What do you think about extending the track season?

[kuha]

Re: What do you think about extending the track season?

And the meet doesn't need to be a FULL meet!!
In fact, have more specialized meets, like the throwers or jumpers or distance events meets.

OH!! I have a brilliant, new, fresh, and exciting idea!!

How about this??: A fall version of a track meet where you just have distance runners and you liberate yourself from the confines of the stadium, to make a TOTALLY democratic and free-form running event!! I'd name it something like Over Hill and Dale, or maybe Across Country, or something like that!! It could be HUGE!! Everyone will be interested in this!!

And then!!

In the winter, you could have track meets INDOORS!! On cute little tracks, and with oddball distances--maybe the 60, 300, 600, and 1000 yards??--or is that just TOO new and radical a concept??

Nostradamus Says: Track has a Great Future!!

[aaronk]

Re: What do you think about extending the track season?

And the meet doesn't need to be a FULL meet!!
In fact, have more specialized meets, like the throwers or jumpers or distance events meets.

OH!! I have a brilliant, new, fresh, and exciting idea!!

How about this??: A fall version of a track meet where you just have distance runners and you liberate yourself from the confines of the stadium, to make a TOTALLY democratic and free-form running event!! I'd name it something like Over Hill and Dale, or maybe Across Country, or something like that!! It could be HUGE!! Everyone will be interested in this!!

And then!!

In the winter, you could have track meets INDOORS!! On cute little tracks, and with oddball distances--maybe the 60, 300, 600, and 1000 yards??--or is that just TOO new and radical a concept??

Nostradamus Says: Track has a Great Future!!

Kuha, I'll leave the snark OUT of my reply!!
Okay, so we already have CC and indoor.
What do we have there?
CC in the US is mostly for collegians and high schoolers (and middle schoolers).
There's SOME pro stuff with the USATF series of meets.
And indoors?
Besides Boston and Millrose, you have mostly (again) just collegiate and high school meets.
Of course, expalnding the indoor season is limited to available facilities.....but surely an extra 3 or 4 meets could be put together!
Where are the meets for the SP and DT and JT and HT....or the HJ, PV, LJ, and TJ??
Besides road races, where are there TRACK 10K's or 5K''s during the fall and winter months?

Again, this wouldn't be for elite athletes only.
It would be similar to All Comers meets....where the occasional "star" shows up.

[justrunfast]

Re: What do you think about extending the track season?

And the meet doesn't need to be a FULL meet!!
In fact, have more specialized meets, like the throwers or jumpers or distance events meets.

OH!! I have a brilliant, new, fresh, and exciting idea!!

How about this??: A fall version of a track meet where you just have distance runners and you liberate yourself from the confines of the stadium, to make a TOTALLY democratic and free-form running event!! I'd name it something like Over Hill and Dale, or maybe Across Country, or something like that!! It could be HUGE!! Everyone will be interested in this!!

And then!!

In the winter, you could have track meets INDOORS!! On cute little tracks, and with oddball distances--maybe the 60, 300, 600, and 1000 yards??--or is that just TOO new and radical a concept??

Nostradamus Says: Track has a Great Future!!

Kuha, I'll leave the snark OUT of my reply!!
Okay, so we already have CC and indoor.
What do we have there?
CC in the US is mostly for collegians and high schoolers (and middle schoolers).
There's SOME pro stuff with the USATF series of meets.
And indoors?
Besides Boston and Millrose, you have mostly (again) just collegiate and high school meets.
Of course, expalnding the indoor season is limited to available facilities.....but surely an extra 3 or 4 meets could be put together!
Where are the meets for the SP and DT and JT and HT....or the HJ, PV, LJ, and TJ??
Besides road races, where are there TRACK 10K's or 5K''s during the fall and winter months?

Again, this wouldn't be for elite athletes only.
It would be similar to All Comers meets....where the occasional "star" shows up.

Im not to sure how meets are in the US but over here in the UK you can probably find a meet every weekend from April to the middle of September

[run4urlyfe]

Re: What do you think about extending the track season?

The market bears what the market bears. If there were demand (i.e., promoters felt there'd be a good return on their investment) for T&F into Oct, it would be there. There is not.

Yes, emphatically so. Each of us can come up with at least 100 "good ideas" that strangely, in the real world, turn into irrelevant money-losers.

They dont have to put on the olympics.....how do college meets make money? or do they? how do low key meets make money? or do they?.... I think alot of the problem is from the ground up that is the people running iaaf. Which true track fan could ever instiitute a one and done fall start rule? Allow so much of their sport to go untelivised? I cant think of a reason why track fans would not come out and support a meet in their area if the weather was good. Tennis is played all year and they never go broke.

Everyone just has this defeatist attitude.... No one cares about track so dont cover it dont show it on tv keep the season nice and short.... you ever think it is because it is not being covered and shown why no seems to care. Think back to being a little kid who do you know that ever said running as fast as you can is boring? At the gym i go to that show Universal sports on tv I notice alot of people in between their sets will watch track meets(mostly the sprints). The real problem is if you ask most of them they will probably tell you they dont know where/when track comes on except for the olympics. If you create enough excitement about a sport or event people will feel they need to be watching it and treat it almost like a current event they dont want to be out of the loop with.

Think of all the cool things that use to happen back in the day. ABC superstars where athletes from different sports would race the 100 yard dash. Maybe they could do a series like that throughout the summer for athletes sponsored by the IAAF. Yes i might have 1000 ideas but it is better than no ideas because no ideas gets you nowhere.

[Tuariki]

Re: What do you think about extending the track season?

There is no need to extend the season. It just needs a few of you to come to the realization that there is actually something out there called the Southern Hemisphere; and that the world is actually a bit more than the USA and Europe.

[Marlow]

Re: What do you think about extending the track season?

So it's "money talks, and more track walks"??
Who needs money?? (More than maybe a few hundred bucks for basics!)

Aren't college and high school tracks pretty much empty during the fall and early winter??
Couldn't an arrangement be made to have use of a track for a few hours once a week for a couple of months??
And the meets don't need TV or national coverage!
(Which meets get that now anyway....except the DL's and Penn??)
Maybe an organizer can get local newspaper coverage.
And the meet doesn't need to be a FULL meet!!
In fact, have more specialized meets, like the throwers or jumpers or distance events meets.
Oxy and Re-RUN and PTF were pretty successful meets, and didn't go on all day and all night!!

Again, as I said earlier, there ARE athletes who like competing more than 4 months out of the year.....even if not as often as during the spring and summer!

You DO realize there are little all-comer meets that continue all summer into the fall, yes? That's all you're proposing and that's all you're going to get. But if you think that elites are going to going to continue to train for competition for little (aka no) pay or recognition, the loony bin awaits you.

[lonewolf]

Re: What do you think about extending the track season?

Although some fans/spectators would like to see a longer track season, IMO, it is about right for the athletes.

[booond]

Re: What do you think about extending the track season?

Although some fans/spectators would like to see a longer track season, IMO, it is about right for the athletes.

And here I was hoping Usain Bolt would come to the Ventura County Fair to race pigs for fried snicker bars... damn.

[26mi235]

Re: What do you think about extending the track season?

You also have to get officials to cover a longer season.

As for the thing that made me laugh most (paraphrasing) 'how do college meets make money?' Make money? really? It is hard enough to get ADs focused on football (American) and basketball to even consider hosting a national championship in cross country. Very little institutional support at most schools (even Oregon's attempt to host the NCAAs floundered, although there may have been peculiar circumstances on that one).