Khadevis Robinson Talks About New Athlete Union/ Professional Track League on ESPN Radio

Cricket is a sport that has recognized the same identity issue that track and field is experiencing now. Or similar anyway - that it is a niche product in most places in the world. In fact, more niche in places like North America.

They have recreated the game, like what rugby 7s is to traditional rugby. Cricket has really taken off throughout Europe/Asia and is growing elsewhere.

Running does need a paradigm shift or track and field does.

A league would be a good first step. The National Track League in Canada is a pretty good thing, although I don't think it is a "paradigm shift" from just a bunch of track meets. However, attendance is good and improving in traditional cities, where it was waning (sp?). THe collective advertising, news media and general discussion has allowed it to be a bigger sum, that the parts as separate.

It is still early days - but a good start. So the US should have one too.

A track league indoors would make the most sense in terms of entertainment, and to allow for the traditional outdoor season to remain.

West

LA

Texas a&m

Boise

Nebraska

East

NYC

Boston

Arkansas

Indiana

Three meets head to head in your conference, then top two teams in each go to the final quad meet.

Increasing the popularity of the sport is essential. Other than the folks who come to letsrun.com, most runners are not fans of the sport. They don't Shalane Flanagan or Galen Rupp. They may know of Meb or Deena because they were at the expo before their marathon, but they are not fans. It is a huge problem.

dougruns26 wrote:

Increasing the popularity of the sport is essential. Other than the folks who come to letsrun.com, most runners are not fans of the sport. They don't Shalane Flanagan or Galen Rupp. They may know of Meb or Deena because they were at the expo before their marathon, but they are not fans. It is a huge problem.

Spot on... but given enough money and publicity I think that the American public and be convinced that virtually anything is "important" or worth following. I'm constantly amazed at what PR and spin doctors can do.

Biggest problem to promote the sport is its structure know as USATF.

An out dated model run by a group of insiders only concerned with protecting their jobs. Zero lack of vision and big picture approach to helping the sport.

There are only so many sponsorship dollars to go around and I would assume if a corporation is interested already USATF has them signed.

Doing a deal with USATF ? Maybe its time to clean up and start over with a new organization. The value that USATF has is its athletes , its their tool for TV and selling sponsorship. Without them it has little to offer.

Athletes use your strength , flex your muscle's and don't fall apart before getting to the starting line.

We had indoors back in the day and it died since it's cold outside, times are slow on short tracks, and many would rather work on their MBA in the fall & winter months.

What we need is a Jan-Mar professional outdoor track series in California and Arizona.

What we need is a Jan-Mar professional outdoor track series in California and Arizona.

I don't know if your idea will work but it's worth a try since all else has failed to ignite interest.

Not sure how you chose your team locations. This makes more sense for marketing and logistics:

West

Austin

Boulder

Eugene

Los Angeles

Palo Alto

Seattle

East

Arkansas

Boston

Grand Rapids or Madison

Indianapolis

Minneapolis

NYC

200m banked track locations

great way to build a broader fanbase: invest in adult clubs.

a DMR World Cup would be amazing. Head to head match ups just like tennis. So each team is running every second day. Then the grand final (and bronze medal match) could be a best of three race where you're allowed one fresh sub each race.

Indoors this would be of the scale.

Indoor TF is boring and dead already. They tried for years to get indoors going and failed. Give it up.

Are you retarded or just a plain stupid buffoon ? Los Angeles/San Diego just took home 17 of the 49 medals that USATF brought back to the USA from the London 2012 Olympics. Who the hell do you think would win your track leauge every year? Duh....

Keynes wrote:

A track league indoors would make the most sense in terms of entertainment, and to allow for the traditional outdoor season to remain.

West

LA

Texas a&m

Boise

Nebraska

East

NYC

Boston

Arkansas

Indiana

Three meets head to head in your conference, then top two teams in each go to the final quad meet.

Khadevis didn't mention that the reason the Olympic Games would still be his primary focus is because that's what means the most to his sponsors.

Not that track is boring, remember 200,000+ fill stadiums to watch cars speed by at 170mph for 3 hours. Problem is, track has been being sold improperly to the US public since the mid-80s when every meet billed "world record attempts" at some distance. Those distances were events like the Womens 440y (a weak 52.0) when the WR for 400m was 49.9. Purists knew the 440 was inferior but the general public was excited to see a "world record". Eventually, those records became harder to achieve and the public never was educated to appreciate the competition.Recently, the meets are run by agents who want to provide for their athletes and will go the extra step to insure two races at the same distance as a form of protection.The rest of the world has caught up to the US and in some cases surpassed us but only a few of us can appreciate the effort.Shoe companies are also a problem. Seeing 12 of 15 athletes at the Pre meet wearing the same identical uniforms from 3 different countries makes it hard for viewers to distinguish the african Nike athlete from the white guys in Nike. Yet, the general public can't even go buy that singlet.A few years ago, sitting at the Texas Relays during my "hiatus" watching two high school 4 X 800 fight down the homestretch to the very end, reminded me why this is a great sport. We just need to show people why it is.

DOA wrote:

Indoor TF is boring and dead already. They tried for years to get indoors going and failed. Give it up.

You don't say... The six gigantic relays we are blessed to have inherited from those who have come before us are the "historic foundation meets" of the USA's #1 T&F Team in the World. Texas Relays, Drake Relays, Penn Relays, Kansas Relays, Stanford TF Invitational, and Mt Sac Relays have produced 100% of the medals, athletes, and coaches for the USA.

If you look at 7's rugby and 20/20 cricket you will see that it fits the 21st centuries decline in attention span. If a league is ever to take form it needs:

1) ALOT of money behind, this won't just come out of the underground like UFC

2) Shortened meets that can be edited to fit in a 30 minute time slot on tv

3) Constant action, no need for 5 minutes between events, things need to be going on constantly. This means the majority of the events will be relays

4) Teams that fans can identify with. I suggested a few years ago affiliating a track league with the NFL, although it got panned as a bad idea I still feel that some sort of hometown pride needs to be attached to it, it can't be the Los Angeles Kenyans vs the New York Ethiopians.

Staged and scripted sports like WWE/MMA are crafted by talented producers and writers to highlight features and enhance entertainment value.

Repetitive sports allow dozens, sometimes hundreds of views of the same action over and over again.

T&F can't provide neither of the above.