cpaiglesias wrote:
While I also hated the coverage, you have to understand who their target audience is. It is not Lets' Run die hard hardcore fans. 99% of the people watching this today have no idea who Kipchoge or Bekele is. And that 99% is the people who pay the bills watching the commercials from the sponsors and NBC.
The coverage was pretty much spot on for the needs and taste of 99% of the TV audience, and that sucks for us the 1%.
We've heard that justification for years now. It leaves open the question of why in the world is that their target audience?? No other sport is covered the way running, and, to a lesser extent, triathlon is covered. Not the big 4, not even nascar or golf for heaven's sake.
And don't tell me the audience is too small to justify serious coverage of marathons. How many people are watching non-major golf tournaments, or non grand slam tennis?? And even though only casual fans tune into the super bowl or wimbledon, they don't compromise the quality of coverage. Instead the governing bodies of those sports use those as opportunities to increase the sports following.
And the casual viewer LOVES pretending to be among the cognescenti. How many people do we all know who go around saying peloton and 'attack' during the TdF - people who can't ride a bike because they're too damn fat???
The problem with distance running is that there's no single body governing it's development. Marathoning, in particular, but distance running more generally, needs its own international governing body. It needs to have power to sanction events - in both senses of that word. There should be 3 big marathons/year (their location can rotate, like golf's majors...) and it should be clear that all of the top guys should plan on being there. No pacers either. The focus on times to the detriment of racing has hurt our sport's appeal. Other than Rudisha's 800, I wouldn't put any of the current distance WR's among even the top 50 races I've ever seen.
Grrrr..... /end{rant}