My Four Cents.

After my last post, I started talking with some of my training partners and friends about some of the things I said, as well as some things other athletes have blogged about. Naturally, tons of ideas started flowing. I'm just going to talk about a couple of the ideas we got most in depth about. I'm pretty much going to focus on two things; One, I'm going to throw out a few more ideas of how Track could possibly be better marketed/televised. And two, an entirely new way to structure Track and Field to possibly make it something people want to follow and more spectator friendly.

As I said in my previous blog, the marketing of Track could be way better. Some of the things that came up in talking with people were simple things to add that just made watching Track a little more exciting and give more things to the spectators to pay attention to and follow. It would be really cool to get the athletes "mic'ed up" so to speak. Again, it's as simple as looking at sports that are already BIG in the world and taking some things from them. I think throwing some microphones on athletes, like they sometimes do in Hockey or American Football, to actually hear the race would really add a new aspect to viewing track that has never been done before. While we're at it, why not take some notes from Soccer and throw a heart rate monitor on them, or put a chip in their spikes that counts how many steps their taking? Adding these things would add such a neat element.

Little things like that would add huge elements to T.V. viewing. I love to watch Track on T.V. however, to someone who doesn't really know much about the sport, I can see how it would be quite boring. For one, the commentators often don't really know what they are talking about. Giving these stats to the commentators they could easy look at the information and analys the race a little more, without necessarily knowing more about the sport. With the chips in the shoes you could easily give stats like how fast Bolt got from 0-20mph, exactly how many steps he took to cover 100m. With the chips, and probably with the heart rate monitors as well, you could look at each 50m/100m/200m/1000m interval of a 1500m or 5000m race and see the exact spot where the pace slowed down and picked back up, or where the final move was made. Plus, it would give the weekend warrior a chance to compare their information from their beloved Garmin to the stats from the elite athletes.

Truthfully, I don't know much about Soccer. Having a British roommate, I have started to learn a little more. Even with the limited knowledge I do have, watching Soccer is really entertaining because they have all these little gadgets. Hell, even NASCAR hooks the drivers up and gives you their vital stats. It just gives people something to relate and compare to between each athlete and race. Another example of this is the Tour de France, they have those guys linked up to everything!

Speaking of giving spectators something to relate to and compare between athletes and races, Track really isn't making that easy at the moment. Even if a Diamond League event happens to be aired on television, it's impossible to really follow anything because the next time it airs NONE of the same athletes are competing. It makes it really hard for spectators to get involved, follow their favourite athlete, or compare them head to head.

A way we thought to fix this, again kind of stolen from Soccer, is implementing some sort of a league system. The way we imagined it working is splitting athletes up into divisions; div.1, div.2, div.3, and so on. Div.1 would be the best of the best, div.2 and lower would be the up and comers. One of the con's of this system would be that whichever division an athlete is designated to, is the only the division the athlete could race in. To make sure an athlete isn't stuck in a division they are too good for, there would be some sort if point system. In each league race you'd earn certain amount of points for placing and maybe a couple times a year there is an evaluation and the top 3 or 5 athletes in each division get to move up and the bottom 3 or 5 get moved down. That way there are always the incentive to move up into higher divisions and an even bigger one to stay in the top.

Now, I'll admit, there would be some pro's and con's. The biggest being the previously stated fact that athletes are somewhat stuck in a division until an evaluation comes along. However, drastic changes will have to be made if we want our sport the thrive. Even though it might be a slight con for athletes, I think it would be a HUGE pro for spectators. Doing something like this format would really give people something to pay attention to and follow. They'll be able to check in after each race to see the point totals, get excited if their favourite athlete is getting close to being moved up, get nervous if that athlete might get moved down.

There are also some pro's for athletes. It would open up a whole new set of records, like "div.2 record." It would set up some new championship races where athletes can add "Div.2 champion" to their running resume. It would also give the opportunity to have things like dual meets, where the top athletes from Div.2 in North America go up against the top from Europe. Again, some more exciting races for the athletes, as well as giving spectators more races to follow. Everyone likes to see USA beat Canada, or England beat France.

It would also put a whole new spin on the sponsorship side of things. I think in a format such as this it would really make it easy for sponsors to really see who the up and comers are, see who is able to perform under pressure and that sort of thing. Right now it just seems agents approach sponsors with an athlete who has maybe had one really great race or season, saying they have the next best runner and the company, for the most part, just has to believe it and hope for the best. In the league system there would be a lot more racing and sponsors would be able to more easily see who performs consistently.

One last thing that was talked about was making the track more like a horse track. If people were able to put money down on the athletes, I can guarantee they'd want to follow the sport more. Being able to bet on a particular person to win the race, putting money down on the time they'll run, betting on the top three. Really when you think of it, there are endless things people could bet on. Realistically, horse racing isn't all that exciting, but people keep going weekend after weekend to place money on them. Not only would it bring spectators, but a great opportunity for revenue as well.

Getting out there and clocking countless miles with my training partners and having the great chats that come along with it, is one of my most favourite things to do. I will be sure to share any further ideas that come up in our miles.

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