Don't blame ESPN, Blame the USATF and Doug Logan

Logan does not have a clue , surrounds himself with self serving kiss ass elected pres etc. We have no way of holding them accountable. Logan now claiming he saved soccer from years ago , this is a easy lie to expose.

Stumbling , bumbling idiots.

Excellent points, Cowboy Bob. Only I say show it live. Was just talking about this with my son a few minutes ago ... as we were both losing interest in this AM's telecast of multiple 200 heats. If T&F wants more fans, it has to stop demanding that fans adopt to the current T&F schedule and start scheduling to appeal to the fans. AND most importantly, the top athletes have to show up. But a five day meet without all the top athletes and no sustained excitement over the course of a TV broadcast - come on, no one in their right mind could think that's a winning formula.

But this is on USATF, not ESPN. High School State Track meets outdraw USA's nationals. And they're more exciting. And all the top athletes in the state show up. And you can watch them all on one ticket. Forget about multiple day meets (yeah, yeah, multiple day meets mimic the worlds and the Olympics ... as long as you want to continue mimicking to an empty house, keep it up). And if an athlete wants to shine in multiple events, they'll have to do it on one day. If we want a more popular sport, we have to become a sport that's more fun to watch.

All major sports give up the idea of a perfect event for the athletes in order to guarantee a more rewarding experience for fans (just look at how injured NBA, NFL, and even Pro Baseball athletes are at the end of the season). As long as track keeps whining about fans and ESPN without being willing to change the sport's presentation, that's all we'll be: a bunch of pathetic whiners with a sense of entitlement a mile wide.

How about looking at the athletes for a moment? That steeplechase was one of the worst races I've ever seen. Why would anyone watch that on television, let alone pay to watch it in the stadium?

Des Moines can support a great track meet... they put 14,000+ in the stands for both days of the Drake Relays. This is not a great track meet. Frankly, the high school races at DR are more exciting than most of these races have been. At least high school kids try to win. McAdams and Fam were both in the back of that steeple field on a ridiculously slow pace. What were they running for? Does 4th place get a set of steak knives or something?

info wrote:

The complete and utter lack of marketing from the USATF is pathetic. Having it in Des Moines is a perfect example of why it's struggling. If they aren't packing the stands for a National Championship there's a problem. Until they hire someone to run the USATF who understands marketing this will continue.

Good luck with your bid.

The general population has no clue how fast somebody running a sub-4 mile pace is... I explained this to somebody at my gym recently with treadmill speeds... ours max @ 10mph. I asked him how long he could run at that speed, and he laughed and said maybe for about 10 seconds. He freaked when I said these guys run faster than that for an entire mile.

If the general population is able to grasp at how amazing the speeds and abilities of these athletes really are it would spike up the interest levels a bit. And I'm sorry.. but a five day meet with not many of the biggest U.S stars is a bit boring. I was watching the men's 200m semi's and it looked like they were just out practicing during the morning. Nobody in the stands... nobody cheering. It was depressing to watch.

None of these athletes compete in more than 2 events so they could all certainly compete in a 2-day meet held for our championships. Once all athletes are entered in the meet then set the schedule to allow them to compete well in both events. There aren't any relays so you don't need to worry bout Walter Dix or Tyson Gay running the 100, 200 and a 4x1. Run a full field prelim for each sprint, with a 8 person final. No need for a semi-final.

Men's 1500 can be split into sections and run as finals based on time. 3:50 for a national championship? I'm sure at Jamaican Nationals the winner will run faster. These boring slow-ass tactical distance races make a lot of fans lose interest. They don't need to be out to set an AR in every race, but to put some effort in and show they're actually racing makes for the excitement.

Drake used to be pretty good at getting people out i dont know if it was a bad time of year or what but they have people come out in the masses

"EUGENE — Oregon’s overflow crowd of 12,812 Saturday for the final day of the NCAA Track & Field Championships, pushed the meet’s four-day attendance total to a record 45,847.

The attendance figure breaks the NCAA record of 41,187 set in the 2008 meet in Des Moines, Iowa."

From:

http://www.oregonlive.com/trackandfield/index.ssf/2010/06/ncaa_track_field_championships_52.html

JAQ611 wrote:

What about a Track and Field Network? Showing everything track related 24/7. Wouldn't that be better than relying on ESPN?

do you really think that anybody could compile enough track coverage to broadcast 24/7? theres a total of like 40 hours of track meet at one meet, and thats if you broadcasted the hurdle crew adjusting them from men to women and then showed them measuring every throw in the dec shot.

its easy to say that USATFTV or IAAFTV or something along those lines would work, but the fact of the matter is that 24/7 broadcasting takes A LOT of material to be broadcasted, more than there is in track

A new leadership is needed at USATF. USATF High Perf and LDR should move to West L.A., setup shop on Wilshire Blvd, to hire the best TV, web, and multimedia talent on the planet. USATF should have free access, free licensing, no copyright of it's full length HD2 videos, and high resolution images, posters, blogs, results, podcasts, and interviews.

Every media, person, print shop, newspaper, magazine, elite athlete, fan, coach, etc. should have free access and blanket ownership of USATF content. They should be able to spread the news of the #1 Track Team in the World to all corners of the globe without restriction and/or copyright.

These rules must be stipulated on all USATF Media Credentials. I.E. all organizations covering USATF High Perf and LDR events that create content must be make them available to the public for free, non-copyrighted, full resolution, full length, and sans license. This is the only way we can spread our sport.

ESPN IS NOT CONTRACTUALLY OBLIGATED TO SWITCH TO POTENTIAL NO HITTERS. PERIOD. i can guarantee you that espn would not cut to a no hitter if one was happening during game 7 of the nba finals. the fact of the matter is, they switched to the no hitter because track is not popular and it was the right move from a business and ratings standpoint. does that suck for track fans? YES. but honestly, that 5k was like watching paint dry. then again, the dude had like 8 walks and threw like 150 pitches in his no hitter, so the argument could go either way. if this were an olympic or WC year, i truly believe espn would not have made the move. so who is to blame? us. for being fans of a sport that will never become mainstream in america, so deal with it

MLB is a fake sport full of dopers. The recent astronomical number of perfect games and no hitters proves it. MLB is a freak show now played by androids with shrunk dicks. To cut away from the 5K and show that fake sport of baseball is an total abomination to our sport. The mealy mouths at USATF like Doug Logan and Hightower don't give a shit about our sport being treated like a niche 3rd tier sport.

Jill Geer/USATF and Kristen Jacobs/NCAA should be ripping ESPN a new asshole for how we are being treated. But no statements thus far. What up ?

Cowboy Bob, trailswatcher and big changes all make excellent points concerning the viewing of the sport.

To make one the most important points more simple, MOST meets at all levels should last for no more than 3 hours, if one of the goals is to have an audience. Hell, as a high school coach and as a parent of track athletes, it seems to me that most high school meets should be run somewhere around TWO hours (including invitationals) as the kids tend to appreciate the efficiency of those meets. The whole day hasn't been filled with track and there is still time remaining in the day for other activities.

If the goal is not to make the event enjoyable to watch, but to get as many athletes involved as possible, like the Junior Olympics, then let the days drag on from dawn to sunset. If the only goal at the National Championships is to crown Champions, then the current system works fine.

Here in Illinois, the stands are jammed with fans at the state finals on Saturday. Thursday and Friday are for qualifying and the stands are usually limited to the athletes, coaches and families of the athletes. But Saturday's finals bring out fans as well, and there are not too many empty seats in the stadium at Eastern Illinois U. The crowd gets loud and the kids will tell you, even after they go to college, that the state meet was the most exciting meet they ever competed at.

It's not that hard to have only finals all on one day.

As it is now, it is as though the people who run most tracks meets wish to make them an endurance event to view and as hard to watch as possible.

2 hours is what TV meets in Europe are. The attendance isn't a dismal 10,000 like PreClassic was. The small town GP and EAA meets have 20,000. The Golden League meets have 40,000 to 60,000. USATF needs to drop disgraceful towns like Eugene.