We Do Get Golden League TV!

[gh]

from USATF:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, July 2, 2003



IAAF Golden League to be broadcast on ESPN, ESPN2



INDIANAPOLIS – The IAAF’s Golden League series of international track and field meets returns to U.S. television this summer with six national telecasts on ESPN and ESPN2, USATF announced Wednesday.



The IAAF Golden League presented by Finish Line will feature five shows on ESPN2 and one on ESPN, beginning Sunday, July 6 with the famed Bislett Games in Oslo, Norway (ESPN2, 5 p.m. Eastern). Nearly all top U.S. athletes, including Maurice Greene, Tim Montgomery, Allen Johnson, Stacy Dragila, Suzy Favor Hamilton, Kelli White, Gail Devers and others are competing in Europe this summer alongside international superstars.



The most elite of the IAAF’s international invitational meets, the Golden League offers a share of a $1 million jackpot of gold, to be split among any athletes winning their individual events in all six Golden League meets in Oslo, Paris, Rome, Berlin, Zurich and Brussels.



“We are extremely pleased that once again, track fans will have the opportunity to watch the top international meets of the European season,” said USATF CEO Craig Masback. “We appreciate the IAAF’s willingness to work with USA Track & Field to put some of the world’s best meets on ESPN. These telecasts would not have been possible without the support of Finish Line and Nike. The Golden League telecasts are a great prelude to the extensive coverage of the IAAF World Championships this August on ESPN and ABC.”



IAAF Golden League presented by Finish Line follows on the heels of the successful USATF Golden Spike Tour, which aired 12 telecasts of track and field in 2003, including shows on NBC, ESPN and ESPN2. The domestic track and field TV schedule culminated with an outstanding weekend of track an field in which NBC aired the USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships presented by Verizon, and CBS aired the NCAA Division I Track & Field Championships, together attracting more than 6 million TV viewers in a single afternoon on June 21.



For more information on the IAAF Golden League, visit www.iaaf.org <http://www.iaaf.org/>



Broadcast schedule, 2003 IAAF Golden League presented by Finish Line

All times Eastern; check local listings



Time Date Network Meet

5 p.m. July 6 ESPN2 Bislett Games (Oslo)

3:30 p.m. July 13 ESPN2 Gaz de France (Paris)

1 p.m. July 19 ESPN Golden Gala (Rome)
1 a.m. August 17 ESPN2 ISTAF 2003 (Berlin)

2 p.m. August 23 ESPN2 Welklasse Zurich

1 p.m. September 14 ESPN2 Memorial Van Damme (Brussels)




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[tafnut]

Re: We Do Get Golden League TV!

Much as I appreciate the effort and know that the ratings may not warrant the espense - once again we are given the best meets well after the fact. I don't care what the sport - one of THE BIGGEST drawing points is the suspense of who will win. When that is gone, the thrill is gone, and then it really is just us tafnuts who will watch. I know that I'll just tape the meets, so I can forward through the commercials (unless it's a new Nike one) and any certain annoying commentators. I feel guilty not supporting ESPN better, but that's the fact for most of us, I believe.

[vaulter83]

Re: We Do Get Golden League TV!

"extensive coverage of the IAAF World Championships this August on ESPN and ABC.”
What are these guys comedians? They need to check the dictionary if they think extensive coverage means every sprint race, 20 seconds of each distance race and maybe showing some of the field events. Once just once I'd like to see every attempt of the PV final plus jumps from qual. Is that too much to ask? I mean I can watch an entire BOWLING or POKER match on ESPN complete with replays and knowledgeable commentary. Oh well theres my rant for the day..

[MJD]

Re: We Do Get Golden League TV!

It's better than nothing although you will get the meets quicker(and longer shows) if you can get the CBC. For example, Paris is on this Saturday, July 5th. Many of the problems you talk about will not be the raw feed which I suspect will be the same as what the CBC uses(right Walt?) but rather what will be done with the feed. That Oslo meet, for example, would appear to be a one hour show which is 30 minutes less than what the CBC showed. Want to bet that some of that 30 minutes will come from the 5 minutes of the 5000 that the CBC showed?

[Guest]

Re: We Do Get Golden League TV!

We do a collective "woe is me there is no TV" then when we get TV all we can do is complain? That's not exactly an endearing quality.

Sure it won't be perfect but not a single second of coverage has been shown and this is the response?!

[Guest]

Re: We Do Get Golden League TV!

We're complaining because of our experience in the past. We want to see most, if not all, of the events. ESPN assumes that we only want to see Americans, which means no events longer than a mile. ESPN also does the "here's the field event winner" crap which is not entertaining in any way.

CBC's coverage is superior for basically one reason . . . if they only showed events with Canadians in them, they couldn't fill a telecast. Our northern neighbors have no illusions that they are the most important nation on earth. CBC Sports also directs its coverage towards things that might have been on the old "Wide World of Sports" -- last week's track meet was preceded by an hour's worth of the World Table Tennis championships. Since the only leagues they are obsessed with are the CFL and NHL (instead of MLB, NBA, NCAA, NFL, NASCAR, PGA, ATP, WTA), they've got lots of time for sports like ours. The CBC in general is something like putting PBS, BBC, and 60s-70s style US networks in a blender.

[jlanza]

Re: We Do Get Golden League TV!

>We do a collective "woe is me there is no TV"
>then when we get TV all we can do is complain?
>That's not exactly an endearing quality.

Sure
>it won't be perfect but not a single second of
>coverage has been shown and this is the
>response?!

Yes, but.....does the fact that they are giving us some crumbs mean that we need to be grateful when the crumbs are stale? I hear you about the negativity, but I don't think any of us is saying we need more bad TV coverage. More like we need more good TV coverage.

[dl]

Re: We Do Get Golden League TV!

There is much more international level track on TV now than when I started becoming interested in track as a kid, in the mid-80's, when the only European meet broadcast was the Bislett Games. And even then they'd only show the Dream Mile plus one or two other events.

The Golden 4/League broadcasts of the past 8-9 years have been a tremendous improvement.

[br]

Re: We Do Get Golden League TV!

In addition to the Golden League and World Championships, espn will be televising the World Athletics Final (new name for the Grand Prix Final) in September. Date and time to be determined. Stay tuned.

[tafnut]

Re: We Do Get Golden League TV!

Since I'm a decrepit geezer, I remember the summer of '69 (isn't that a song title?) when there was a summer series of Euro meets on TV that was awesome. It actually helped make me become a lifetime fan. Where did that come from and then go?

[Guest]

Re: We Do Get Golden League TV!

RE: CBS telecasts from late 60's

Images in my head of Ralph Boston describing the throws of L.Jay Silvester. Or the Bouncy Moore making a "Gooooood Jump"

[Donley]

Re: We Do Get Golden League TV!

>There is much more international level track on
>TV now than when I started becoming interested in
>track as a kid, in the mid-80's, when the only
>European meet broadcast was the Bislett Games.
>And even then they'd only show the Dream Mile
>plus one or two other events.

The Golden
>4/League broadcasts of the past 8-9 years have
>been a tremendous improvement.


If you consider that 5 of 6 of this years shows will be on a network (ESPN2) that did not even exist until 1994 what we are really talking about is the fact that there has been an explosion in the amount of televised sporting events in the last 10 to 15 years (when cable has really become a normal item in US households), track and field is just lucky to get a tiny piece of this explosion in coverage.