What it would take to make T&F a "real" pro sport

regional teams competing against each other on a regular basis throughout the season. Betting at the track. $7 bottles of beer like all other sports.

They also have consistent ACTION, a race really isn't interesting until the last lap nowadays. Field events would probably be more popular.

I always wondered what made track more popular back in the 1950's-70's? There used to be big time track meets in places like Fresno, Modesto, and Bakersfield. I can't imagine these towns hosting DL meets today. Through the 1970's track athletes were on the cover of Sports Illustrated all the time and not just in Olympic years. Middle distance and long distance runners were on the cover from time to time as well (just of the top of my head: Herb Elliot, Pre, Shorter, Rogers. Salazar, Ryan, Juantorena, etc). The last distance runner on the cover of Sports Illustrated was Mary Slaney way back in 1985 or 1986. I remember ABC and NBC broadcasting indoor track meets during the winter. Bruce Jenner became a huge celebrity after his 1976 Olympic gold. Yet today Ashton Eaton is a complete no-name on the American sports landscape.

The new full contact T&F. This isn't your momma's track and field.

No, goodness sakes, you do not need teams. I don't know why every @$#%#ing "save the sport" topic thinks it would be a great idea to have "teams."

Track is an individual sport. Golf is also an individual sport and there's more $$$$ in that than any other. Teams are NOT the answer.

How many people even know who won the overall standings in the Diamond League for a given event?

For those who did know the winners of the overall Diamond League how many were on this board calling the winner the greatest in the world?

I would estimate about zero people could say "Yes" to both of the questions above.

Until that changes nothing is going to change. Because otherwise every race is and will be effectively an exhibition or tune up to one race every 4 years.

I mean imagine if the NFL was just one long preseason. Losing players after a game say they are kind of disappointed but not really because they feel healthy and like where their training is going. It was just good to play and see where they were at.

who cares if track and field is a major pro sport?

i don't.

who cares if joe six pack watches track and field.

really, is that the mountain you want to climb?

leave joe to his football and nascar if you ask me.

i want to see great competitions, spartan sportsmen, good opportunities for people who WANT to enjoy the sport.

i would like to see knowledgeable announcers, competent federations, coaches however.

i would like to see basic financial support to guys that love the sport and work their assets off. you know, enough for food and basic rent, tickets and a hotel for meets. anything more$, go get a shoe contract or get a part time job at a shoe store.

i would like to see olympic money go back into the sport rather than into ioc and contractor hands.

i would like to be able to see meets live with good camera work, the podcast interviews and such.

now the guys on the web are doing a hell of a job getting the sport into my living room, never been better. it is the established people that are a HUGE problem. they are not in the business of helping grass roots. they are not in the business of helping the 28 minute 10k guy.

Nike, NBC, Al-sal, big meets all say to the struggling tier #2 guy, f@ck off. and make it a real uphill battle to remain in the sport after college, move up to the elite bracket.

i'd like to see NBC and any network thrown out of the sport, you know when you have a hot final, they are in the critical stages and the network switches to some mundane- can air anytime- thing. as if you would cut to commercial in the middle of a big play in the superbowl.

deer letsrun wrote:

It's not complicated. Look at sports that succeed financially. What do they have?

(1) Lots of EXPOSURE, as in TV time. Not twice a year. Every week or more often (in season).

(2) HOMETOWN fans/support.

(3) Fans know athletes as FACES with STORIES and PERSONALITIES.

I think more structure ties in with exposure. In a hypothetical domestic version of the DL in the United States, we could see our big name athletes on a more consistent basis. We're not even guaranteed to see them at USA's anymore. (Wheating, Centro, etc).

Hopefully as training groups and track clubs become bigger, we will see more loyalty to them. If an average fan can create a distinct association with an athlete and a track club, we may see fans siding with certain clubs and athletes. This would create a higher demand for more "putting stories with names", more interview time with athletes, and maybe even club specific apparel which could benefit the runners. NOP is taking a step in the right direction by selling their gear on their clubs website, I believe NAZ Elite does also. I recently saw a Bowerman Track Club tee on runningwarehouse too. Hopefully these are steps in the right direction in making our athletes more recognizable.

Yes! wrote:

I always wondered what made track more popular back in the 1950's-70's? There used to be big time track meets in places like Fresno, Modesto, and Bakersfield. I can't imagine these towns hosting DL meets today. Through the 1970's track athletes were on the cover of Sports Illustrated all the time and not just in Olympic years. Middle distance and long distance runners were on the cover from time to time as well (just of the top of my head: Herb Elliot, Pre, Shorter, Rogers. Salazar, Ryan, Juantorena, etc). The last distance runner on the cover of Sports Illustrated was Mary Slaney way back in 1985 or 1986. I remember ABC and NBC broadcasting indoor track meets during the winter. Bruce Jenner became a huge celebrity after his 1976 Olympic gold. Yet today Ashton Eaton is a complete no-name on the American sports landscape.

What other sports were big in the 50s-70s? Wasn't pro football. Wasn't pro basketball. Baseball was king for a very long time as was and still is College Football.

Track and Field is lost in the realm of "Olympic Sports" like Gymnastics and Ice Skating. It is what it is. Embrace it. Enjoy it.

Alan

We need to cut back on how strictly we take sportsmanship in terms of celebration. You're barely allowed to do anything at the end of a great race for fear of being disqualified. Yet look at football, we have TV commercials based on the "discount double check". We need to let our athletes have personalities out there.

Also, better scoring systems. I should know how my team is doing without chasing down the gopher who's putting pieces of paper up on a wall with masking tape.

"(1) Lots of EXPOSURE, as in TV time. Not twice a year. Every week or more often (in season)"

This is the goal. The question is how to get it?

When people suggest TEAMS, most of the time they are trying to create something that can happen repeatedly like weekly dual team meets that the result isn't known ahead of time to build interest.

Is there a way to organize qualifying for national meets that select for national teams more like American Idol so people see and get to know the athletes over the weeks of the season? You could even let fans or track experts vote for most impressive performance say comparing events at each level and award a prize at the end for most impressive season.

A series of qualifying meets that you have to be in for your qualifying time to count. Nationals to select the team. The Diamond league meets that you have to compete in at least one to be allowed to run in the Olympics or Worlds.

That way the best athletes would be seen in predictable venues 4 times rather than the current 2. To some extent, this already happens and some wise person at a TV station or USATF just has to get the footage edited into an Idol like format and/or decide if they want to do/deal with the judging part.

COPY WHAT PRO MOTOCROSS DOES

COPY WHAT PRO MOTOCROSS DOES

COPY WHAT PRO MOTOCROSS DOES

COPY WHAT PRO MOTOCROSS DOES

Pro motocross is similar in so many ways to track and field it's not even funny. It is a smaller sport, yet the top incomes and depth of income in the pro motocross and supercross is so much higher.

Do any of you know who Ryan Villopoto is? James Stewart? Antonio Carolli?

These guys make Usain Bolt money ($10 million a year) with one tenth the name recognition. And the guys getting tenth still do deep six figures.

How?

1) The athletes are not limited in number of sponsors they can have or how many they can show on their bike and gear. This doubles or triples everyone's income.

2) They race in two series (supercross/stadium and motocross/outdoors) every year

3) This puts them in front of large personal audiences and large almost 30 times in a year as well as on national TV many times. This combines for a viewership of SEVERAL MILLION PEOPLE, JUST IN AMERICA

4) THEY RACE A SERIES FOR A POINTS CHAMPIONSHIP JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER POPULAR RACING SPORT ON THE PLANET

5) Let me repeat that: they are not limited in sponsors, but they are not rewarded for winning a single event that pops up every few years such as the world championship or the Olympics, or cherry picking privately run meetings, they are rewarded in fame and money by winning races and more importantly THE POINTS CHAMPIONSHIP

It will never be back and that's just the reality of it. You have the team concept in college but how many people are casual fans of college track?

You mention to throw it on TV but who will watch? Even if you have plans to make it big, you're going to lose a ton of advertising dollars off the bat because not many companies will pay very much to see their ad viewed by only a few people.

Heck, I've been a runner almost my entire life, am an Olympic Trials qualifier and I don't even like watching track on TV. To me, it quickly becomes boring and monotonous. The Pre Classic has that prestigious feel to it but most track races, don't. If there was a track meet and Motocross on, I'd probably flip to Motocross.

I think a bigger potential is road racing. If there's a huge race in your city, you are more apt to watch it because it's cool to see your town on the television. If there's a track meet in your town, you probably don't know/care.

Ain't gonna happen.

Can't even fill a high school stadium outside of Eugene.

If you bet on the sport, and have a legit "series" it will grow. Only problem is it'll be too easy to fix a race so a governing body outside of usatf would need to be created.

Runners are inherently boring. Running 80+ mile weeks and training 24/7 has a high chance of making one boring. If you look at the interviews of the female athletes they are all the same. None of them have same personality. It's either "I think i really had it today" or "I didn't really have it today". No smack talking (hockey-level smack talk would be great), and no crazies make these athletes kind of boring. Most of them aren't even that attractive (some are though). I want NOP to start talking smack about other clubs and then beating them. I want these people to be interesting. I want real conflict between athletes, not just I win you lose.

I think you need innovations that make people want to watch and require meets to need more athletes than just the best of the best. Getting more sponsors only works if people watch and getting people to watch only helps if they have a reason to pay the losers.

What if a meet had a main event or obscure record they were going for like "most runners under 4 minutes in a mile."

Create a ton of ideas and start testing them to see what catches on with fans.

The downside is that this changes the sport and we might not like it anymore.

* There has to be more racing and less pacing- focus on the race, not the pacemakers and the final time.

I watched a bunch of Spring marathons on Universal this year.

The races with pacers were boring- especially when you knew they weren't getting a record- they "failed".

Boston was amazing- they raced.

Track distance can be the same- just race and have the announcers call the race and not just talk ...

* The high jump competition at NY DL was excellent- exciting competition and no world record.

* For heaven's sake stop focusing on the top billed runner pre-race.

They make a big deal out of, say, Leo Manzano and he has a bad race.

* Make the distance fields smaller- there are too many. In Centro's 3:50 there were so many guys around him he got lost- have smaller (10-12) fields and make every runner in it a star.

I like this, I also would add that getting sponsors means you need to hustle to keep your name out there and stay relevant. I follow 10-12 NASCAR drivers fan pages on Facebook and they are constantly posting updates and information on where to see them, what they're doing today, etc... For example, I opened facebook today and had 3 different updated from 3 drivers:

One is testing at a track today and posted some pictures.

One had information about a Q&A they're doing on Friday at the track.

One had information about a giveaway and meet and greet this week.

That's one random hour on a Wednesday and this happens every week for roughly 40 weeks a year. How many times a year does your average professional runners do clinics, autograph sessions, etc? We all know there is little exposure on TV so Pro's need to look to how they can reach out to the community themselves better.