How would you promote Track & Field?

Cut TV to 90 minutes, with Meets showing a few exciting events, no filler. An example lineup may be

Mens 800

Womens 100 hurdles

Mens 110 hurdles

Mens 400

Womens Mile

Mens Steeplechase

Womens 800

Allow athletes to endorse products and open singlets up to big sponsorship ads like NASCAR. People may think it's goofy but it could attract more sponsors into the sport and maybe more $ towards meet production and promotion.

Have more oddball matchups. Purists will hate it but I like the idea of a 150, or what Puma did a couple years ago in Boston with 'races around the block'.

The key will be to think outside of the box.

i know most of the guys on my team are pissed because there arent too many distance events, especially relays. so here was my solution i pitched.

DMR

10K

4xMile

5K

3k

100m

200m

400m

hurdles

800m

1 mile

4x400m

best order I could come up with anyway. it hits all the best events, and then there is a break, if you dont want to watch distance, you can get food and stuff during the sprints

I like your ideas. I do think the street track idea could go over big- have sprints and a road mile.

Some of those NFL guys think they could compete with the top sprinters. Put some in a 100 meter race with world class sprinters- people would then respect the track athletes when they out run the footballers.

203 wrote:

Allow athletes to endorse products and open singlets up to big sponsorship ads like NASCAR. People may think it's goofy but it could attract more sponsors into the sport and maybe more $ towards meet production and promotion.

I always wondered why they didn't do this for the marathon. I also wish they made marathons into a scored event like XC is. Much more interesting with the team aspect/scoring.

I'm actually kind of surprised Redbull doesn't have any track athletes to sponsor...seems like they have their hands in everything!

I think part of the problem honestly is that the companies/brands that are involved with running have such a tight grip on the sport, I really don't see them letting loose of that.

I really think the most simple answer to this question is to have more worldclass meets held on US soil. I never watched an elite track meet in person until I was a JR in college when a couple teammates and I road tripped to Eugene to the 2007 Pre invite. I would love to watch more meets like that, it was a great experience. If HS kids where exposed to more elite racing, there no doubt would be a higher interest in the sport.

Distance running just needs to find some kind of swagger.

honestly, the easiest way to make track and field more popular would be to allow spectators to gamble on the outcome of each race, much like horse racing.

honestly, in the 2012 olympic 10k, bekele would go off at 1:6 odds, tadese would probably be given like 5:1, and a guy like solinsky would have 50:1 odds at winning, and probably would be a 20:1 shot at medaling.

it would IMMEDIATELY make the sport more interesting.

Gay men in short shorts. What's not to love?

I don't buy using sprints as a crutch. Not sure it would ever be possible to sway football players to become primary track athletes. There are way more people that run/jog for a hobby than sprint, but they can't name one American distance runner. Ask any casual sports fan who is the best distance runner, I bet they say "some Kenyan". I would have seized the recent Solinsky success or post Olympic Meb success, and ran Nike type commercials about being competitive with Africans. Hype racing Africans similar the whole USA V USSR thing during the Cold War. 12:5x means nothing to the newbie track fan. Beating "Kenyans" would make heads turn.

I also wish Cross Country was promoted more among the youth than track. Having young kids doing short courses with varied terrains, hills maybe some water jumps. I feel like kids would enjoy running with those factors. Running around a track isn't exactly thrilling. You sink the hooks in XC, more kids will want to compete in spring track.

I would love a team system, but not sure it would ever work since most elite runners don't compete on a uniform schedule.

I can't see betting working. Too much can go wrong/corrupt in an individual sport. Tennis had a gambling problem a few years ago(still might).

Teams

Race Directors and Meet Directors should systematically credential volunteers, high school coaches, parents, and fans to capture HD Video, Slow Motion Video, Super High Resolution Digital 24 Bit Still Images, Interviews, Stats, Articles, and Feature Stories and release the content to the public license free, copyright free, public domain, with no watermarks and logos, for worldwide dissemination.

It worked for Tunisia, and Egypt.

Free content is what is causing Libya, Syria, Yemen, Bahrain, etc. to revolt as we speak.

You know that the gov'ts in Russia, China, Iran, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, are next to be overthrown.

So lets get with the effing program, people.

1) Legalize all PEDs

2) Hire the man on the right

Do away with the boring breaks between events. Boom, b oom, boom; add music; and for god sakes get an announcer who can make things interesting.

We might need to reconfigure tracks to accomodate this, i.e. two tracks, one out side the other for distanc e events etc. We are far to hidebound and out of date in running these Meets. Fire all the old bastards that did it "this way" when they were youngsters and bring track into the modern world. That is the problem that needs to be solved.

Lastly, we need to have a strong USATF who can force elites to compete. I can hear the oldtimers moaning and crying about this one. Shut up, you have ruined track and we are trying to revive it. Go home and cry in your martinis and let us revive the sport.

I like the idea of a feature race during a half time break. Just one race but with a lot of build up.

You are going to have to have a great announcer, someone articulate and energetic and informed. This is the number one biggest downfall most meets. For TV, having someone who can fill deadspace with interesting commentary and who can really build up excitement and emotion during the race.

You need some stars. A few guys with personality and something to say that you can feature and build up. Not just an anonymous name who's run a fast time.

Look at horse racing. Horse races at local tracks are dying but the triple crown is still a big deal. Lots of build up and excitement.

You need an American star. Not a transplant. No prejudice here but it's human nature to root for the local hero.

Night Runner wrote:

Do away with the boring breaks between events. Boom, b oom, boom; add music; and for god sakes get an announcer who can make things interesting.

On the TV side of things they should prepare more interviews with athletes or analysis of past races to help build the storyline before an event. Imagine if before a womens 3000 they had an interview with Flanagan talking about World XC, what it means, what shes going after, etc.

I know they already do this but I mean next level type production, not the bland stuff they have now.

Night Runner wrote:

Do away with the boring breaks between events. Boom, b oom, boom; add music; and for god sakes get an announcer who can make things interesting.

We might need to reconfigure tracks to accomodate this, i.e. two tracks, one out side the other for distanc e events etc. We are far to hidebound and out of date in running these Meets. Fire all the old bastards that did it "this way" when they were youngsters and bring track into the modern world. That is the problem that needs to be solved.

Lastly, we need to have a strong USATF who can force elites to compete. I can hear the oldtimers moaning and crying about this one. Shut up, you have ruined track and we are trying to revive it. Go home and cry in your martinis and let us revive the sport.

I partially agree. Two tracks would be very expensive, but there has to be a better way to get the events moving with shorter breaks.

Have me host/announce it. . . in a bikini ;) or otherwise skimpy attire. Unfortunately (or not) sex sells.

Why don't they produce day to day track meets on television like they produce the Olympics? People watch the Olympic track and field events. And it would be nice to have someone other than Rawson, Bolton, and Stones announcing. Stones can't do a single broadcast without referring to himself and his own career and Rawson and Bolton are half dead announcers. We need a charismatic announcer similar to Harry Carey to bring out the excitement of the meet.

I think the idea of more sponsors is a great one. Allowing an athlete to be sponsored by more than one sponsor, like in NASCAR would be great. As great as the shoe companies are for the sport, I think it would benefit everyone to widen the sponsorship. They could sell space on their warm up jersey to multiple sponsors. Aspirin and Ibuprofen are two that come to mind.

I like the betting idea but the corruption could be a big problem. It has almost completely destroyed boxing. I did hear once though about racing/betting being done in Australia where they handicapped the runners based on best times and released them accordingly. Similar to the LA Marathon Challenge which gets a lot of TV hype and is fun to watch. With handicaps you could match up just about anyone and it would be fun. I know it is a gimmick but something new needs to happen if you want more people to watch.

I don't promote it. I just do it.

RunnerBarbie wrote:

Have me host/announce it. . . in a bikini ;) or otherwise skimpy attire. Unfortunately (or not) sex sells.

pics?