![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thebeefjerkyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/monopoly-money.gif?resize=291%2C157\")
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I never thought I would utter those words about any sport, let alone track and field. Not after growing up wishing that athletes could run track just like they played football or basketball \u2013 full time and making a living at it. Yet, here we are in the New Millennium and I now understand the meaning of the phrase: \u201cbe careful what you wish for, you just might get it\u201d! Because what I\u2019m getting now are fewer opportunities to see the best athletes perform. Fewer top level match ups. And recent situations such as Usain Bolt refusing to run in Britain because of \u201ctax\u201d issues and Walter Dix pulling out of Monaco because he\u2019s reportedly dissatisfied over the amount of money he\u2019s being paid.<\/p>\n
Watching the professional evolution of track and field has been like watching the movie, \u201cClick\u201d. You know, the Adam Sandler movie where he\u2019s given a \u201cmagic\u201d remote control that he thinks is going to bring sanity and extra time to his life. Instead, however, his life get\u2019s completely out of control. Sort of like watching the growth of track and field since it\u2019s first steps towards \u201cprofessionalism\u201d in the early 80\u2019s.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when the \u201camateur\u201d rules were relaxed and trust funds were allowed to be set up for athletes to hold and manage their \u201cwinnings\u201d. Which over time lead to direct payments to athletes. More importantly, however, it was the idea that athletes could opening be paid for competing that lead to Carl Lewis and the Santa Monica Track Club (SMTC) making a move in the late 80\u2019s\/early 90\u2019s to compete only in those meets in which they were compensated. This included actually boycotting the national championships in the early 90\u2019s because there was no remuneration involved.<\/p>\n
As a result of taking this stance, we first saw the members of the Santa Monica Track Club (SMTC), followed by others, begin to spend more time in Europe competing on the Euro Circuit, than competing in domestic meets. Because the meet promoters on the Euro Circuit had\/have better systems in place to provide athletes with compensation. Their American counterparts were behind the curve in this regards \u2013 and have remained at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to developing the necessary sponsorships to pay the athletes.<\/p>\n
The result was the dismantling over time of the top meets in the United States, as meet promoters have been unable to meet the financial demands of the top level athletes. A landscape that once boasted some of the world\u2019s top competitions \u2013 Fresno, Modesto, Drake, Penn, Kinney Invite, Pepsi Invite, Bruce Jenner Classic, Prefontaine, et al \u2013 has been whittled down to Penn, Pre, and New York as truly world class events. As all the others just weren\u2019t able to keep up with the escalating payments that athletes have begun to demand over the years. <\/p>\n
Early appearance fees of $5,000 to $10,000 in the early 90\u2019s gave way to fees of $25,000 to $50,000 by the close of the decade. With individuals negotiating for \u201cmatch races\u201d beginning to request six figures to go head to head. The first decade of the New Millennium saw these fees rise into six figures for single appearances, to the point where we now hear that Bolt is paid in the neighborhood of $250,000 per appearance!<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t get me wrong. These are professional athletes that are looking to make a living in their chosen sport. Just as those playing basketball, football, baseball, golf and other sports do. And by comparison the majority of athletes in track and field are grossly underpaid when compared to their counterparts in other sports. The issue, IMHO, isn\u2019t that they are getting paid, or how much money those at the top are getting. The issue is how the sport has, or hasn\u2019t dealt with the issue of compensation in general. Because as the sport has evolved, no one has put together an adequate structure, or structure of any type, regarding athlete compensation.<\/p>\n
So has it been great and wonderful that athletes have been able to \u201cget paid\u201d to compete in the sport? To be honest, not really. As I stated above, the transition to professionalism has cost the US most of its major competitions \u2013 leaving us only a handful of real world class meets. And while the European Circuit was the short term winner at first, track & field\u2019s \u201cinflation\u201d has caught up with these meets as well. When appearance fees were in the $5,000 to $10,000 range European meets could still afford to purchase enough athletes and stack enough races to run a full track and field meet. But as fees began to rise, events that \u201clacked star power\u201d began to slowly disappear from meet schedules. For example, there was a time during the \u201coughts\u201d when it was difficult to find the men\u2019s 200 meters at a lot of meets. The idea being that the more glamorous 100 would bring the sprinters to the table and satisfy fans \u201cneed for speed\u201d. <\/p>\n
But over time this philosophy of dropping events based on perceived popularity and ability to pay athletes has lead us to the point where today we have meets like the Bislett Games with no men\u2019s 200 or 400, no women\u2019s 100, no men\u2019s high jump, and no men\u2019s triple jump \u2013 among other \u201cmissing\u201d events. A situation now common at most top level meets. When one athlete gets paid a quarter million to be in a meet, it doesn\u2019t leave much to run the rest of the meet!<\/p>\n
The result is much like the results of the remote control in that movie \u201cClick\u201d. What should have been a big boon to the sport, has turned out to hurt almost everyone involved. The fans get shortchanged time and time again \u2013 paying premium dollar to see what amounts to half a track meet. Worse, of the events that are contested, only half of those may have truly elite competitors. But the increase in appearance fees and contracts hasn\u2019t been a tremendous boon for the athletes either \u2013 because only a handful are making the \u201cBIG\u201d money. Many others are running, throwing and jumping \u201chand to mouth\u201d trying to make a living. Which can be very difficult if your event isn\u2019t offered at every meet!<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not like you can load up on competitions any more in an attempt to \u201cnickel and dime\u201d your way to a productive season. For example, while the 100 meters is a popular event and run in many meets, meet promoters seem to be a lot more selective in adding the 200 and 400. In part because the events are lacking the \u201cstar power\u201d of the 100 meters. Of course there is a \u201cCatch 22\u201d here \u2013 how can stars develop in events if they are not contested often enough for athletes to get good enough to become stars? It\u2019s difficult.<\/p>\n
Stars are not developed in track and field, they rather appear by accident \u2013 or seemingly out of no where. When a Michael Johnson or a Usain Bolt appears, his (or her) events become popular and attract money. Those events are then seen on a majority of meet programs and the athletes competing in those events do well. Unfortunately, high appearance fees in those events mean that other events suffer \u2013 and begin to disappear off meet programs. In short a cycle of money following the events of the most popular athletes creates gaps in other areas. And if things continue at their current rate, we will soon be left with nothing but meets like we had earlier this year in Birmingham \u2013 a handful of events run down the middle of the street because that\u2019s all that meet promoters will be able to afford.<\/p>\n
How do we reverse this trend and get the sport back on track? I have some ideas that I will share following the conclusion of the Diamond League.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I never thought I would utter those words about any sport, let alone track and field. Not after growing up wishing that athletes could run track just like they played football or basketball \u2013 full time and making a living at it. Yet, here we are in the New Millennium and I now understand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa3DCY-5V","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}