In part one of this series I discussed a tiered structure of track meets. In part two, after a conversation with @chrisnickinson, I proposed that the aforementioned tiers be a ratings system sponsored by USATF and demanded that track meets be presented in an entertaining fashion. I outlined, in specifics, how a small, local, “Tier 3” or “Tier 4” track meet might be presented.
I believe that part of USATF’s responsibilities include demanding an entertaining broadcast of nationally televised track meets. Again, one can take tips from soccer. (After skimming soccer forums this weekend, hardcore fans of that sport still see themselves as a niche sport in the United States. I found that interesting, especially since sports talk radio has been gushing for the past two weeks about how soccer has finally “made it” in this country.) During a soccer match, be it MLS, the English Premiere League an international friendly, or an international tournament such as the FIFA Confederations Cup or the FIFA World Cup, commercials are not shown during play, only during halftime. This allows for two segments of 45+ minutes to show the game as it develops, and eliminates the fury that would explode if a goal were to be missed. During a track race, the effect is the same. Nearly without fail, during a distance race, whichever major network is televising that particular meet breaks for a commercial. Oftentimes the commercial break will come, say, two or three minutes into a 5,000m race and conclude with three or four minutes remaining. Exciting moves are often made—and missed—during those six or seven minutes of the commercial break. It gets even worse when they cut to a commercial break during a 1500m or 3000m race, which are also common occurrences. In order to present a track meet as a viewable, entertaining event, the television networks must come up with a solution for commercial breaks. The beauty of a track meet is that, as opposed to soccer, there are opportunities to cut to a commercial—just not during races! I don’t think it would be too much to ask for a meet to have short 2-3 minute “commercial time outs” between various events. During this time field events could still take place (thus eliminating down-time inside the stadium) and any highlight-worthy marks can easily be shown upon the return from the commercial break.
Another major problem with the presentation of track and field events on television is the attitude which the commentators take towards the event. With their oft-occurring insistence to describe every minor facet of the sport, the impression to the casual viewer is that track and field isn’t a sport worth knowing the intricacies of. When I watch any other sport—baseball, football, soccer, golf, tennis, ping-pong…you get the point—the announcers assume that I, as the viewer, have taken the time to learn the basic rules and regulations of the sport. Announcers don’t interrupt a World Cup group match to explain to the audience soccer’s off-sides rule, or a Wimbledon final to describe—in layman’s terms—how unfathomably fast a 100 MPH serve off a tennis racket is. Likewise, viewers don’t need to be reminded how far a 5,000m race is in comparison to their “local neighborhood track.”
As the governing body, USATF needs to yank on the reigns and regain some control over the presentation of track meets.
I mentioned in part one that I believe that the 1994 FIFA World Cup—which was hosted in the United States—is a huge part of the rise of soccer in this country over the last fifteen years. Major League Soccer itself rose from the foundation that the World Cup left behind. Though I believe a “pro track league”—filled with teams, divisions, and the like—is an unreasonable concept, I also believe that track and field, using the concepts put forth in this series thus far, could flourish in the United States. That said, what better way to jump-start that process than to host an IAAF World Championship? FIFA’s choice of the United States as 1994’s host country was much lambasted due to the lack of popularity for the sport in this country at the time, but check out the resulting sporting revolution in America: World Cup matches, during non-prime time slots, received better ratings than NBA Finals games. The deadline to bid for the 2017 IAAF World Championship in Athletics has yet to pass. I believe that USATF must put together a competitive bid with the full intention of winning. Doing so could change the face and popularity of the sport in the United States for generations.
I like the idea here, but I think that there should be a corollary and I have a question or two. First of all, I do believe that there is not currently a track and field facility which meets all the regulations to host a World Championships, but of course if we were to get a bid in we could for sure build a track suitable for them. Second of all, I have this fear that even if we were to have the World Champs here, the USATF/NBC or whoever would be sponsoring/hosting this event would do a terrible job of promoting it and half the population or even more would have no idea that we were hosting the event here. It astounds me how little the population knows about events like the Olympic Trials and such. (I know this is a tangent, but it pisses me off to no end watching Asics and Nike commercials that feature slow guys with terrible running form clicking off 9 min miles in Nikes instead of using guys like Ryan Hall, Lagat, Solinsky, etc in their commercials. They have professional athletes for a reason! As a kid, it was because of ads just showing Michael Jordan highlights that made me want to wear Nikes. I was thinking how easy a 30 second ad of Solinksy’s last 100 meters with the crowd going nuts and the words “Chis Solinsky- New American Record Holder- 26:59″ and then the black screen with the Nike swoosh. How simple is that? It would be a great promoter as well as people knowing one of their elite athletes. You would think that they could at least show a “best of” video after World Champs/Olympics or even meets like Pre where Nike has the rights with the names and accomplishments of athletes wearing their stuff!) Anyway! If the USATF/Nike were to get a bid, it would be a disgrace if they were to just promote it in the region where it was being held. I’m thinking billboards in every major city, huge TV ads/promos, etc. You think of how great a job the World Cup has been doing. Not a soul is oblivious as to what is going on. Oh well, maybe just some ramblings from one over-zealous track fan to another, but I think you get my point. It’s just rather simple things like this that I think track in general could do a better job of.
Hunter, you’ve brought up some good points. I had planned a “Call to the Sponsoring Companies,” discussing making the athletes more accessible to the masses, as well as a more detailed discussion of a USA bid for an IAAF World Championship, and you touched on portions of both of those.
One thing to remember (with regard to the Oly Trials comment) is that track and field probably isn’t ever going to be on par with the “Big Four” sports in the United States, in terms of numbers of fans, and that’s okay. However, I believe that it has the potential to be as popular as soccer presently is, with the masses having a general idea of what’s going on, yet still maintaining the hardcore LetsRun, Dyestat (RIP), RunnerSpace, Flotrack crowd, while the masses get ridiculously excited during World Championships and Olympics. It’s possible for those two to coexist. The whole country gets excited during The Master’s golf tournament…an event that doesn’t include team scoring but rather wherein individual athletes are sponsored, and a sport that *most* don’t follow very closely, but everyone knows the names, and, during The Master’s, everyone knows everything. Why can’t track function similarly? It’s all about the proper marketing, advertising, promoting, and presentation. I’ll touch on these in more depth in a new piece, hopefully tomorrow.