Twitter spat between Christian Taylor, Will Claye, Rome meet director and Carl Lewis is getting interesting

The irony of Carl Lewis complaining about ANYONE having a sense of entitlement problem is so thick I need a machete to cut it.

Ticketmaster wrote:

The cheap seats are 5 Euros and the nice ones are 30. This guy is not going to sell 1000-1500 tickets to make it worth while to pay his airfair.

The money is in the TV deals.

Agree, let's get the details out there. Taylor cites "budgetary reasons." What does that mean? What specifically happened and what was he offered? If he was offered free travel/lodging and turned it down because they wouldn't pay him an appearance fee, I'd side with the meet on this one. If he didn't even get travel/lodging, then I'd side with Taylor.

And what about the meet's budget? If they're trying to cut costs and hoarding the savings for themselves, that seems greedy. But I suspect the more likely scenario is that the meet has not been as financially successful in recent years and budget cuts are required to keep it sustainable.

With Claye, $10,500 is a lot to drop on a triple jumper, which, let's be honest, is not one of the marquee events of the Diamond League. The fact is, almost every athlete in this meet is expendable. People aren't showing up to Rome specifically to watch Will Claye jump.

Do I wish it were otherwise? Of course! It would be great if the sport were popular, and all the meets made tons of money that was paid out to the athletes in appearance fees/prize money. But take a look around. Several of these DL meets are faltering. NY couldn't support one and had to be moved. Paris had to go to a smaller stadium a couple years back. The IAAF says it's cutting events next year to make meets more exciting and faster paced, but in reality a huge reason is budget-related. No meet likes to be forced to drop $28,000 in prize money (plus flights/meals/lodging) on an event like the women's discus.

I support athletes standing up for themselves, but I also think some of them need to adjust to the changing financial realities of the sport. The same benefits that were on offer a few years ago when a meet was more successful might not be available anymore.

B-dubs 2.0 wrote:

Spectators don't care about this guy, I've never heard of him. His demands for a business class ticket are absurd. He should fly coach, and like it.

Sheesh. You're obviously a real student of the sport, aren't you? If you haven't heard of the athlete in question, then any and all of your opinions stated on the matter are null and void. Why are there so many clueless people on this forum? Is it just a sample size

of the world in general?

"...I've never heard of him." Claye has Olympic medals in both the triple jump and the long jump. He has 3 outdoor World Championship medals in the triple jump. He is 2x World Indoor champ in the triple jump.

SlowFatMaster wrote:

"...I've never heard of him." Claye has Olympic medals in both the triple jump and the long jump. He has 3 outdoor World Championship medals in the triple jump. He is 2x World Indoor champ in the triple jump.

Great, take the topic to LetsJump.com.

Never thought I would be taking the side of a race director. 10500 is absolutely absurd.

I’ve flown halfway around the world on short notice, cramped middle seat, for a shot at 3000 in prize money. Had to front the ticket and hope a placement would pay it (as well as that month’s rent). My point, other than humblebragging, is to say this has left me with zero empathy for someone like Taylor. Suck it up and fly economy like the rest of us- I see tickets for 750 right now.

B-dubs 2.0 wrote:

SlowFatMaster wrote:

"...I've never heard of him." Claye has Olympic medals in both the triple jump and the long jump. He has 3 outdoor World Championship medals in the triple jump. He is 2x World Indoor champ in the triple jump.

Great, take the topic to LetsJump.com.

Christian Taylor and Will Claye are both bigger stars within the sport of Track and Field than all but a few distance runners. If you’ve never even heard of them, then you just don’t follow the sport.

Ehso wrote:

B-dubs 2.0 wrote:

Great, take the topic to LetsJump.com.

Christian Taylor and Will Claye are both bigger stars within the sport of Track and Field than all but a few distance runners. If you’ve never even heard of them, then you just don’t follow the sport.

I'm a casual fan, albeit not as informed about jumps or field events. Yet I'm the sort of person who might actually pay to attend an event like this. I've never heard of the guy. How many people who would attend have? And if he has zero name recognition, why does he expect a $10,500 airline ticket?

I know both of them. Just to be clear, it's Will asking for a business class ticket, not Christian. Will has been second banana to Christian since they were in college. Any American based athlete is going to be expensive for all Diamond League promoters other than the Prefontaine Classic. A train ticket from Frankfurt is a lot cheaper. Television money is where the cash comes in for Diamond League, particularly since most of the season is during the summer when there's very little pro soccer to broadcast. Everybody in Europe is on vacation, anyway, so they're not at the meet. They're watching on television.

I think that, if you look at a meet event by event, no event by itself is going to be cost justified. People don't show up to see just one event, the same way no one goes to the circus just to see the elephants. You have to look at the whole package, trading off how long events take (I'm looking at you, 10000), facilities requirements (e.g. the high jump apron extending onto the track in Monaco), how many athletes you need to create a credible event and providing a variety of things to see, ideally with excellent performances. Not easy.

Last time someone else was Gold/Silver in this event was when? The problem here is the IAAF rules on rankings which are fundamentally unfair to anyone not in Europe.

What an entitled child. Sure he's good but I know athletes who are also world class but way better known going to Rome this week and not demanding that. 10,500 business class? C'mon man. There are multiple diamond League champs/world champs flying economy to this thing.

The thing that gets me is that someone, let alone multiple people, are stepping into defend him here too.

On a related note, Gigi has gone out of his way in the past to make sure some quality but lesser known athletes get a shot in Rome and have their travel looked after well. People like Elle Purrier getting into a pretty stacked 1500. Odds she PBs are great. Man, if you can send 10 athletes who are desperate for the opportunity and break for the same price as a dude in an event no one cares about I'm all for it.

Wowwwwwww wrote:

What an entitled child. Sure he's good but I know athletes who are also world class but way better known going to Rome this week and not demanding that. 10,500 business class? C'mon man. There are multiple diamond League champs/world champs flying economy to this thing.

The thing that gets me is that someone, let alone multiple people, are stepping into defend him here too.

On a related note, Gigi has gone out of his way in the past to make sure some quality but lesser known athletes get a shot in Rome and have their travel looked after well. People like Elle Purrier getting into a pretty stacked 1500. Odds she PBs are great. Man, if you can send 10 athletes who are desperate for the opportunity and break for the same price as a dude in an event no one cares about I'm all for it.

If people would actually sit down and read the details, you would see why Claye's ticket was so expensive. The meet director was demanding some proof of fitness and by the time he was satisfied, the ticket was outrageously expensive.

Sorry, but no Joe DL Fan cares about some random 1500 runner getting a "PB". The DL is about the elite, not the up-and-comers.

Bad Wigins wrote:

The heart of this issue is that deep down, the fans don't really care who can jump three times. It is the goofiest event in athletics, testing a skill with no practical use in the real world. And records seem to show it was invented as the explanation for impossibly good ancient greek long jump marks.

"No practical use in the real world"

What about if you're trying to cross a crocodile infested body of water and it's too wide to long jump?

Ever think of that?

In all honesty, though wrote:

If people would actually sit down and read the details, you would see why Claye's ticket was so expensive. The meet director was demanding some proof of fitness and by the time he was satisfied, the ticket was outrageously expensive.

Sorry, but no Joe DL Fan cares about some random 1500 runner getting a "PB". The DL is about the elite, not the up-and-comers.

I read it.

1) proof of fitness is asked for by meets all the time.

2) I just checked, he could fly tomorrow non business class cross Atlantic for under 800usd right now. Maybe if he wasn't demanding business that wouldn't be an issue. Again, there are bigger names going to that meet not flying business.

3) how do you think up and comers become bigger names? Gabriela DeBues Stafford, a no name Canadian, almost beat a bunch of East Africans including Obiri in a DL 5000 last week and made the race worth watching. A DL needs those elite but not necessarily world class athletes firstly for possible entertainment, but also because those athletes will never run faster if they don't get the race opportunities. How many womens 5000s have gone sub 15 in north America in the past five years? How many mens 5000 have gone sub 13 there in that time frame? How many sub 3:38, or 4:00 1500s?

A DL is one of the best tickets to the big stage for lots of these athletes, so meet directors looking hard for potentially breakthrough talent is key.

My way of fixing the diamond league:

1) IAAF takes over international wrestling

2) Cut down a majority of events so athletes have to face each other in the same events. New events are as follows:

100m, 400m, 800m, mile, 5k, 4x100, 4x400, pv, javelin, long jump, infield obstacle course race, infield wrestling, mile wrestle (top 4 finishers wrestle tournament for the win, immediately after the race),

3) 6 major teams are formed and majority of prize money is for the team winning each dual meet. Season consists of 5 dual meets for each team (15 meets in total around the world), and one championship meet. Loser is paid an appearance fee. Athletes should want to try to both help the team win, and not get dropped from the team in future weeks.

4) 6 "junior" teams are formed and run a similar circuit. Any athlete in the junior circuit can be drafted to the senior circuit weekly, based on waiver wire order (similar to fantasy football). To draft, an athlete must be released or sent to IR (each team has a limited number of spots).

If you would sit down and get on google flight you would know there are MUCH cheaper options. If I was the meet director, i would have said, "sorry, but you didn't show fitness til as of late so we can't offer to fly you business, there is a business option for 3k and a few other cheaper options for around a 1000". It's not the meet directors fault he hadn't shown fitness before then and if he wanted to spend a decent bit of money on him (3k-4k in travel), he would have gotten him in the meet months ago.

Yes, DL is about the elites and I love seeing them, but a lot of them are dodging the DL circuit anyways. Claye's 10.5k ticket could have put together a whole field of hungry distance runners who are actually going to get TV time. 10 3:35 guys would have had no problem getting a 1k round trip ticket to Rome for a chance to go 3:33. Even if the flight was crappy and I can guarantee you that's the last thing they are thinking about. Elite's are great, but when they get super greedy it just saturates any chance of depth. The same thing happens in WMM's sometimes, but at least there's only 6 a year and not 12 events so it's at least a little more justifiable.

Twitter spats can never be interesting, unless you have no life.

usnspecialist wrote:

The irony of Carl Lewis complaining about ANYONE having a sense of entitlement problem is so thick I need a machete to cut it.

^Truth. About as good as hearing him complain about drug cheats...