Seems a lot of people have been talking about the state of our beloved sport these past few weeks.  I figured I'd chime in, because, well, someone is foolish enough to give me an audience.

 

I was privileged enough to attend my first meet at the Armory this weekend.  I’d heard countless stories from runners I had met during my running days about their unforgettable experiences at the east coast Mecca of indoor track, and the venue lived up to its hype in many ways.  I saw some truly jaw dropping races at the high school level in addition to some really terrific match ups in the collegiate championship races.  The structure itself was impressive, a shrine to the expansive history of our sport.  Inside its walls is the same air exhaled by legends, the same track that has produced a plethora of national records and thrilling finishes, and dare I say what little magic Track & Field has left.

I was chatting with another member of the media crew as the Men’s 4x400 was about to get underway.  Though not a runner, she expressed that the race was always her favorite.  I cracked that it’s everyone’s favorite simply because it means they can finally go home.  She agreed with a laugh and a nod. 

Of course I had a shit-eating grin on my face, but it slowly started to vanish as I looked around the stadium.  Many of the fans had already left.  Many of the teams had already left for crying out loud.  I suppose hotel shuttles and early flights can play a part in this exodus, but it’s hard to ignore the fact that a body can only handle watching strangers run in circles for so long. 

Now don’t get me wrong, this has nothing to do with the Armory as a host.  They offered great stage for what has become an overwhelmed and under thought  presentation format for a sport. 

Participation in Track & Field is a double-edged sword.  Mass amounts of participants is in many ways just good business.  Hundreds of kids line up to run a 20 something second race, others wake up at 7am to run the 7^th heat of the 3k.  No matter the skill level, they’re filtering in and out of there all day—buying snacks, checking out merchandise, staring up at oversized pictures of some of our country’s best and brightest wearing New Balance singlets.  Oh and did I mention that almost all their parents seemed to have made the drive up?  At night they’re all out eating at New york's finest restaurants and street stands, riding the subways, tipping cab drivers and staying in some pretty choice hotels…learning a thing or two about big city culture.  It’s a good thing. 

 

For the participants.

 

For New York’s and New Balance’s economy.

 

For my fellow track geeks. 

 

But for some reason anytime you stick a fly on the wall camera in front of it for some ungodly amount of hours, it just doesn’t translate to anyone, even those with the most patient of attention spans.  And let it be known that sitting through it first hand is no stroll in the park either.  

            I think we're approaching this whole thing backwards.  We design meets based around the participants because they outnumber the actual non affiliated fans of Track & Field by what must be staggering figures.  We then broadcast said meets that are catered toward the people on screen instead of on the couch and wonder why no one wants to watch.  If you build a watchable, entertaining meet, they will come.  But what would such a meet look like?

To this day, the most entertaining meet I have attended was the 2009 Midwest Distance Gala.  It was nothing but fast high school races under the lights, records shattered one right after another, and an hour later it was over.  Each and every race had something spectacular about it.  Even the freshman heats that took place before the opening ceremony were well-announced and interesting to watch. 

Solomon Haile and Lukas Verzbicas dueled for a grueling 8 laps, a hard earned “tactical” 8:53 victory and a freshman national record for the former harrier.  Thode went balls to the wall in the mile only to come up short of the barrier, but damn if that wasn’t the most exciting two and a half laps I’ve ever seen.  

 

Everyone seems to have questions about how to structure Track & Field, and I'm no exception, but I'd like to take the opportunity to suggest one potential way.

 

I think that the format of non-championship pro Track & Field should mimic the Gala's format and principles.  Short races, no fluff, all stellar competition—television worthy material only.  No excessive breaks, 10 minute turned to 20, to 25 minutes delays.  Just action, with a purpose and a story.  But what's the story?

             Runners are pretty boring people when you get down to it.  They train, they eat, they sleep, and on and on.  They're humble.  The Oregon Project didn't put on a laser show when Mo Farah joined the team to announce that they would be bringing home medals this year.  (At least I'm pretty sure they didn't do that?)  In America we don't root for our athletes, we wait for them to say something stupid on twitter so we can tear them down and talk of Lebron's antics can dominate our morning commutes.  So instead of focusing on the individual, why not focus on a more team oriented approach.

The race for team title at a meet as it stands now is overloaded.  Have you ever tried following the score during a track meet?  It’s like asking who’s winning in a game of chess.  Someone can give you an answer, but it's meaningless; too much has yet to happen.  Could we perhaps rethink how shoe companies should be looking at their rosters? 

             Nike has essentially attempted to buy out the Olympic Trials finals heats.  That’s their business plan in a nutshell.    Many of the athletes that run for other companies were turned away from Nike or not even considered elite enough to wear the swoosh.

 

So you have a whole group of people trying to make a team that the big, heartless corporate mega giant has told either directly or indirectly that “Anything is Possible”...except you succeeding.  I mean come on, this sounds like the plot to a classic come from behind, good guys finish first, Disney movie, no?

 

So all hyperbole aside, why is there not a dual meet between New Balance and Nike?  Or Nike and Adidas?  Or Brooks and Saucony?  If these companies believe in their athletes so much, why don’t they pit them against their rival companies rosters and put on some really fantastic competition that has an infinitely more interesting back-story than the circus tent that is modern Track & Field.

 

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I got back into Austin after a long weekend and an even longer day of travel to find Ryan Fenton slumped in his chair near baggage claim, picking away at his keyboard.  He was lamenting over the broadcast he had seen earlier in the night of Boston (check out his rant here).  Just like in running, there is really never a finish line.  Each step forward we make as a sport is twice as hard as the last and you have no choice but to keep going.  

            I’ve only known Ryan Fenton for a short while now, but I think I can safely say he’s crazy.  He’ll wake up at 3 am and send off rounds of emails while simultaneously hatching schemes and scenes for his website...his baby.  I’ve seen his apartment, and he is certainly not in this business for the money (though the swag don’t hurt).  The thing about Ryan, well really anyone that contributes to Flotrack or any other site, and as I’m sure is true of all fans of our sport, is we only want one simple thing: for the rest of the world to see Track & Field the way we see it.  From the thrill of a finishing kick to the comeback of a faded hero, track has such a rich story to offer.  Yet whether at a meet or watching a television broadcast, the general public is so often left staring blankly until something mildly exciting that we don’t quite fully understand happens, the narrative left by the wayside.

We debated further on the car ride to watch the second half of the super bowl.  The  most frustrating part of the situation is that all of the potential is clearly there, but for some reason we insist on doing things the way they’ve always been done.  Whatever happened to adapt or die?  We have grown internally as a niche sport and a community, but we are pushed further and further into the corner of society.  How many runners would you venture even follow the sport of track?

 

It occurred to me while watching a man dressed like a referee picking up dog shit that the Puppy Bowl was more popular in America than Track and Field.  And yes, puppies are much cuter and more unpredictable, but the bottom line is the people at animal planet somehow turn dog feces into an incredibly well done broadcast.  Let me restate this one more time for emphasis.  They put out a better sport broadcast of a dog taking a shit than ESPN can of the sport of track and field.  They create a story out of hamsters in a blimp and cut away shots of pigs on an off site sideline into a cult phenomenon, but we can’t seem to market ripped dudes and half naked women running and jumping around a track?

When you anecdotally compare the number of facebook likes of the Puppy Bowl  (66,150 likes, 21,667 twitter users following Meep The Bird, a bird that has been trained to tweet on a cell phone during the PB) to Flotrack (18,654), it’s a bit disheartening.  You could always toss in the actual number of likes for USA Track and Field (3,425) or powerhouse Oregon Track and Field (4,390), but still the numbers tell a sad tail (see what I did there?).

 

            Perhaps the biggest shame in all of this is how far we have come as a country in Track & Field, particularly distance running.  We’ve turned a corner since the post Bob Kennedy days.  The accomplishments of our country’s athletes are truly something special as of late, and it pains me to know that so few people are able to get into it.  We are the deepest we’ve been in decades in terms of talent and have several legitimate medal contenders for 2012…real Wheaties Box, dare to be great situation kinda stuff. 

            As a writer (and admitedly a rambling one) all I can do really is poke the bear…  ask questions.  It’s up to all of us in the Track & Field community to find an answer.  I've proposed a few thoughts.  Let's hear some of yours