I loved seeing the energy and smiles on these athletes faces. It reminded me of almost an High School/NCAA conference meet w you're teammates on the infield cheering you on. It was almost nostalgic to watch.
Albeit a differing opinion, I liked the implementation of The Freeze, esp if you know his background. I don't really understand how many believe fun events such as these make track a circus now...It involves the crowd and they're into it.
It's a great introduction into the sport and the athletes have fun! I don't get the purists. Why are yall so against growing and expanding the sport? As long as the athletes enjoy it then there shouldn't be a problem
All in all, I honestly enjoyed the meet more than I enjoy Diamond Leagues. The only time those are fun is when a World Lead/WR is broken. And the athletes never seem to enjoy it or at least show it.
Can't wait for the next Summer Series. Hopefully this can get expanded
TTSS Was A Great Meet, Idc What You Say
Report Thread
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I liked the mixed 3k and it looked like the handicap was the right amount but they needed more on the line. Chelimo looked like he was well within himself.
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Positive feed back from the non-fans who watched the meet on ESPN (I'm sure they promised to watch just to shut me up).
I'm sure the runners who came out for the 5km road race filling the stands helped . I hope the NYRR and NY office of USATF take the clue and tie common folk road races with Icahn meets in the future. -
I enjoyed watching it too. I liked putting The Freeze (of Atlanta Braves warning track race fame) in there as a handicapped 100 meter race against random fans running 80 meters. The 3000 with women and men at the same time was interesting too and allowed for the meet to cut off about 10 minutes of total time by overlapping like that.
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I think the mixed 3000 ended up working really well. Spectators get to watch ~3 races at once. Especially for a normal audience who will get bored during distance races, more going on is a good thing.
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Zay wrote:
All in all, I honestly enjoyed the meet more than I enjoy Diamond Leagues. The only time those are fun is when a World Lead/WR is broken. And the athletes never seem to enjoy it or at least show it.
You must not watch much Diamond League action. Crouser was very happy today in Lausanne, as were numerous other athletes. Kendricks was ecstatic. -
The meet was far from great. If you want to support it because it gives struggling athletes a place to run and make a few $$, bravo. And no doubt it can be reasonable and cheap (free) entertainment for hard core fans.
But this is NOT a television product and is not the way we want our sport delivered to the public. It was embarrassingly bad on that front. It took it down to swap meet level. -
NotQuite wrote:
The meet was far from great. If you want to support it because it gives struggling athletes a place to run and make a few $$, bravo. And no doubt it can be reasonable and cheap (free) entertainment for hard core fans.
But this is NOT a television product and is not the way we want our sport delivered to the public. It was embarrassingly bad on that front. It took it down to swap meet level.
Have to disagree,I was very entertained and think the casual fan would have enjoyed this meet. -
I was at the meet and left right at the end and when I got home I was able to watch the last 2--25 minutes of the TV broadcast. It was like watching a different meet. The team thing seemed to work at the live meet and on TV it seemed fake/forced
I was not expecting much when I went to Icahn, but I had fun and the meet was good.
Pluses
+Good pace of events no real dead time, but not rushed.
+For the most part field events got highlighted
+Results were fast and kept up to date of team scores
+Athletes once they were done with their events were really into the team concept
+Fans go to mix with the athletes
+Music was there but not blasting where you can not carry on a conversation with the person next to you.
+Athletes that were promised to be there were actually there (that does not happen to often these days)
Negatives
+Shot was down the far end of the stadium in a darkish corner away from the crowd. Shame they did not use the circle near the finish line like they used at the adidas GP (Diamond League meet) when it was at Icahn
+Now real pre-meet press in the local papers a day or 2 before - might have helped to get more people in the seats
+Did not see ay meet programs or start lists/order of events being handed out or sold -
I was at the meet and had a far better time last night than at the diamond league meet at Icahn. The racing was great, Americans won, the times were fast, the mixed 3k was really fascinating to watch...
the meet sagged at the start - they need to punch it up more. And why were the dunk tanks all the way in the back? Should have been square on the front stretch where we could see the faces of the people going in. -
i was also at the meet and it was a blast - so much fun to be on the homestretch during the men's 1500. i ran in the 5k too and it was a surprisingly nice course, lots of time on cinder and wood chips running along the river. very smart of the organizers to tie the road race to the meet - at least half of the stadium was road race participants. i didn't go over but it looked like the beer garden was full in addition to the stands.
really nice to see it come together so nicely. i watched the first two meets on facebook and this meet was definitely a league above those two. i really hope this continues and expands because i had a great time and it seemed like the athletes did as well (and so many PRs!!) -
Track nerds rejoice!!! Any Track geek is gonna tune in to watch...your a Track nerd. The forced jocularity of the announcers was embarrassing. The sport is dead has been and will continue to be. Let's put Max Siegel in the Dunk Tank and give the 3000 meter runners balls and as they circle the track trying to catch the women's 2500 meter runners (WTF)! they can try and dunk Max, Worse than last years meet in Atlanta when they had bands and cheerleaders.
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lbeit a differing opinion, I liked the implementation of The Freeze, esp if you know his background. I don't really understand how many believe fun events such as these make track a circus now...It involves the crowd and they're into it.
It's a great introduction into the sport and the athletes have fun! I don't get the purists. Why are yall so against growing and expanding the sport? As long as the athletes enjoy it then there shouldn't be a problem.
I agree with you- a few years ago I went to a minor league baseball game- there were between inning fan participation events, mascots running around the bleachers- it brought in fans.
I think the should give tickets to kids- get them there with their parents (or in groups of teenagers) to buy products and meet the pros up close.
I loved the meet and the concept.
One change- for the announcer- he made a big deal out of 9 points for first.
In a meet like this the secondary places become just as important. -
But this is NOT a television product and is not the way we want our sport delivered to the public
We?
I want the sport delivered to the public. Every sport does this- they use gimmicks to fill the stands and sell the sport. -
I was also at the meet and enjoyed it too. However, I'd say it was closer to 75% of the people there were due to the road race. I've always felt that road racing would be a good tie-in to T&F. It should definitely be done more often. I thought the music was a little too loud as I couldn't really talk to my friends while sitting in the stands. It was better by the beer garden.
Giving 'team' shirts to the road runners was a cool idea, but they should have given them out to all or sold them for $10, not $25.
I liked the team concept and some of the team events. The 3000m was great. As was the mixed relay.
I also liked the 8x400m. Doesn't have to be shown on TV, but it was fun to watch in person.
Did the parking restriction materialize? I was able to drive right in and park without any issues.
Anyone know what the attendance number was? I would estimate between 1500-2000. -
Zay wrote:
I loved seeing the energy and smiles on these athletes faces. It reminded me of almost an High School/NCAA conference meet w you're teammates on the infield cheering you on. It was almost nostalgic to watch.
Albeit a differing opinion, I liked the implementation of The Freeze, esp if you know his background. I don't really understand how many believe fun events such as these make track a circus now...It involves the crowd and they're into it.
It's a great introduction into the sport and the athletes have fun! I don't get the purists. Why are yall so against growing and expanding the sport? As long as the athletes enjoy it then there shouldn't be a problem
All in all, I honestly enjoyed the meet more than I enjoy Diamond Leagues. The only time those are fun is when a World Lead/WR is broken. And the athletes never seem to enjoy it or at least show it.
Can't wait for the next Summer Series. Hopefully this can get expanded
Kudos to them dropping a ton of dollars for trying but the problem with the meet is it's not repeatable.
You liked how athletes got excited for the team stuff. Well that's because $1,000 was on the line and the gerrymandered the teams to make sure it came down to the 4 x 400. At the other meets (and in person in NYC, I was there), the team stuff was totally irrevelant or unfollowable. I watched a replay on tv and the announcers did a good job with it but it's still an exhibition. The marquee names - hell Allyson Felix - aren't racing.
What do you want them to do? Have another meet where people get into the team results? There's a reason why conference meets are exciting - they are one-off affairs.
Plus I don't see how this ever works financially.
Think about it. There are 36 athletes per team x 4. So that's like 144 athletes. If they spend just $1,000 per athlete for travel/hotels,etc that's $144,000. Add in prize money. It was roughly $11,000+ per event x 13 events. That's $143,000 x 3 as there were three meets. That's basically $450,000.
So you're looking at something like $600,000 in expenses for the athletes without even counting GM salaries, etc. Then you need employees to pull it off. I had no idea how labor intensive this is but bet it takes a ton of work. When you add in employees, I think expenses are easily over $1 million as 8 employees at 50k is 400k.
So let's say you are looking a million easily just in expenses.
How many people were at Randall's Island? 2,000? 3,000? How many of those were paying customers. Well there were 600+ in the road race that got admission and I'd be stunned if there were that many 'paying fans'. But let's say 600 in road race and 600 paying fans. That's 1,200.. I'll be generous. Let's say it was 1500 paying fans/road racers + 1,000 freebies for kids, etc.
Average ticket or entry fee was 25-30 bucks. Lets say $30.
1,500 x $30 = $45,000. Let's say the other two meets equaled that (combined). So we have revenue of 90,000 and expenses of over a million.
And don't say, "What about the tv money?" I'd be my life that TrackTown did a time-buy on ESPN. I bet one of the biggest expenses is for tv coverage.
Yes, I know there were some sponsors etc. But the diamond league in new york got WAY bigger crowds and didn't last. The only way to make money would be to get tv to pay you but how is that ever going to happen? I just don't see it.
In tennis, team tennis exists. Minor league baseball exists. So maybe it's not impossible but it's going to be tough. -
here is how the series was paid for: two very rich guys. Could be good, could be bad. Depends how deep their pockets are, and if they are priming the pump for other sponsors to come in.
https://www.gotracktownusa.com/inside_track/2017/01/financial-investors-tracktown-summer-series-announced/ -
I liked the TTSS. I think it's a really cool idea and I watched all 3.
But, track in general is difficult to keep popular. Think of it this way, when you go to a NFL or NBA game you go to see the star or stars. And you see them the entire game.
In track the star or stars only run once and then done. If your favorite athlete is Bolt then you sit for 2-3 hours to see him for 10 seconds. A lot of people might say, "not worth it." If you love distance runners, fine. You can see them for longer periods but if they jog 90% of the race then you might feel disappointed and that you wasted your time. And once the race is over, that's it. They are gone.
To make a series work we need track meets with stars in every race. -
econ 101 wrote:
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Plus I don't see how this ever works financially.
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Why don't you explain the finances of any other major track meet like a DL meet, because I fail to see in your explanation where this one costs a ton more/generates way less. -
To free up some time to do the Freeze promo (a relatively last minute change) someone suggested running the 3000s concurrently but with offset start times. Seems lots of folks found that interesting.
Next we'll see them put a rail on lane four and run two events at once .
Think steeple inside and a 5000m outside might shorten overall meet times
