Track and Field is unpopular because it takes SIX DAYS for a Track Meet????

lol the world cup takes 3 wks. But each game takes less than 2 hr.

mr heat miser wrote:

lol the world cup takes 3 wks. But each game takes less than 2 hr.

Right and you don't really have to watch every game.

If you miss one day of the World Championships you will miss a couple finals so you're kind of "stuck" for the whole time.

But it's also presentation- There is so much mote to analyze in a track and field event than most sports yet it's not done on TV.

What really aggravates me is when a race is finishing- say the 5000- and they show the winner getting the flowers and celebrating while others are crossing the finish line.

Show them all finishing and keep the freaking clock going.

It's much harder to do that in T&F.

In TdF or F1, every one is participating in the same event. T&F includes Sprint/Hurdle, Mid-d/Distance, Jumps and Throws. It's like having TdF, individual sprint, team pursuit, and Keirin together. Can you assemble a panel of experts on that?

TrackFan1987 wrote:

So I love Track and Field, but for the life of me, I cannot understand why it takes 6 freakin' days to run a track meet. It's not like these athletes are all doubling or tripling and need their rest days. It's idiotic.

It takes only 4 days to watch a golf tournament and only 2 hours to watch a World Cup soccer game (even if it's spread out over a few weeks).

If Track and Field wants fans to be spectators, the timeline needs to be compressed.

If I live on the East Coast, do I really need to stay up until 11:15 pm just to see if Mary Cain wins a medal? I'll do it, but don't expect the average sports fan to stay up past 11 for any sporting event that doesn't start with Super or end in Series.

I agree, but a global championship is always going to be long because you are doing the complete table of events, awards ceremonies and relays and you do have to arrange events so that athletes can double. There is no way around that.

Running Formula reader wrote:

It's much harder to do that in T&F.

In TdF or F1, every one is participating in the same event. T&F includes Sprint/Hurdle, Mid-d/Distance, Jumps and Throws. It's like having TdF, individual sprint, team pursuit, and Keirin together. Can you assemble a panel of experts on that?

The BBC can

Sprints/Hurdles - Colin Jackson, Michael Johnson

Mid d/Dist - Dame Kelly Holmes, Steve Cram, Brendan Foster, Jumps - Jonathan Edwards

Throws - Paul Dickenson

All of the above - Denise Lewis (heptahlon)

Marathon/XC - Paula Radcliffe

Wheelchair/Paralympic - Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson

Feel blessed they didn't put in heats for the 3k to force Cain to run one more time for the crowd. As it is, they get to see Ephraimson twice and possibly Cranny twice.

i don't need the s#!t

I like to be popular

it would be interesting to have guys run say 2 heats and a final in the same day.

imagine 1500 in the morning, afternoon and at night.

some 5000 guys would have a shot,

it would be a new ball game.

but it would probably kill the athletes.

this is BS

Hockey and Baseball both have SEVEN games available to play. If that's not long I don't know what is.

Most popular cycling event in the world, the Tour de France, takes 3 WEEKS.

TrackFan1987 wrote:

If I live on the East Coast, do I really need to stay up until 11:15 pm just to see if Mary Cain wins a medal? I'll do it, but don't expect the average sports fan to stay up past 11 for any sporting event that doesn't start with Super or end in Series.

I've been up to 1 am all week watching one of 150 baseball games I watch each year.

Now the next post made me laugh. Well done.

fsdjhc wrote:

All finals, field events one attempt.

This next one was good as well:

uhhuh wrote:

Could you imagine how boring a month long cycling race would be?

You can easily arrange a championship meet with all of the prelims early in the week and all of the finals on one day.

Maybe have the finals in two days.

This could allow for doubling as well.

I think The World Championships should do a two day finals schedule.

Mon - Thurs: all prelims + plus 10,000 final

Sat: 100, 400, 1500, Steeple,4X100

Sun: 110 HH, 400 IH, 800, 200, 5000, 4X400

Baseball is 182 days. Then a month of playoffs.

Track's problem is that people only care for a WR which is a problem promoters created. That combined with no league where stars compete regularly is the problem.

think of it it this way. the world cup lasted, i don't know how long, 2-4 weeks? there were plenty of fans who flew in to rio and picked and chose what matches they wanted to go to. the same goes for championship track meets. obviously you aren't going to spend 12 hours at the track all day. you buy tickets for the certain races you want to see. similarly to how people buy ticket to the certain matches they want to see over those 2-4 weeks.

I don't see any "Track and Field is unpopular" situation, at least in the BIG Ten. Plus, every year at spring break in Los Angeles it's the enormous Mt Sac Relays, Cerritos invite, Cal State Twilight Distance, Bryan Clay Multis, UCLA Dual Meet, and another 6 or so meets across the LA Basin I've never been to so far yet. So I don't understand why you would think what you mentioned.

Most americans have the attention span of about 60 seconds. That's why we have been good at 400 meters. Some 100 meter races take longer than a 5k. By the time they have a couple false starts, every runner has to stretch, see how high they can jump, and adjust their package in their unitards before they get set each time, it takes forever. They should just line them up, run them all and if anybody jumped the gun, their time is thrown out like they do in funny car racing. Bolt could still run a 9.6 but if he left early, he would get a DQ. The fans would still get to see him run though.

For the 1,500, they should have a qualifiying time and everybody that runs it, gets to race. If that means 4 runners or 40 runners on the track, just shoot the gun and let them go. Sprints should be run as all finals in heats. Eight fastest times run in the previous year run in the final heat. Next 8 run the heat before. If you want to run in the fast heat, you have to run a faster time within a year.

By doing this, the networks could show the whole 5k race. Of course to make it more interesting, 10% should go to the runner in the lead at 2,000 meters, another 10% at 3,000 and another 10% at 4,000. The winner would get 40% with the other 30% divided between the lower placers.

TrackFan1987 wrote:

I'll do it, but don't expect the average sports fan to stay up past 11 for any sporting event that doesn't start with Super or end in Series.

My solution:

Call all Championships in track the Super Track Series!

solution solved.

Track is dead because white people are too slow.

no more borefest wrote:

For the 1,500, they should have a qualifiying time and everybody that runs it, gets to race. If that means 4 runners or 40 runners on the track, just shoot the gun and let them go.

Just take the yearly top 12 from all certified races as the WC final.