It was pretty hot at first, but it got downright cold toward the end; I was shivering for the steeple and men's 5000. The backstretch was pretty empty, but the homestretch side was moderately full, but EVERYONE left as soon as Wariner won. Granted, the 400 was the third to last race, but the stadium was empty for the steeple and men's 5000.
Not a bad showing for the Undisputed Track and Field Capit"o"l of the World, eh?
Southern California Resident wrote:
- Carson is a few blocks from Compton...enough said there.
- Zero effort in advertising here in SoCal. If I wasn't a track fan, I would have no idea that this was taking place.
- Having this meet at Mt. SAC would draw almost a thousand more spectators. All the runners live in the Orange County/Inland Empire area and not LA.
- Move it a couple hours later. Good for the fans and athletes. You can't possibly believe you'll have decent distance performances if you have them before 8pm in late May around here.
- It's true, parking is $15
Ok Mr. Lots of reasons, Southern California Resident, Socal equals gauge(you are obviously the same person). If you hate African Americans, Latinos, Ethiopeans, why do you go to a track and field event? I'm telling you, a nice rodeo will suit you nicely. I'm not sure they will like you back but at least you will not have to deal with all the minorities you hate. And as far as Mt. Sac, you are right. The Saturday session usually packs the house. Unfortunately for you, the fans are mostly African Americans.
Wow ! Adidas was a great meet ! TV ratings across the country were very high. The Saturday 4-6PM PDT, 5-7PM MDT, 6-8PM CDT, 7-9PM EDT time slot is a winner. Adidas is the most loaded field for a track meet in the United States this year. USA Nationals will not have as many Olympic & WC Gold Medalists competing. More than half of the Golden kids live down the freeway a less than 1/2 hour from Home Depot and this is the magic ticket which made Adidas work. There are many more Gold medalists in the L.A. area who could have competing too but chose not to.
i was at the meet--for the second year in a row. just like last year, not only was attendance pathetic, but the crowd interest was even worse. i felt like i was the only one clapping half the time. although i like hip hop music, they were blasting it most of the meet. adidas' top guy, tyson gay, doesnt run. the announcer was terrible; i never fully knew what was developing in the distance races, as he would just stick to the top two to announce. the lj/tj was on the backstretch, where there was about 18 people watching. the hurdle crew, just moments before the 400ih, realize that hurdle flight #3 or #4 wasnt even UP, so they all scurried across the infield with hurdles over their shoulders (i was thus not surprised to read they put another flight in the wrong place). half the crowd left after the m400. race results required three screens (why not just ONE screen????) to display the results of a heat of 9. the mens 200 was called back after they ran half the turn--like 50 meters. ive never seen a race called back like that so late. maurice green somehow gets the microphone to announce the 60 meter 5 year old race and showboarts just as much as he did 5 years ago.
luckily, i attended the chivas game at 8:00 right after it. thank goodness i did.
and yeah, 15 bucks to park. unbelievable.
Yeah listening to lyrics of "birthday sex" during the men's 5000 was great. Definitely not family friendly music haha. Yeah I was shocked at the amount of people that were NOT there. Coming from Eugene, OR where Hayward Field gets sold out at any major meet, I was definitely expecting more. And expecting people to be more into it!
True, not many fans it attendace, but many were watching on ESPN2. The money was there and the meet was a huge TV success. The ratings on ESPN2 were very good. The scale was at least 3 orders magnitude beyond what the free web streaming shows could bring. The convenience of having a meet on the front lawn of so many Olympic and IAAF World Championship medalists makes the meet a big win for track and field, given Adidas did not have to fly and house in a 5 star hotel for one week, as many athletes, coaches, agents, spouses, etc. Also remember that David Letterman and Jay Leno only have a small studio audience of a few hundred yet make billions of dollars for the networks.
What were the numbers on ESPN2? I highly doubt they were even remotely good.
will second that on the "Birthday Sex" song. def NOT something that we should be enduring at a "family" track meet. wow!
They should have all outdoor track meets in Eugene from now on. That is the only location that brings the crowds. Well, Reebok in NYC is pretty good too. Hope they have more seating this year...had to turn people away last year.
Explain to me how my post was racist and I'll gladly tell you about the 3 times my car was broken into as a CSU Dominguez-Hill student. Also you can expand on how there can possibly be more track fans going to a meet located in at the Home Depot Center as opposed to the historic Mt. Sac stadium. It's a fact, people in densely populated Orange County/Inland Empire follow track more than people in L.A. county. Do you even live here? And by the way, I'm Mexican!
Someone asked earlier where all the young adults and teenagers were. The highschoolers had CIF prelims yesterday. Anyone who went to one of those saw that they were packed - there goes that market. Pac-10 and Big West both had championships Saturday as well, so the prospects of getting interested parties from USC, UCLA, or Irvine were nil. Poor timing altogether, not to mention that there was zero advertisement anywhere. If the Annenberg people can pay to advertise their new museum from Santa Monica to Pasadena for 6 months straight, then certainly Adidas can afford it for a couple of weeks.
Some runners had a bad day but it was the best meet I've seen on TV in decades. I mean every sprint/hurdle race was packed with Olympic and IAAF Outdoor medalists. Global must have made a fortune from TV ads to afford that much in apperance fees for authentic champions. Props to Mark Wetmore and gang.
birthday sex was chosen for the mens 5000m after the request to play "motherlover" was denied by NBC. "Motherlover" is being held back for the WC 5000. It can only be speculated how many runner's would have hit the A standard if the meet were allowed to play motherlover.
the preakness had its lowest attendance in ages because they changed the structure of the infield seating, so the thousands of college students who used to attend for the field party with horses stayed home.
That's why the Gods invented TV ! There were millions of fans on ESPN2 watching the meet live all across the globe. Mark Wetmore and Doug Logan worked together and copied Hollywood TV. They shifted the meet time to Sat 4PM, 7PM Eastern. Global/Adidas hired new PR people, and opened coverage to the small website entrepreneurs (who are the future of our sport). The new strategy is apparent now: pack the meet with Oly/WC medalists, sell to the world TV audience. That's how all U.S.A. TV meets should be from now on. Great job Doug Logan and Mark Wetmore !
Folks you have to remember this is Southern California. LA doesn't even have an NFL team because the fans are so fickle. People have so many more options on what to do because of the weather and locale. Hell in San Diego, the city had to agree to buy up unsold football tickets to make every game a sell out so the team would stay. San Diego actually sells out maybe one or two games a year. The city ensures the rest sell out. Outside of USC football, very few events sell out here (other than NBA)basketball. People here (except for the hardcore fans) don't want to sit for 4 hours at a track meet, especially with all the down time between events. Casual fans would rather stay home and watch for free than make the drive (in LA traffic even a short drive takes forever), shell out $15 to park, $10 or more for a ticket(and that's if you are by yourself), and then add on more if you want to eat or drink anything. Is this sad, yes! Is it right, no! But that is the way it is here. I skipped the meet because I would rather spend the 6 hours (1 hour driving each way)I would have been gone with my family and watch it on tv. Especially since I'll be in Eugene for nationals next month.
I can't stand it to go to any track meets in Socal. The knowledge of the sport (outside of any distance less than 400 meters) is pathetic. The stands are usually empty until the sprints start, and then the empty as soon as the sprints end. To top it off, no one can see the sprint races because the fans are too ignorant to realize that standing up only interferes with everyone else line of vision. Oh yes, after the meet, you can expect to be missing a battery or find a broken window or two in your car. Whoever said that Socal is track and field capital of anything is from Podunk. In a word it "sucks".
Just when you thought Doug Logan (the old Vietnam war horse) belongs in an Winnebago touring the Arizona desert with John McCain, he pulls off a massive bigass winner for the sport. When is the last time someone at USATF done did something this hugely awesome man ? I can't recall. How any meet can convince so many fickle agents, coaches, and championship medalists to line up at one afternoon meet is unbelievable. The TV time programmers picked the right time for Michigan fans. But I wish Willis ran ;-{
Southern California Resident wrote:
Explain to me how my post was racist and I'll gladly tell you about the 3 times my car was broken into as a CSU Dominguez-Hill student. Also you can expand on how there can possibly be more track fans going to a meet located in at the Home Depot Center as opposed to the historic Mt. Sac stadium. It's a fact, people in densely populated Orange County/Inland Empire follow track more than people in L.A. county. Do you even live here? And by the way, I'm Mexican!
I don't recall anyone saying any of your posts are racist. Maybe you are over defensive to the point that you are making stuff up. And your nationality is completely irrallivant. They do have a meet in Mt.SAC every year. It's called the Mt. SAC Relays!!! And guess what, for the Friday distance carnival the stands at historic Hilmer Lodge are empty. On Saturday the crowds start coming, even in the middle of the day. They are predominantly African American. Hmmm, I wonder were a lot of those folks live? So please, stop with this BS theory that people in OC and the IE support track more. Both those counties do not even have a facility to host such a track meet!