Disappointing there is no quality TNF for next 3 weeks :-(

[aaronk]

Excuse my ignorance; I wasn't aware the DL was a creature that the US T&F could end or expand.


24 weeks of competition means 24 weeks of traveling all around the world. Questions:
1. Who is going to pay?
2. When do you expect these 24 meet athletes to train?
3. Does the Southern hemisphere get to be in the 24 meet schedule?
4. What happens to the thousands of other meets that held in the world?


In which years did Ron Clarke race (and I mean raced) 50 times a year.
Viren ran his 2 mile world record on 14 August. The heats of the 10,000 were on 31 August. So your reference to just DAYS is actually 17 of them.

However, I do agree with you that athletics needs to change if we are to survive, let alone grow, as a sport. I guess that will be the challenge for either Bubka or Coe.

I shouldn't have said "US". I meant the whole world.
I'm just looking for a way for there to be a never-ending schedule of meets.
I don't like the DL concept.
What do we get?
The same group of athletes in the same group of events.
And how many compete in all 7 meets?
I'd rather see a system where they competed in all 14 meets, and for the event line-up to always be changing.

As for Ron Clarke, read my blog called "The Legacy of Ron Clarke", posted right after he died.
I list the years he ran anywhere from 40 to 60 races per year---every year for about 7 or 8 years!
And these races ranged anywhere from 800 to a marathon, with several in the 5000 to 10 mile range......and these were on the track, not roads, so the 10 mile was 40 laps of a 440 yard track!

So when did Clarke train?
He used the races as his hard workouts, is my guess.
But things were so different back then!!

So I was off on Viren's 2 mile date.
The point was, he ran 4 or 5 FAST races in the few weeks before the OG.
And don't forget, there were heats in the 10K and 5K, so he ran a total of 30K in both OG's.
Today, if someone like Farah doubles, he'll run 20K, 10 less than Viren did....and relatively a LOT slower!!
Like I said, athletes are wimps today!!

[norunner]

Just curious: Do NFL fans complain about the complete lack of football for seven months of the year? Do they come up with ideas like "They should be playing all year long so we don't get bored" ?

[26mi235]

They have the rep-season, the draft season, the trade season, and ... they do not stop for several weeks before the playoffs. College does to an extent, though...

[aaronk]

Just curious: Do NFL fans complain about the complete lack of football for seven months of the year? Do they come up with ideas like "They should be playing all year long so we don't get bored" ?

Whole different ballgame....so to speak!
Football has NEVER been year-round.
T&F (and its side dishes of XC and road racing) has ALWAYS been year-round.
Amd I mean around the world, not just in the US.
Here's a brief outline:

Jan-Mar
US & European indoor T&F.
Road Races & XC.
Summer outdoor season Down Under.
Early outdoor meets in "sunshine states" in the US.

Apr & May
US relay meets.
HS season in US.
Collegiate duals & conferences & regionals.
Major marathons (& other road races)
Early DL's

June-July
Championship meets in US (NCAA, USATF, NBN, Juniors)
Several DL's around the world.
National Championships in many countries.

August--Sept
OG or WC in 3 out of 4 years.
Major regional Championships (Commonwealth, Europeans, Pan Am).
Last of the DL's
Berlin Marathon & other road races
Beginning of XC in the US

Oct-Dec
XC (invitational & other meets, then the Championships)
More marathons (NY, Chicago, Japan) and road races
Beginning of Down Under season (Nov-Dec)
Beginning of indoor season (Dec)

So there's always something going on.
I think the main problem is distribution of the "major" events....namely the DL's.

[aaronk]

They have the rep-season, the draft season, the trade season, and ... they do not stop for several weeks before the playoffs. College does to an extent, though...

Football teams play no more than 20-22 or so games---including exhibition season, regular & post season.
Goes from August to early February---less than 6 months!

Baseball goes from February to November, with spring training, regular & post season.
Right around 200 games total, if you go to the World Series.

The NBA goes from October to June, including everything, so it's about 8 months!
They play over 100 games a year, if they go all the way to the Championships.

Golf & tennis go close to year-round, don't they?
(I don't follow either sport!)

[norunner]

T&F (and its side dishes of XC and road racing) has ALWAYS been year-round.
Amd I mean around the world, not just in the US.

But you are comparing apples and oranges. You complain that there is no QUALITY T&F for three weeks before the WCs and then you mention meets all around the world to show that there is T&F all year. Those meets down under in in the US in march/april are usually levels below the DL, and those kinda meets are coming up plenty in the next couple of weeks. There's even WCs before the WCs, the World Master Athletics Championships in Lyon. T&F is around all year, DL quality T&F is not and will never be.

[gh]

Just curious: Do NFL fans complain about the complete lack of football for seven months of the year? Do they come up with ideas like "They should be playing all year long so we don't get bored" ?

Some may, but the simple fact is that the NFL season has a defined beginning and end (you know, a "season"!). DL track is hit and miss (feast or famine) over the course of many months. Hell of a way to ru a railroad. If yu look at the chart that's part of that story, you'll see that thsi year has a record 23-day (!) gap from last DL to start of WC and a record 35 days from the last pre-Beijing DL to the first post-Beijig one. Simply ludicrous.

And that, of course, does'n't eventake into account the fact that not all events are in all DL meets, so for some the gap is even larger.

Helluva way to run a railroad.

And we wonder why the sport can't attract/hold new fans.

Harrumph

[Powell]

But DLs are not the only thing in T&F. For instance, there was a new WL in DT just half an hour ago.

[booond]

But DLs are not the only thing in T&F. For instance, there was a new WL in DT just half an hour ago.

If a tree falls in the woods...

[norunner]

If a tree falls in the woods...

That is the bigger problem. There's plenty of T&F available, but not accessible. For years the only way to watch the DL in Germany was via illegal streams. And look how we HAD TO watch the U18 WCs, via a columbian stream in spanish because nothing else was available. The IAAF needs to make T&F much more accessible. Look at tennis, i can get live results on the WTA page for any low rated tournament in the world.

[gh]

But DLs are not the only thing in T&F. For instance, there was a new WL in DT just half an hour ago.

In terms of the sporting mainstream (which is where we need to penetrate) it is close to the only thing.

Hardcore fans have no trouble finding something over which to jerk their gherkin, but that does nothing for the broad-spectrum goal of keeping the sport in the mainstream, which is the real issue here.

[booond]

It is about access. It is about centralization. Without that ease there is no way the sport can grow. And stop talking about drugs. Punish and fine but stop wringing your damn hands about it.

[ATK]

In terms of the sporting mainstream (which is where we need to penetrate) it is close to the only thing.

Hardcore fans have no trouble finding something over which to jerk their gherkin, but that does nothing for the broad-spectrum goal of keeping the sport in the mainstream, which is the real issue here.

Then I'm slightly confused what the issue/complaint is for people here. I'm going to guess most who post on this board are not part of the mainstream and are closer to the hardcore end of the spectrum.

[gh]

"people here" has nothing to do with it. We be a bunch of hardcore geeks who live and breathe the sport, but our fandom has NOTHING to do with the overall health of the sort. We need the average sports fan to survive. Seriously.

[CPorts75]

That'll be an interesting men's 400m tonight at the ATL meet - Eaton vs. Wariner (others are in the field of course). If Eaton beats Wariner is that Jeremy's signal to hang up the spikes?