WHY TRACK & FIELD IS CURRENTLY NOT POPULAR IN THE U.S.

CoeOvett wrote:

What sports fan doesn’t want to see 10 East Africans with the same build, skin color and haircut AND wearing the same color kit run 12.5 or 25 laps around a track?

MIght be better as a news program discussing the politics behind allowing E. Africans, Cubans, Jamaicans, certain sprinters, etc. to cheat while enforcing rules against other peoples and nations. Then you could explain the lack of diversity. Just sayin'.

I see a number of folks listing the increase in "sit and kick" as a major cause for the lack of T&F popularity. Firstly, was T&F popular before sit and kick races increased in frequency? Secondly, how does sit and kick make races less interesting to an average person watching with no real racing experience? The field is thinning out earlier vs most of the runners are close until a sprint finish at the end. It seems for your average Joe spectator there would be pros and cons of both and I wouldn't think one would definitely be more compelling than another.

I don't see any way for T&F to be much more popular in the short term, but I think the greatest area for perhaps some slight improvement would be in announcing. Pretty much all of the strategy is in pacing and there is very little commentary on that. Occasionally they will reference a slow pace or fast lap, but no real analysis of race tactics. So it's just skinny people running in a circle and then one finishes a little ahead of the others. Unless that one person is an American, folks in the US don't really care. People do care a little more about the sprints as the US historically does well, they are hyped up ("Fastest Man on Earth!", etc.), and the sprinters often preen, and strut, and throw some shade at competitors.

It popular among participants. For females its the most participated in sport in high school. For males I believe it's third highest. Any other sport with those numbers would find some way to play to that population of kids and their parents, and get people to track meets, or to buy merchandise or some type of marketing. Hire Don King

thank you - perhaps I'll look into becoming an official if they're short handed - if and when I can leave this rat hole state shaped like a tornado! (where you have to train at 2 am June through Sept to avoid heat exhaustion & I'm not joking either)

I think we need more emphasis on Senior Games.

all right - I've lived in Texas since 1984 and believe me nobody cares about track and field here on a large scale - heck even on a small scale - there's only 1 track meet in the Dallas area where there was an actual excitement in the air as well as a decent fan turnout and that was when Jeremey Wariner ran the 200 at the UTA Invitational (I even got his autograph that was cool!) (and now he's retired managing his own Jimmy Johns) - other than that, track meets have many many many empty seats most of the time - the HS championship meets get decent turnouts, but most likely it's athletes themselves, and their moms and dads, and some grandpas and grandmas - but actual other regular people ? Ha no way - there's only one city in the USA that the locals get excited about track and field and that's Eugene, Oregon - if I'm wrong, I'll actually be happy - I want to be wrong - but I don't think I am

totally agree! The NBC coverage is so bad it's just ridiculous. You got that Rawlson guy (whatever his name is) he's always talking about pace per mile which that is a good thing - so you're watching let's say the 5000 and thinking "what will be their opening mile split?" (because Larry's got you in pace per mile thinking mode) so they get to 1400 and you're thinking "OK 1st mile coming up" and you're watching the clock then at 1425 meters "OK we'll take a commercial break and come back with the conclusion" - I can't tell you how that pisses me off as a viewer - total crap - I get they got bills to pay (although a NASCAR race will go on for like 30+ laps before a commercial) but can't they wait at least till the 1 mile split? an extra 35/40 seconds that's all I'm asking! Then when they finally come back I'm now screaming at the TV "get back to the 5000!" But does that happen ? Heck no way! "OK in the pole vault so and so attempted 17 feet or whatever and let's take a look - Oh he didn't make it"- then they show the 2nd 3rd and maybe more attempts - most of the time the attempts are failed but they'll waste more time showing the athlete waving to the crowd for a FAILED attempt - they'll eventually get back to the 5000 "OK we're back to the 5000 with 3 laps to go" Thanks a lot MFerz, I missed laps 5 through 9 -1/2 you stupid NBC D bags!!!

False. T&F is the most popular sport in the world.

6. There used to be a show on some B sports network that gave highlights of major road races. They'd show like 5-10 mins of a handful of races from europe and elsewhere. If anyone remebers this show please comment the name and network. Unfortunately, it was on at like 11 am on weekdays or something. I only caught it a few times, but when I did it was really freaking good. I think I saw wejo on one segment.

THANK YOU.. I worked as producer/camera/editor on that show (RUNNING) and continue to contribute frequently over the years however I am in Europe covering the Diamond League for the next 2.5 months. That show had a counterpart A few years ago called 'Marathons+' which highlighted all the top marathons worldwide.

The show is still on YES/ FOX Sports Net (now ESPN since the purchase about three months ago).

The shows emphasis has changed from performance to the "festival of running atmosphere" or what I call running moms and dads. Very little elite emphasis. That change in direction was at the insistence of the shows owner and producer who is convinced "people don't really care about the elites".

I disagree. People only care about the elites. At least people who are going to click and watch. Also the show never highlights track and field since the argument is "our fans are not track fans, they are road racing fans". That is why you don't see track and field on the RUNNING show.

I have worked on that show, one way or another since 1999, after producing a weekly athletics (track and field) series for Fox Sports that was cancelled in 1998. I hope to one day produce another performance based series incorporating roads and the track but for now I will take pleasure in being assigned to travel the entirety of the Diamond League tour and report on the proceedings. And track or athletics is so much bigger in Europe for a number of reasons that I can't get into.

The forum seems to invites contributors who seem unable to respond to disagreements without the use of childish name calling or other behaviour I find unsettling, so I will refrain from stating what is obvious about the success or lack of success of athletics in the United States.