People watch world cup soccer, NHL hockey, and NASCAR races because you get to see the event. What we get however, is a race (or maybe 2-3 false starts) and several commmercials, an interview, several more commercials and rarely do we see any field events or a distance race in it's entirety. Our sport SHOULD have the most mass appeal for any group of viewers because of the diversity of events. You might not like one event area, but you might just watch all of a telecast to get to the event(s) you do like if you could be assured of seeing everything. The networks would have us believe that the average American viewer has such a short attention span that they we don't want to see an entire event and I respectfully disagree. I again reference soccer, hockey, and NASCAR racing to disprove that antiquated notion. Track and Field has very high participatory numbers so I would venture to say that there is a ready made market which would be receptive and supportive of broadcasts in the proper format which is simply SHOW THE MEET! Right now the package is only barely tolerable if viewed with a VCR remote in your hand to fast forward past the myriad of commercials.
I'll be interested to see how the broadcasts of the World Championships go.
At 08:29 AM 8/20/2003 -0700, John Schiefer wrote:
I have to agree.
I don't think it's fair to say that we've lost viewers or audience members because of drug scandals or drug use.
I don't however, believe that our audience is down due to lack of, or poor, marketing. Maybe TNF could do a better job of marketing itself. However, if TNF is not marketing itself properly, let's name specifics on how we can improve.
The bottom line, I think, is that TNF is suffering because it's just not that much fun for the average American to watch. We're suffering from the fact that there isn't much interest in our sport.
It's easy to blame USATF for it's poor marketing, and they may be doing a poor job. However, I think the problem is not that we're not marketing the sport, but that TNF is just simply not a mainstream sport that the masses will tune in to watch.
Let's not try to make TNF something it's not. TNF is not ever going to be as popular as NBA basketball, NFL football, etc.
Furthermore, let's not make USAT&F out to be the scapegoat for decreased popularity. Unless someone can come up with a better solution for marketing TNF, let's just enjoy it and let it be what it is.
Schiefer --- dcw23 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Drugs have already torn Pro track apart. Fans > have abandoned our sport > in > > > droves, you just haven't noticed. We are ranked > about the 40th most > > > popular sport, well below monster trucks. Pro > track is like the common > > > drug addict and the solution is the same. The > first step is admitting > we > > > have a big problem. Until we do that, the > decline will continue. Based > > > on many of the responses to the African Standard > article, we can't even > > > discuss it, let alone admit there is a huge > problem. > > > > > Actually I think you are wrong here. If there is a > problem with fans being > turned off because of drugs it is probably > exacerbated by the high standard > of testing that we have in this sport. Most other > sports pay only lip > service to testing, if they even test at all, > therefore, there are very few > positives, therefore, the general public thinks > that they have a drug free > sport. > > That is of course assuming that your argument has > any merit. All one has to > do is look at the popularity of the Tour de France. > It is enormous. > Everyone > know these guys use drugs and no-one really cares. > The reason that track > has > lost popularity is due to the incredibly poor > marketing that it has in > contrast to the clever marketing of the ever > increasing number of sports > that compete to take its air time. Not only that, > but when it does get onto > the television, the package is pretty ordinary at > best and will only appeal > to the real die hard track fan. > > David > >
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