@running_comment wrote:
You're welcome to that opinion, but don't wonder why the sport gets no media attention if you think it's fine for the top-billed athletes, salaried by the meet sponsor, to blow off media.
suburbanxcore wrote:
The sport can barely even get people to watch the actual races, and you think it's lack of interviews that are going to hurt it? Rupp not being interviewed means squat to the casual viewer or fan (and that's who they'd need to appeal to to build the sport).
You see? You JUST DON'T GET IT.
No, nobody except for those who run or have run seriously cares to watch 15 laps of an indoor track. If you think that it is all about the "actual races," thinking like that is exactly why track gets no viewers.
It's about people. Rivalries. Success. Failure. Narrative. You've obviously never worked in TV, but is that so hard to understand?
For the >99.999% of Americans who don't read Letsrun, if those things aren't in the broadcast, they might as well be watching a horse race. At least jockeys talk to the press and explain the races.
I get a lot of sports channels, and yesterday could watch darts and billiards, but not the best runners in America competing. Seriously, do you think that darts is a more interesting spectator sport than running? Or maybe, just maybe, the people involved sell it better?