Spot on. This is why I wonder why we have track events longer than 800m (maybe the 1500, maybe). There is so little loyalty to the sport of track and field in the long distance crowd, why bother catering to them at all?
You are delusional. Distance runners are the most "loyal" to track and field. Distance runners and distance fans CARRY every track meet and account for the vast majority ticket sales, shoe sales, and revenue.
Pro sprinters barely even race! Michael Norman has raced twice all year. Syd and Athing barely race. Rai Benjamin has raced twice all year.
Nobody wanted to buy rights to the Diamond League so flotrack came in and picked them up because they know they can sell memberships to distance fans. flotrack sucks but the diamond league would have been financially screwed if it weren't for them.
That's just not correct. Flo sports bought the broadcast rights for the Diamond League in the US, the Diamond League would be just fine without Flo sports or any other US broadcaster for that matter, the real market is Eurosports and their like internationally.
They actually did a survey of favorite events of people that actually buy tickets for Diamond League meets, and the distance events were at the bottom of the list:
Market research, consumer surveys and clicks on social media have been used to choose which events will be part of the International Association of At...
Disagree with a single national title event. That's good for fans but it's not good for the kids. Some of the current, top talent won't get any better and flame out in college. Some of the people who will become elite in college are lesser knowns. They don't have the best coaching, training, nutrition, etc which will improve with better resources. That kid you're watching in the 3rd heat may go on to do something.
Kids running in these national events have a good shot at making it at college somewhere. They may not win an NCAA championship but they love to compete They do a ton of training. My son had a terrible performance at his state meet. He's a junior and ran some of his slowest times in his career. His psyche was pretty badly bruised. He never had an off day of racing before. Running at NON proved to him that he wasn't a failure and allowed a reset. It got his mindset re-adjusted and I think he's ready to continue training over the summer. Without NON, I'm not sure he would be ready for the upcoming XC season.
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They're kids. Why commercialize their presence in a field where there's very little actual money for competitors? Plus I liked the college football bowl games more before there was a national championship. It was more fun and interesting.
Disagree with a single national title event. That's good for fans but it's not good for the kids. Some of the current, top talent won't get any better and flame out in college. Some of the people who will become elite in college are lesser knowns. They don't have the best coaching, training, nutrition, etc which will improve with better resources. That kid you're watching in the 3rd heat may go on to do something.
Kids running in these national events have a good shot at making it at college somewhere. They may not win an NCAA championship but they love to compete They do a ton of training. My son had a terrible performance at his state meet. He's a junior and ran some of his slowest times in his career. His psyche was pretty badly bruised. He never had an off day of racing before. Running at NON proved to him that he wasn't a failure and allowed a reset. It got his mindset re-adjusted and I think he's ready to continue training over the summer. Without NON, I'm not sure he would be ready for the upcoming XC season.
I agree. Sounds nice the idea of having one national meet but by mid June kids that have kept training that arent Brooks qualified and want to run in a cool environment like Hayward or Franklin Field should. Its another chance to pr, have fun, meet people. And yes it costs money, people need to make money. Brands need to make money. So what? Again, I understand how its sort of annoying but its also giving more opportunities. Why make kids from the west coast pay to fly back east and vice versa? Most of these kids in the EE sections will prob not run in college so I say create access to as many meets as possible and for the love of god stop complaining about having more opportunities and put the focus on how bad the announcing is.
Isn't it just grand that literally 4 or 5 kids every year, in a single event, can say they are National Champs? The greed of shoe companies has destroyed any hope of having a true national champ.
I personally like the Brooks PR meet format. Invite only. They foot the bill for the athletes and give them some nice swag. The meet itself is fast as it's finals only. Whole thing done in maybe 2-3 hours. It's free for spectators!
Yes, please let's do that and make sure our top talent runs from January to December with multiple national championships before during and after each of the four seasons (Fall, Indoor, Outdoor, Summer). And can we do that all the way down to age three, thanks.
I personally like the Brooks PR meet format. Invite only. They foot the bill for the athletes and give them some nice swag. The meet itself is fast as it's finals only. Whole thing done in maybe 2-3 hours. It's free for spectators!
Yes, that is an outstanding idea for high school. Our country definitely needs more burnouts like Jim Ryun was at age 20. (The age he was when he set his last world record!)
Let the shoe companies put on their meets, just don't all do it on the same weekend and not call it a national championship. Just call them invitationals. Of course that doesn't have the same cachet as National Champion.
As much as I hate to say it, USATF is the only one that should be putting on a prep/junior national championship. Can't they somehow threaten a sanction or something similar? That is what the NGB is for.
Unless they participated themselves in T&F, most parents are naive about their child's sport and the times they run. So when their kids shows them the flyer/email for NBON or NON, etc., parents think they are Olympic bound!
