THE RISE AND FALL of NASCAR - And how it applies to TRACK and FIELD

Bob Schul Country wrote:

there is no major races on tv anymore. in the 80's we had a weekly show about road racing on tv. track was on all the time. track anf field and road racing missed the boat whwn sports tv took off. you would think that cross country running was made for tv.

Where?

Right now on a tues afternoon there is 4 hours of track and field on TV.. That did not happen in the 80's or before. Hell you might only get 15 min of running on ABC's Wide World of Sports every 3 or 4 months.

Time to take your nostalgia glasses off.

Jim McKay wrote:

Bob Schul Country wrote:

there is no major races on tv anymore. in the 80's we had a weekly show about road racing on tv. track was on all the time. track anf field and road racing missed the boat whwn sports tv took off. you would think that cross country running was made for tv.

Where?

Right now on a tues afternoon there is 4 hours of track and field on TV.. That did not happen in the 80's or before. Hell you might only get 15 min of running on ABC's Wide World of Sports every 3 or 4 months.

Time to take your nostalgia glasses off.

TV coverage in Europe has disintegrated with the exception of last years world champs .

Jim McKay wrote:

Bob Schul Country wrote:

there is no major races on tv anymore. in the 80's we had a weekly show about road racing on tv. track was on all the time. track anf field and road racing missed the boat whwn sports tv took off. you would think that cross country running was made for tv.

Where?

Right now on a tues afternoon there is 4 hours of track and field on TV.. That did not happen in the 80's or before. Hell you might only get 15 min of running on ABC's Wide World of Sports every 3 or 4 months.

Time to take your nostalgia glasses off.

It's a bunch of re-runs to fill time on the ton of channels and mediums we have today.

And I know exactly how much running we got on broadcast in the 80s, I videotaped every second of it. I'm not wearing nostalgia glasses, I just know that watching live running events today is no better than it was decades ago, all things considered.

I follow a half-dozen oddball sports, and every single one of them is easier to see live than T&F and road racing and marathoning is, in the US. This is a fact.

roblox oof sound wrote:

so let's create a competing legue that is better for the athletes.

Yes. To the average person, Track & Field is this jumbled mess of: there's a meet here ... and a meet there ... and maybe one this month ... and maybe one that month ... And the athletes' participation is pretty similar: Star Runner X might run at the Pre meet ... or maybe not ... or might run 3 Diamond Leagues in a row ... or maybe not, and just chill while they build up for a race 6 months from now.

No one knows concretely when and where anyone will be racing until too soon beforehand, and the locations and athletes participating is hardly consistent.

Contrast that with American football: I already know that there will DEFINITELY be 16 games, at least, played by my favorite team, and I will DEFINITELY get 6 division games against known 'rivals,' and they will all be on Sunday, except for a few games that are known beforehand. I know FOR SURE that EVERY TEAM will be fielding a quarterback and a backup QB, an OL, a RB, a couple WR's, a defense, etc.

This is what Track & Field needs: a league -- with a set schedule that will NOT change year-to-year -- and obvious "starters" who will DEFINITELY compete unless injured... in which case their "backups" compete in their place.

I would suggest that the qualifications to be a team should be pretty loose -- you could be representing your country, or just your state, or just your city, or possibly just your club. So you could have fun team match-ups such as Oregon (the state -- anyone living there) vs. New York City, or London vs. Hungary, or Rudisha's Runners vs. Bavaria, etc. This would also VERY IMPORTANTLY allow most runners from countries with great depth of talent to still compete, since they wouldn't be forced to make their national team or leave the sport. But you should ALWAYS have to field certain positions: e.g. 100m runner, miler, 10k runner, shot-putter, high-jumper.

That consistency of schedule, teams, and "positions" would make it WAY easier to market, and the team nature that fans can latch onto would only help fandom even more.

The Diamond League meets don't have to die, they can just be re-purposed: For example, anytime USA plays Kenya in Track & Field, it always gets played in Monaco, or Oslo, or something like that.

Most people have ADD now, so the long pauses between events makes them bored and anxious.

Pro football has cheerleaders, and boxing has hot chicks holding up a sign and strutting around with the upcoming round number on it, so maybe between events and during 10ks.

Ban all non foot transportation

3hr-marathoner wrote:

Another random thought but baseball games can be really long: 3+ hours. I actually really enjoy when they show edited versions of the game the next day where the action is compressed to 2 hours. With intelligent editing and tricks like picture in picture, a multiday track meet could be compressed into two hours or so of compelling TV.

Agreed, I like watching a one hour package of a meet.

cxb wrote:

3hr-marathoner wrote:

Another random thought but baseball games can be really long: 3+ hours. I actually really enjoy when they show edited versions of the game the next day where the action is compressed to 2 hours. With intelligent editing and tricks like picture in picture, a multiday track meet could be compressed into two hours or so of compelling TV.

Agreed, I like watching a one hour package of a meet.

If the uhh, package, lasts more than four hours, contact your doctor.

elviejo wrote:

@runn wrote:

Who will pay for this "marketing"?

Mexico.

good one

roblox oof sound wrote:

pop_pop!_v2.2.1 wrote:

There is no "we." They have a great system where people are willing to pay to run and they don't have to spend a dime on talent.

USATF is a monopoly. They care not for attendance or grassroots anything.

so let's create a competing legue that is better for the athletes.

Sure. Go ahead and turn the economic history of monopolies upside down. A monopoly cannot be defeated.

1. Make deal with NFL, put on a 100m event on the field during halftime (must have lanes that you can lay down quickly and easily), a points thing that builds up week by week until someone wins the big prize at halftime of the Super Bowl. Connects a billion fans to mostly unknown sprinters. Add sports betting and now we're getting somewhere.

2. Fast food companies should sponsor elite distance runners. Personalize Rupp, Jager, Coburn, etc. Gives fast food companies a way to show that their products are healthy (lol). Why doesn't supermodel Colleen Quigley have a major endorsement contract?

If people know who they are, they might be interested in how they do.

Like all things PC, it decayed wrote:

Basically, it was downhill from 2008 or so when they went "green" with the ethanol-gas.

Formula 1 also did this with hybrid engines and now the cars are muted.

Nascar was formed by hillbilly moonshiners who built hot rods to out run the cops with their bootleg whiskey. Track will never have a history that cool.

Maybe the steeplechase was started by starving drifters stealing eggs from farmers, running through fields and jumping over fences to escape.

Sand Dunes wrote, in part:

"2. Stop drug testing, we need freaks in our sport."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAdG-iTilWU

roblox oof sound wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igP1Q-KMO6U&frags=pl%2Cwn

How can we apply this to growing track viewership?

1. LIVE events

2. NOT DESTROYING CLASSIC STADIUMS (THAT MEANS YOU PHIL!)

What do you get from the video?

discus

Yep they are doing just horrible;

Viewership is down in most sports. It also doesn’t help that there’s not a Petty, Gordon, or Earnhardt winning many races these days.

Alan

SlowFatMaster wrote:

Sand Dunes wrote, in part:

"2. Stop drug testing, we need freaks in our sport."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAdG-iTilWU

As a Libertarian I 100% approve of that.

Get rid of the NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, NASCAR, and Smart Phones. Then track will become more popular

XC+TF is extremely successful in the US. Nearly every high school, Juco, 4 year has a XC+T&F team in the US.