Hard Work For Track in a No-Attention, No-Money World

[EPelle]

Michael Johnson, who was much-hyped before the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and then delivered gold medals in the 200 and 400 meters, suggested the sport be re-designed. It's not a matter of track lacking personalities, he wrote in an e-mail.

"No other sport relies solely on personalities to appeal to fans and draw fans," wrote Johnson, who is Wariner's agent. "They constantly update and make adjustments to their sport to make it more exciting and keep it fresh."

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a ... /706190373

[tafnut]

Some excerpts that raise my eyebrows:

"Probably more than anything else, there's a lot of track people running track," said Paul Swangard, director of the University of Oregon's Warsaw Sports Marketing Center. "And I'm not sure that's necessarily the best approach if they really want to be viable from a marketing standpoint."

WTF??

"No other sport relies solely on personalities to appeal to fans and draw fans," wrote Johnson, who is Wariner's agent. "They constantly update and make adjustments to their sport to make it more exciting and keep it fresh."

Um. . . tennis and golf depend on personalities and rivalries. The major tournaments in those sports remain those sports' backbone and they have remained unchanged. The MAJOR sports are team sports, football, basketball, hockey, baseball . . . soccer - T&F can't market that except at the WC/OG level, which they have been loathe to do in the past. Should we hype the USA team to beat those darned Furriners?

Lewis, who is starting a management firm, claimed track athletes' agents are inept and that athletes don't work hard enough off the track.

How conveeeeeeeeenient. You're starting a management firm and you say all the OTHER management firms are inept?

[Cyril]

Some excerpts that raise my eyebrows:

"No other sport relies solely on personalities to appeal to fans and draw fans," wrote Johnson, who is Wariner's agent. "They constantly update and make adjustments to their sport to make it more exciting and keep it fresh."

Um. . . tennis and golf depend on personalities and rivalries. The major tournaments in those sports remain those sports' backbone and they have remained unchanged. The MAJOR sports are team sports, football, basketball, hockey, baseball . . . soccer - T&F can't market that except at the WC/OG level, which they have been loathe to do in the past. Should we hype the USA team to beat those darned Furriners?
[quote]

The problem that t&f, swimming and other individual "oly" sports have is that they are not game sports. For the general public game sports are more interesting to watch than the more one-dimensional sports.

Also, tennis which has individual personalities, has two events that really draw spectators - men's and women's singles.

Contrastingly, t&f has so many events that there cannot be a single rivalry or single star (ie. Fed/Nadal) in the sport. The closest thing we have had is the Dan and Dave campaign....

So, maybe track and field should consolidate to one multi-event type of sport instead of numerous specialty sports in one. Of course, I'm not serious about this, but I don't think track will ever be marketable like the other sports.

Having said that, I think JW is the most marketable personality in the sport today and, for some reason, he is not getting the PR he should be. He should be the cover-boy for the sport.

[tafnut]

JW is the most marketable personality in the sport today and, for some reason, he is not getting the PR he should be. He should be the cover-boy for the sport.

In which case we just shot ourselves in the foot, cuz he won't even contest his specialty at the National Championships!!! I'll get booed for this, but when they make me King of Murkan T&F, you'll hafta show up in YOUR event to get my help in promos, etc. (and free passes to the WC).

[Cyril]

JW is the most marketable personality in the sport today and, for some reason, he is not getting the PR he should be. He should be the cover-boy for the sport.

In which case we just shot ourselves in the foot, cuz he won't even contest his specialty at the National Championships!!! I'll get booed for this, but when they make me King of Murkan T&F, you'll hafta show up in YOUR event to get my help in promos, etc. (and free passes to the WC).

Maybe if JW was treated like the "man" of the sport (not just his event) and he was marketed as such ( and paid accordingly for it as those in other sports are), he would have more of an interest in sacrificing some of his personal goals in pursuit of the "bigger picture".

But, the way things are set up, he needs to be concerned with what is best for JW on a long-term basis not what is going to be best for the sport.

[doug091463]

jeremy wariner is the man in his event the 400, not the entire sport, he might break 20 seconds for 200 and still not make the usa team, the 800 is a big question mark, and there are a few quartermilers that will probably give him a race at worlds (mostly from the usa, carter, merritt and more) track is a hard sport to stay on top of, bubka winning every world championship from 83-97 is incredible, when the sport tries to market any one athlete it usually wont work, i think the sport itself should be promoted.

[Cyril]

when the sport tries to market any one athlete it usually wont work, i think the sport itself should be promoted.

Right....because of the nature of the sport there cannot be one or even two or three stars.

Each event has its star but that doesn't work with the general public. They want the superstars. The want Beckham, Lebron, Kobe, Feder etc.

What other sport markets "the sport" and not the athlete? Marketing the sport without a star doesn't work. A star is needed to market the sport.

Carl and MJ were the closest thing track has had to a super star and even they couldn't make it happen. Track is primarily a partcipant sport and I think it will always be primarily a participant sport.

[Johannes NA]

Carl and MJ were the closest thing track has had to a super star and even they couldn't make it happen. Track is primarily a partcipant sport and I think it will always be primarily a participant sport.

MJ = Marion Jones? Michael Johnson? Both?

[Cyril]

Sorry, I was referring to Michael Johnson.