IAAF is screwing the field events again.

[Atticus]

So the IAAF (and by extension, we, the super-fans) is on the horns of dilemma.

a. Try and keep the whole sport viable by having more events competed more often in the most visible venues.
or
b. Try and keep the their most valuable regular season vehicle (DLs) viable, by allowing them to focus on the more 'marquee' (salable) events.

The IAAF dictated gender parity, which presumably wasn't strictly in the best interests of the bottom line, and that worked out. I'm homing the iAAF can find a way to help the individual DL Meet Directors keep as many events in the spotlight as possible. To paraphrase a Holocaust dictum (and thereby invoking Godwin's Law), 'first they came for the women's Hammer . . . '

[norunner]

There is no dilemma. The IAAF is supposed to represent athletes, our sport is called track AND field. It's not the IAAFs job to butcher our sport for tv money, they are not representing the tv broadcasters, even though lately it feels like that. Broadcasts have degenerated into track only with the occasional interruption by a couple of field attempts. This may be what tv wants, but it should be the IAAFs job to protect our sport from such abuse.
If DL meets aren't making money it's because of the rigid structure of the format and the antiquated way athletics is being broadcast. Look at what the ISTAF is doing, they focus on German athletes, even a few weeks before the meet they change the timetable and add events. This year they added the triple jump after Max Heß won in Amsterdam. Is there any single day meet in the world with a bigger audience than the ISTAF, which has an attendance of 50-60000 every year?

[polevaultpower]

Lavillenie not happy about the changes, can't blame him.

[Fortius19]

Watching a live, large, one-day European Track & Field meet is pretty high on my bucket list.

A Swiss meet, or Olso or Stockholm. Even Paris would be nice.

Hope they're still around by the time I can afford it!