I would personally like to see a meet between Nike and adidas in a dual. With the two headquarters closely located near Portland, it could be done at the Nike campus or a neutral park nearby.
Each team gets up to seven runners. Bragging rights on the line. Or money. Winning team takes all.
No fancy stuff, just two teams getting after it.
They already do this in cross and Adidas has won the last couple of years. It'd be cool if they went at it at 8k, but adidas really doesn't have the "distance" guys save Culpepper. Nike has Meb, Abdi, Hauser, ? That would be cool though over 8k with all of the adidas steeplers.
I was thinking cross country and not track. I guess you can count US Nats as competition against the two but...
Do you really think it is the same as a dual meet?
With a dual, there is a winner and a loser. In an invitational, second place may get a trophy. Not in a dual meet!
Nike and adidas should both put up $25,000 and the winning team splits the
For some reason, my message posted while I was typing!
Why not 5k? The steeplers can do it and Nike has a boatload of these guys. Also, the races would be tighter. Sounds like something the kids in the US can chew on.
Remember your Pre book? Pre brought the dual meet to Eugene as often as possible. Why? Because you won or you lost. This is what the USA likes!
Case in point: NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL. We love the one on one competition!
Although Portland is where both companies have HQs, what would make more sense -- and get more attention -- would be to contest a Nike-adidas Dual at a major prep meet like either the Manhattan Inv at Van Cortlandt or Great American. There's also the Mt SAC Invite.
5000 HS athletes -- maybe about 5-7000 spectators -- now THAT would be a great _EVENT_. Plus the HS athletes would luv to see how they stack up with America's best!
BTW--this isn't a new idea -- Ryan Grote has been talking about something like this for years.
Mike