championships and the USA Cross Country Championships (20, 16, 14, 13, . . . 1 at the National Club Cross Country Championships and 30, 24, 21, 18, 17, 15, 13, 11, 9, 7, 6, . . . 1 at the USA Cross Country Championships). While an athlete may compete in up to four of these events (or, I guess, six if the events on the same weekend are held on different days and the athlete wants to fly across the country and race on back-to-back days), his or her total score in the series will be calculated by adding his or her points earned at the USA Cross Country Championships to his or her two other highest point totals.***
(***Additional scoring notes: the athlete must compete in and complete the USA Cross Country Championship in order to receive a series score; an athlete must compete in and complete at least three series events in order to receive a series score; points are based on finishing place in a race among all athletes of the same gender, and not just on finishing place among athletes of the same gender who receive a score in the series.)
The top four finishers in the men’s series and the top three in the women’s series will receive spots on the United States team for IAAF World Cross Country Championships.****
(****Additional note: The remaining spots on the US team for the World Cross Country Championships will be awarded to the top five men and top three women at the USA Cross Country Championship who do not qualify based on series points.) The series will also be used to determine the United States NACAC Cross Country team; the top six men’s and women’s series finishers not on the World Championship team will receive spots on the NACAC Cross Country team.)
USATF (Title Sponsor Here) Elite XC Series—Events
The two national championship events, the National Club Cross Country Championships and the USA Cross Country Championships, will be the backbone of the series. As such, to make these events as accessible as possible to all USATF members and also to raise the national profile of the series, priority should be given to bids to host these events at locations near a major airport and the two events should never be held in the same region of the country in the same year. These priorities are especially important for the National Club Cross Country Championships—which serves not only as a series event but also as a major event for many of USATF’s Sub-Elite Open and Masters members—which should perhaps establish a standard hosting rotation among three-to-four locations. USATF’s Junior Olympic Cross Country Championship should be held at the same location as the Club Championship, with all Junior Olympic races being run the day before the Club Championships. The races held over these two days will serve as the national team championship for all USATF Men’s and Women’s Open and Masters (40+, 50+, 60+, and 70+) clubs, as well as the team and individual championships for all Bantam, Midget, Youth, and Intermediate Boy’s and Girl’s clubs and individuals and also for all Young Men’s and Women’s clubs and individuals.
The USA Cross Country Championships will serve as the individual championship for all USATF Junior, Open, and Masters (40+, 50+, 60+, and 70+) athletes; team scoring at this event will be abolished.
The non-national championship USATF (Title Sponsor Here) Elite XC Series events will just be referred to as such; an “Open” or “Community” race should also be held at the same location on the same day as a part of the USATF (Title Sponsor Here) Elite XC Series event.
USATF (Title Sponsor Here) Elite XC Series—USATF Involvement
The USATF should solicit bids for the November and January non-championship USATF (Title Sponsor Here) Elite XC Series events from as many pre-existing relatively high-level Cross Country events that have already established a place in their communities (like the Mayor’s Cup, Bad Boy XC, and events in the PAUSATF series) as possible. Priority should be given in considering these bids. For November event bids, priority should be given to events held in the held in the Northeast or Northwest parts of the country, and for January event bids, priority should be given to events held in the Southeast and Southwest parts of the country. USATF should assist these events in finding a presenting sponsor (ex.: A USATF [Title Sponsor Here] Elite XC Series Event—Bad Boy XC, presented by [Presenting Sponsor Here]), other sponsorship opportunities, and with marketing, publicity, and media relations in the build-up to the event.
The USATF should continue soliciting bids for the National Club Cross Country Championships and the USA Cross Country Championships as it has been doing.
USATF should also attempt to identify and form a relationship with a local or regional television broadcast partner and a national on-line media (including live streaming coverage) partner for USATF (Title Sponsor Here) Elite XC Series and Cross Country National Championship events. After success has been achieved with the national on-line media partner, a relationship should be formed with a national television broadcast partner.
Conclusion
At the beginning of this piece I defined what I believed it means to improve Cross Country in America. Indulge me as I repeat myself:
By "improve" I mean: raise the visibility of Cross Country (in particular) and USATF and the sport of running (in general) in the United States; provide greater opportunities for all USATF members to compete in quality, well-managed Cross Country races; provide greater opportunities for elite and sub-elite USATF members to race against high-caliber fields in quality, well-managed domestic races; produce a greater number of medals and high finishes in international Cross Country events and championships; and make Cross Country not just a financially self-supporting endeavor but a revenue-generating endeavor for USATF.
This Cross Country Series is media-friendly. This cannot be said of any other Cross Country events in the United States, with the possible one-off exception of the USA Cross Country National Championship. The media-friendly nature of this series would raise the profile of Cross Country, ad well as the profiles of USATF and running in general, and the greater media exposure accorded Cross Country due to the series would make it much more marketable and viable as a revenue-generating sub-section of USATF. The national nature of this series makes it both even more media friendly and exceptionally accessible to all USATF members.
Due to this greater accessibility, the series would also provide regular, well-managed Cross Country races for all members of USATF, and provide regular, well-managed high-level Cross Country competitions for USATF’s elite athlete members. More frequent high-level domestic Cross Country competition would create a greater likelihood of top finishes and medal-winning performances for USATF teams and athletes in international Cross Country events such as the IAAF World Championships, the NACAC Cross Country Championships, and IAAF permit Cross Country meetings. It may also contribute to greater success for USATF athletes in other distance running disciplines such as track and road racing.
This undertaking, while substantial, is not massive. It entails only that USATF provide its members with the opportunity to compete at six well-managed high-level Cross Country meets every fall and winter—something USATF already does twice, and clearly has the expertise to do a few more times. The benefits of this series, as I have enumerated above, are many. As such, USATF cannot afford to do nothing to improve the state of Cross Country in America. This series could be put in place by 2009; it should be in place by no later than 2010. USATF has recently hired a new CEO and COO, elected a new President, and streamlined its Board of Directors. It’s time for this new blood to show us what it can do.