rojo wrote:
SteepleBias wrote:
Part of the 5000 / 10000 problem is that it is essentially the same runners running nearly the same race at the championship level. Typically it is a slowish start with a furious kick over the last 400m. How many times has the same runner won the 5000 / 10000 at the WC and Olympics vs. not?
Not as often as you think. Since 1980, its happened in 4 of the 10 Olympics for the men.
For the women, the 5 and 10 have been offered since 1996. The same person has won both 1 out of 6 times.
You missed my point. The 100 and 200 are nearly the same in terms of type of athlete and how the race is run. This is also true for the 5000 and 10000. If you look at the medals, you will see some of the same names for those pairs of events in many Olympics and World Championships.
I enjoy watching these races, but objectively I can see that they are very similar. Adding variety is a good thing, but making the meet less diverse by having only sprint and middle distance is probably not the answer. Hence my other point that the steeple and cross country add real variety.
I also agree that T&F governing bodies are failing miserably at getting viewership from a huge base of participation, especially in the US. If the USATF were serious about anything other than skimming money from the local associations, they would be promoting the local association, regional, national meets as spectator events by getting involved with local running clubs, going to road races and handing out free tickets and entries to meets.
They could have the big meets streamed for free or very cheap until the viewership was at a healthy level - and it could take years. Heck, they have Runnerspace/USATF.tv and they could completely control viewership of ALL USATF events and stream EVERYTHING. Take the networks out of the picture and COMPLETELY control content and get ALL the revenue. I'd actually pay for it if all USATF meets were available instead of a very select few. Again, promote through local clubs and road races. They have to get over the idea of "If it is on TV, people will watch." That paradigm is over.
Instead of silly commercials during track meets with USA athletes selling USATF wares but not saying who they are or what they do or even why the clothes are good, they could show amazing race finishes, grinding practices, etc and let the athletes speak. Nike knows how to do this (Shalane Vaporfly commercial, etc) and the USATF is owned by them so they could just ask. But they are not serious.