{"id":419,"date":"2010-11-29T18:48:00","date_gmt":"2010-11-30T02:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=419"},"modified":"2010-11-29T18:48:00","modified_gmt":"2010-11-30T02:48:00","slug":"the-abbreviated-track-meet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=419","title":{"rendered":"The Abbreviated Track Meet"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"float:left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/view.picapp.com\/pictures.photo\/sports\/iaaf-golden-league\/image\/6207631?term=iaaf%2c+zurich\" target=\"_blank\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/view.picapp.com\/pictures.photo\/image\/6207631\/iaaf-golden-league\/iaaf-golden-league.jpg?resize=234%2C154\" border=\"0\" width=\"234\" title=\"IAAF Golden League\" height=\"154\" oncontextmenu=\"return false;\" ondrag=\"return false;\" onmousedown=\"return false;\" alt=\"ZURICH, SWITZERLAND - AUGUST 28:  Blanka Vlasic of Croatia prepares to jump in the Womens High Jump during the IAAF Golden League Weltklasse Zurich meeting at the Stadion Letzigrund on August 28, 2009 in Zurich, Switzerland.  (Photo by Jamie McDonald\/Getty Images)\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"clear:left;height:0px;overflow: hidden;\"><\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/view.picapp.com\/\/JavaScripts\/OTIjs.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>This week, the Diamond League released it\u2019s schedule of events for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.iaaf.org\/mm\/document\/competitions\/competition\/05\/88\/03\/20101124024342_httppostedfile_copyofsdl_diamondleaguedisciplines2011_241110_22937.pdf\">2011<\/a>. Once again featuring a series of \u201chalf\u201d meets. A regular occurrence in the sport of track and field \u2013 and one that has become a pet peeve of mine.<\/p>\n<p>A recent Track and Field News <a href=\"http:\/\/www.trackandfieldnews.com\/index.php\/display-article?arId=50851\">edito<sub><\/sub><sub><\/sub><sub><\/sub><sub><\/sub><sub><\/sub><sub><\/sub><sub><\/sub><sub><\/sub><sub><\/sub><sub><\/sub><sub><\/sub><sub><\/sub><sub><\/sub><sub><\/sub><sub><\/sub>rial<\/a> on the inaugural season of the Diamond League discusses the editor\u2019s reasoning as to why he feels it is difficult to contest full meets in today\u2019s sport.<\/p>\n<p>While there is merit to the rational that is put forth \u2013 a shortage of dollars with which to pay top level athletes in every discipline prohibits loading up every event with stars \u2013 I don\u2019t believe that justifies the thought of simply eliminating some events based on \u201csurvival of the fittest\u201d. Which in the language of the above editorial means that those events that \u201cput butts in the seats\u201d stay and the others are discarded. <\/p>\n<p>Events put butts in the seats because of star level athletes, and the sport has no control over where those athletes will develop. The intermediate hurdles were a dead event until Edwin Moses came along. The 200 meters was stagnant for a decade until Gay, Spearmon and Carter ran 19.6\u2019s in \u201806 and then Bolt broke the record in \u201808. And the popularity of the 800 has risen and fallen depending on the star quality of the athletes contesting it. High level of interest during the various careers of Seb Coe, Wilson Kipketer and now David Rudisha. Much less when Peter Elliott, Vebjorn Rodal, Andre Bucher and Djabir Said Guerni were on top.<\/p>\n<p>Had those events not been contested during the \u201cdown\u201d periods, we would never have had the opportunity to enjoy the rise of the aforementioned athletes. That\u2019s part of the life cycle of this sport \u2013 just as every sport goes in cycles. Whether it be baseball, basketball, football, swimming or gymnastics, we see the rise and fall and rise again of various teams, individuals and events. And to say that we will only contest those events that \u201cput butts in the seats\u201d today is shortsighted in that it means that we then put no effort into the development of the other events. <\/p>\n<p>If someone had decided that the high hurdles were more important than the intermediates the sport would have lost the careers of Edwin Moses, Harald Schmid, Andre Phillips and Kevin Young. And 2010 would have been without Bershawn Jackson\u2019s outstanding season. Or if someone had decided that since we have the 100 &amp; 400 there is no need for the 200, the sport would have lost the outstanding careers of Tommie Smith, Pietro Mennea, and minimized the careers of Carl Lewis and Michael Johnson among many other careers, both male and female. <\/p>\n<p>So simply eliminating events would serve more to expedite the death of the sport, in my humble opinion, by systematically reducing the talent base of the sport. And that\u2019s not the way to build your brand. <\/p>\n<p>Even without the belief that the sport should contest those events that \u201cput butts in the seats\u201d, the other common reason that many people want to curt track meets in half is to satisfy television and in some cases what some feel is an audience that has a short attention span. Meets are too long, they say, to hold fan interest. Even though sports fans sit through hours of other sports like baseball, basketball, soccer, and football. <\/p>\n<p>My belief is this, fans of any sport will stay and watch, or watch on television, as long as the competition is compelling and they can watch top level athletes compete. Fans watch hours of golf glued to the TV when someone like Tiger Woods is at the top of his game \u2013 and golf has minimal action. The Los Angeles Lakers vs. the Sacramento Kings will sell out an arena as long as Kobe is playing. Just as Michael Jordan vs. whoever was a sellout performance. The key to viewership in track, as with any sport, is simply a matter of getting your best athletes to perform. <\/p>\n<p>So how do we address the abbreviated meet. Simple. As for the attitude of \u201csurvival of the fittest\u201d, let\u2019s just pay based on level of performance (which we already do to a degree). In the case of a full track meet, pay the athletes in the events that are \u201cputting butts in the stands\u201d top dollar &#8211;&nbsp; but still offer the other events. It does two things for the athletes. One it gives them an avenue to perform, improve and showcase their skills. Two it provides the incentive that if they can raise their games and performances so that their event increase in demand, they will reap the benefits with increased pay. Creating a \u201cpay scale\u201d based on athletic performance and event popularity would not be that difficult to create. And what meet wouldn\u2019t benefit by having Bolt v Gay in the \u201cshowcase\u201d 200 (with perhaps Spearmon, and Edward for good measure), and Carter, Dix, Thompson, Bailey in a \u201csecondary\u201d 100 (guaranteed to go at least mid 9.9x if not high 9.8x)? I\u2019m sure you could find enough \u201csecondary\u201d athletes to fill just about any event on the track or field \u2013 because most athletes enjoy competing and need competition to stay sharp.<\/p>\n<p>As for television, why can\u2019t we simply create a \u201cwindow\u201d for television and the fan that doesn\u2019t want a full meet? Run \u201cnot to be televised\u201d events before and after those that are planned for TV. Then in the middle you can run your \u201cprime\/showcase\u201d events. TV has it\u2019s events to televise, and the fan with the \u201cshort attention span\u201d knows when to show up and can leave once the \u201chot\u201d events are over. The rest of the the sport\u2019s real fans will be treated to a full day of track and field bliss. A win-win for everyone concerned.<\/p>\n<p>Of course you could improve the experience for everyone by setting up good food services, some live entertainment, and some interactive activities. Which might help entice the casual fan to stay longer and become more acquainted with some of the lesser events and athletes. The important thing as far as today\u2019s topic is concerned , however, is that there is no need to chop the meet in half and bastardize the sport.<\/p>\n<p>The truth is we need as many \u201cfull\u201d meets as possible. Ironically the biggest and most exciting meets in the sport are those that feature everything \u2013 the Olympics, World Championships, various National Championships, the NCAA\u2019s etc. The problem isn\u2019t that track meets are too long. The problem lies in getting the athletes to compete. Frankly that\u2019s become THE area that needs the most focus in this sport. We fix that and everything else will follow, including increased popularity, attendance and revenue. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week, the Diamond League released it\u2019s schedule of events for 2011. Once again featuring a series of \u201chalf\u201d meets. A regular occurrence in the sport of track and field \u2013 and one that has become a pet peeve of mine. A recent Track and Field News editorial on the inaugural season of the Diamond [&hellip;]<\/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-419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa3DCY-6L","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419","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=419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}