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Lets Get Intimate - The Future of Track and Field? By Daniel Wallis
Very few track meets are economically viable. Year after year the IAAF loses money, while a handful of major track meets manage to fill stadiums and find their way onto television. To survive, track and field must embrace its strengths and cater to a particular audience. Most events will never match the likes of the Monaco Diamond League, and they need not try. Even major meets like Monaco will struggle to survive when they shell out the majority of their budget to bring in a few star athletes. Contrary to popular belief, Usain Bolt is not the future of the sport. Rather, his charlatan manager is sucking these meets dry – reducing competition and potential for others to flourish. The masses love to see the Jamaican run, but will they still travel with as much zeal to a meet in which he is not participating? The overwhelming consensus is no. Their superficial love affair is with Bolt, not the sport itself. In fact, Bolt’s passion and ability to put on a show is everything most at the top of the food chain in track and field lack.
Meet promoters must clearly outline why they are having a track meet. Often television is used as a reason for a meet in order to ‘reach new audiences’, which inevitably means trying to pocket a few dollars from advertising. Some meets are designed specifically to help athletes record qualifying marks – such as the 1500m organised by Marc Corstjens in Oordegem, Belgium last year, while others are about bringing together communities for various reasons – such as the track meet for Christchurch in Wellington after disaster struck. Rarely do the goals combine all three. Either way, as each city is unique, each track meet must be unique and specific to a particular audience if the sport is to survive.
It can be argued that track peaked in the 60’s and 70’s. In fact, my grandmother has witnessed more men break the four-minute mile barrier than I have for the simple fact that she was in New Zealand in the 1960’s. That’s what you did back then on Friday night, it was entertainment. It may seem cliché, but there really was less to occupy your weekends before sport was ever thought of as a ‘profession’. These days if we want the mob atmosphere of a stadium we will watch the Super 14 rugby, Aussie rules or the NFL. Although track was one of the first sports to dabble in professionalism, it is no longer on equal terms with most sports as they have evolved into a new world of sports-entertainment.
Track has the potential to take advantage of and become a niche, even ‘bohemian’ market. Small, intimate meets have significant allure and can cater to an audience more likely to be sympathetic to the history and unique attraction of track and field. Eugene, Oregon really is home to true lovers of track and field, and they are a far cry from the incoherently chanting, tobacco-chewing hill people that occupy Denver Broncos games. This is the mob that fills 75,000 people stadiums on a regular basis – it is also not what track and field should be trying so desperately to attract.
Rather, track meets must be small, sophisticated, and intimate. Imagine fixed-gear bikes in the parking lot, beer gardens, taking bets in a Moleskine - all while sitting on a grassed bank around the track. What happened to the city of Christchurch was a catastrophe, but the new format of the International Track Meet as a result of its consequences is something that deserves both admiration and examination, and proves that necessity is the mother of all innovation.
I have long admired the intentions and efforts of Craig Motley, Leyton Tremain and the countless volunteers and sponsors in attempting to bring elite athletes from around the world back to New Zealand to produce world-class performances. Although it so far has succeeded in being about as international as ANZAC day, it nonetheless did navigate some attention to the tartan, particularly with the consistent support and star-power provided by the only person from the Hutt Valley to receive a college-education: Nick Willis. Before the new grass-track meet format, the burning image I have from the coverage of the previous ITM’s were those of a near empty stadium that was as old and decrepit as its namesake – Queen Elizabeth II. The atmosphere might have been better at ground-zero, and the numbers might have been “pretty good for track” – but hosting a meet in a stadium that size in New Zealand is all sorts of wrong.
Athletes will rarely attempt or expect to run world-class times or qualifiers in New Zealand. Yes, there are exceptions - but in general what they can and should expect with Christchurch’s new format is a warm atmosphere, fun, and excitement as well as a bit of warm weather during the Northern Hemisphere winter. Surrounding a beautifully cultivated grass track with benches full of school kid’s is a way to bring track back to its roots, which is how it will survive in any manner of worth.
So why should world-class athletes buy into this format? Because it is their duty to do so. They are ambassadors and role models for the sport and are often paid rather well for it. Too many ‘professional’ athletes shelter themselves in secrecy and will only race for big money. The drama and gossip within the running community is pathetic and embarrassing. It’s running – no one should give a shit which group Kara Goucher is going too, or what training Chris Solinsky does or does not do. The only people who really do care are the trolls on the Letsrun.com message boards who are going to do nothing but nerd-up track meets with talk of PB’s and what spikes they just purchased on Eastbay.
Track needs to cater to a sophisticated, microbrew and/or wine drinking, nationalistic audience. Yes, nationalistic. One of the best things about Penn Relays in recent years is the custom Nike-Australia jerseys that Nic Bideau had made for the distance medley relay. Locally, people care if Australia is competing against New Zealand, South Africa or whoever. What they don’t care about is a dozen unidentifiable 145lb males running in unison around a track wearing slight variations of the exact same uniform. Last year Reebok, New Balance, and Nike all had red and black racing-kits as a result of pathetic rivalry games by designers and executives jumping around from each company. Uniforms should be catered to a country’s flag or national colours – a model applicable to all levels of competition.
I would watch New Zealand vs. Australia in just about anything and so would many others, how do you think such a pathetic sport like ‘netball’ survives? Because of long legs, short skirts, and national rivalry. Track and field has some of the hottest bodies in the world of sports. I would have turned in Anne Frank for a night with Lolo Jones, while you could rest a coke-can on top of Chris Solinky’s buns. It’s a win-win, no matter what team you bat for. Put that in the mix with fish n’ chips, beer gardens, a few low-key wagers and maybe some fireworks and I myself would wager that you would find an audience who in turn would spread the word about it for the next year.
You could entice every boy's high school in Australia and NZ to a track meet with this on the brochure.
Every school has an athletics day – we all remember the teacher vs. student relays, or the handicapped race between the boys school vs. girls school (for those lucky enough to receive an exclusively male high school education). Did we like track that much back then, or was it about more than the sport? The sport of track and field is a fantastic vehicle for rivalries, emotions, and competitiveness. Most of it comes down to marketing, as well as effort on behalf of athletes like Nick Willis and his pace-makers who are selfless enough to turn a scheduled workout into a two-mile race or relay a couple of times a year. It might just be enough to spark a fire of enthusiasm into a ten-year-old boy or girl who ends up asking Mum for a pair of spikes instead of footy boots.
The track in Christchurch is almost as nice to look at as Lolo Jones.
Picture a meet where a ‘group ticket’ gets you a box of fish n’ chips, half a dozen beers, and a number that correlates to someone in a race – the idea being that if it’s a handicapped race, everyone has an equal chance to win. Like the TAB says, “It’s more exciting when you’ve got something on it”, so give the spectator something on it and see how people get involved. They will end up a little more knowledgeable and excited about the sport because of it.
This kind of “boutique track meet” might not produce the fastest of times, but that shouldn’t be the goal – leave that for Europe in June and July. New Zealand can create a niche-format that could accomplish as much for the sport as any Diamond League.
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Teenage throwing sensation Gill, well-renowned for his fantastic exploits in the shot put circle where he has set multiple world age-group records, is ranked number 1 in the world for the under-18 and under-20 age groups and has broken the NZ senior record at just 17 years of age, will turn his hand to the discus event at the Christchurch meet. Although his discus prowess has been previously shadowed by his success with the steel ball, and he doesn’t specifically train for the discus, he is nonetheless ranked number 5 in the world in his age-group, and has his sights set on dominating that discipline in the same way. Gill broke Cantabrian Chris Mene’s national under-18 discus record last year (while still 16) by over two metres, with a mighty throw of 62.05m – a target he will be looking to surpass again in Christchurch with the youth-grade 1.5kg implement.
JEREMY WARINER: (On his preparation.) "This year has been a slow season for me, I haven't run as many races as in the past, but I'm looking forward to coming out here and hopefully trying to defend my title, and run the best race that I can. Training's been going great, each week I'm getting better, my times are getting to where they need to be." 
LASHAWN MERRITT (On his goals.) "I'm feeling good, the season is going well so far, so I'm hoping to do well in the 400m, and if I'm feeling good, also the 4x400m." 
(On not being the underdog this year, as opposed to last year.) "I never thought I was the underdog. Last year the media made me out as if I were the underdog, the year before that I may have said I was the underdog, but in training, I train to win. So you can say it if you want, but I train to win, and I always feel like I can win any race."
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