The meet is Thursday night. Our meet preview is here.
Note, if you want to watch it live, it will cost you $69.99 if you have a US IP address as explained here:
http://www.letsrun.com/news/2017/05/schedule-streaming-information-2017-usatf-distance-classic/
You can do so many more things for 3 hours that cost less that $69..
$70. That's just ridiculous.
the preview makes it sound like you only get the 1 meet for the $69. you get the entire season and if you miss something (like Thus night some of those races will be going off too late for me) you can watch the total rebroadcast later.
jenapharm wrote:
the preview makes it sound like you only get the 1 meet for the $69. you get the entire season and if you miss something (like Thus night some of those races will be going off too late for me) you can watch the total rebroadcast later.
Really? Here is what we wrote, "The only way to watch it live is via NBC Sports Gold Track & Field Pass. This requires a subscription ($69.99 for one year), which can be purchased here but there is no way to purchase just one meet. Most of the meets that are on Gold (Diamond League) are also on tv for free (if you get NBCSN and Universal) but not this one."
Still going to be one of the best American 800 fields we see before the trials.
Berian and Murphy not there?
Personally, I think USATF should include it with their membership. I haven't been a member in years but if I felt like I was supporting USA track athletes and getting to watch some great meets, I'd be happy to pay much more than $70.
As it stands now, I'd be fine with $70 if it was a grade A product that gives me a lot that I don't already get with my $175 cable and wifi bill, but you dont get much that you don't already get on tv and it's not truly amazing like MLB.tv.
Ignoring the fact that the service wasn't working during the Shanghai DL, here are my suggestions for improvement.
1) On the DL broadcasts, , there should be a track only feed that shows the distance races from start to finish
We've been saying for years that the people doing tv don't understand the sport. If you've been watching the first few meets, our sentiment has only been reinforced. Watching all of the field events is great. Well done. Watching the DL without commericals is great. But guess what? There is no track only feed.
Instead, their track feed is just the international feed so it cuts out to field events in the middle of the 5ks and steeples.
They need to have a track only feed but they also should have it like MLB where you can pick your own audio overlay. If you are watching the DL on gold, you get the international announcers. Why can't we choose who we want to hear? They have their own announcers on tv (Sanya Richards Ross and Ato Boldon) so why can't I choose them?
Right now, if you are watching the field events, there is no announcing. If I'm watching field, i'd like to have the main event audio being broadcast on tv so I can know if something big is happening on the track and I can switch over.
2) They need to archive the races individually. After each event is over, they should have a link to every single event. Like the schedule results pages should list the event and have a link to the results and to the video of that race.
It's pretty simply really.
But in general, this just reminds me of why people are cutting the chord - everyone has gotten greedy. People already were paying a ton for cable to get ESPN. Then the individual leagues started their own channels - NFL, NBA, MLB which cost even more. And then the leagues want you to pay for their own apps and what not.
The same thing is now happening in track.
Can someone tell me why I should have to subcribe to both USATF.tv + and NBC gold? Shouldn't it be all in one service since they are both tied to USATF?
You'd think NBC and USATF would be heavily reaching out to us - as let's be honest the people buying this are regulars on LetsRun (When Universal sports did the DL they said by far the most signups came from our website) - to explain why this is a great and innovative product. Instead, it was pretty hard to find out what events were on Gold only and what events were on tv.
I imagine most people are going to be miffed to pay for something when they find out most of the stuff is already on tv.
NBC or USATF or IAAF if you are reading this, I'll be happy to take a train to NYC or fly to Indy on my own dime and tell you how to improve this. It's common sense really.
jenapharm wrote:
the preview makes it sound like you only get the 1 meet for the $69. you get the entire season and if you miss something (like Thus night some of those races will be going off too late for me) you can watch the total rebroadcast later.
Well, I read the preview so I know that, but even for the full season the price is ridic.
kids need to see track stars on TV more than once every four years in the olympics
usa needs to act like canada and other countries and make track sports appear within regular broadcasting that is accessible to households at all income levels, even the working poor
USATF should provide track events to outlets like PBS to show overnight and fill other hours on the weekend where they use filler programs anyway
or usatf needs to give up it's non-profit status
otherwise these kinds of events really will eventually cost $70 for a single viewing and only a few hundred people will ever see it
How much does a ticket to the event cost? I'm realizing I can probably drive 100 miles each way, watch the meet in person, and eat a nice dinner, all for less than the Gold subscription.
There are no ticket prices or spectator information on the website.
http://www.usatf.org/Events-/Events-/-Calendar/2016/Hoka-One-One-Middle-Distance-Classic.aspx
Heck of a sport we got here.
Ducking the competition? Murphy has run a ton of times. If he's not running there, that is good. He needs to not overload on races. He was awfully sharp in running 1:43.60 already. Go through a good stretch of training before USATF.
I don't recall Berian competing this year. Is he healthy? He's got an image of Rambo carrying a camera, shooting (taking a picture of) a butterfly. So, he has got the sense of humor. Maybe he's waiting to open at Pre? He's not listed in the top forty in the 800m for the U.S. so far this year.
Can't believe how crappy the USATF website is.
Last year it was 10 dollars and five off for USATF members. It's general seating. Street parking is readily available and there is limited campus parking after 5 pm.
SoCal is a hotbed of distance running amongst the high school ranks and they do a poor job of promoting this race.
Sub-520 miler wrote:
Still going to be one of the best American 800 fields we see before the trials.
Really? There's like 2-3 Americans, and only Brazier might produce a good run. He may even get beat by the even more talented equally young Aussie Mathews...
800: brazier 1:44.4, Torrence 1:47, Osagie 1:47
1500: farah 3:36, Jenkins, O'Hare
5000: Kipchirchir 13:24, GF 13:26
What has happened to Colby Alexander? Why is merber not in the 15?
Heat sheets are now out.
I was fearful that Farah and Centro would end up in different heats. They are in the same heat.
Heat sheets have been added into the preview and they also can be found here with a link to live results:
http://www.letsrun.com/news/2017/05/results-2017-usatf-distance-classic-results-2017-oxy-results/
Our sport is a joke. Two Olympic champions are 'racing' each other in a matchup that should be on the DL circuit. Instead, both are too lazy to fly to Shanghai or Doha and instead are doing it in the middle of the night in front of 30 people.
But then again, the more I think about it. it's really not a race. It's practice so it makes sense.
Personally, I don't think it should be broadcast at all. They don't broadcast workouts in horse racing. You just pick up the Daily Racing form and they list the results.
Same thing here. I mean honestly, you dont need to know what happens in a race. Just give me the 400 splits and maybe the last 200 and I have a great idea as to what happened. I'll wake up tmw and read the Letsrun recap.
Pretty much the only thing I care about this meet is this:
rojo wrote:
Pretty much the only thing I care about this meet is this:
https://twitter.com/letsrundotcom/status/865206137775431680
Really?? I thought that since you ran this site, you were a T & F fan. A meet where there are only distance events seems right up your alley. Our sport seems to be becoming less & less relevant everyday. Bummer.
