Track and Field Channel.

[fasttrack85]

So there is the NFL Network, MLB Network, NBA TV, and even Hockey Channel(at least for those living in the US). Would a Track and Field channel ever work? Has there ever been one? I assume it might be but outside of the us(maybe in Europe). The closest I have come to having a track and field channel was Universal Sports but those idiots just had to ruin everything.

[Tuariki]

Why are they idiots? How did they ruin everything?
It is all about numbers of viewers and advertising revenue.
While probably everyone on this message board would religiously watch such a channel the reality is that, except for the Olympics, the general sports viewing public just is not interested in watching TNF.

[Marlow]

The idea of an "Olympic" channel, focusing on those sports has come up several times. Certainly T&F would be a main-stay there, but the $$$ have never come through. We just don't have the fan-base for it.

[fasttrack85]

Universal Sports are idiots because they pulled their network from almost every service provider. If they made it available as a premium channel I would have subscribed(so they lost money). I have a tv for a reason and a computer for a reason.

[fasttrack85]

Track and Field needs a makeover.... Mixed Martial Arts came out of nowhere to become the number one fight sport and now Boxing is completely on the decline. MMA made it a point to be everywhere(Spike TV, Fuel TV, MTV,FOX, PAY PER VIEW) and increase their visibility. It was Universal Sports believe it or not that turned me from a fan to a fanatic. 2012 was the first year that I had to go hunt down diamond league races on the internet and that was really annoying.

I think some well placed reality shows could also help Track and Field. For example Usain Bolt racing NFL players or even female sprinters racing NFL players. Show it on primetime or ESPN. Sanya's reality show on a good network would probably bring in women viewers who would be willing to check her out during the competitive season. Things like that.

I cant fathom how someone could not like TrackandField. It is simple to understand as there are no complicated rules. The adrenaline is always high as the match is often pretty quick and even in the long distance races the last lap is always exciting. For me the excitement of all the other sports is spread out over 2-3 hours with alot of down moments in between. Track consolidates all that into seconds for the sprints and then there is usually another race after that and another. This whole world needs to be converted until every boy and girl can tell you the yearly leaders in every track and field event.

[Marlow]

Track and Field needs a makeover.... Mixed Martial Arts came out of nowhere to become the number one fight sport

There's our answer: Full-Contact Track & Field. Runners can trip and spike each other. Throwers can heave their implements at their opponents. We just need a little blood in the water to chum up some fan interest!

[Tuariki]

Track and Field needs a makeover.... Mixed Martial Arts came out of nowhere to become the number one fight sport

There's our answer: Full-Contact Track & Field. Runners can trip and spike each other. Throwers can heave their implements at their opponents. We just need a little blood in the water to chum up some fan interest!

Cool.
Caribbean all TnF champs.
Bolt v Walcott and his javelin in the 100m "run and dodge the javelin"

[rabalac]

There was a time when the great Jessie Owens had to run against a horse as part of some freak show to put food on his table. Hopefully, Bolt has saved enough of his millions so he doesn't have to sink to the level of participating in freak shows. How humiliating.

[TN1965]

Universal Sports are idiots because they pulled their network from almost every service provider. If they made it available as a premium channel I would have subscribed(so they lost money). I have a tv for a reason and a computer for a reason.

Could not agree more. If you make it harder to purchase your product by "bundling" it with other products that some customers do not want, it only drives more customers away. And IAAF is an idiot by giving the TV rights to such an idiot.

Having said that, I am switching from a cable (Charter) to either Direct TV or Dish for the sole purpose of getting Universal Sports. I do not want to be shut out from the World Championships. And if that means having to pay more for TV, so be it.

But I bet more people rather give up and stop watching T&F because Universal Sports make it so difficult. Just my two cents...

[gh]

...
Could not agree more. If you make it harder to purchase your product by "bundling" it with other products that some customers do not want, it only drives more customers away. And IAAF is an idiot by giving the TV rights to such an idiot.
...

I'm sure the IAAF sold the rights, and sold them to the only entity that showed an interest.

[aaronk]

"fasttrack85" says T&F is "easy to understand, as there are no complicated rules."

Hmmm!
How about......

wind-aided and altitude-aided marks--all the various "adjusted" marks, and how different levels of altitude affect what??

indoor marks being included on outdoor lists??

a 7th place runner (Janet Cherobon-Bawcom) making the OG team....and all the other weirdness surrounding OG "A" and "B" qualifying??

the controversies surrounding Andrea Geubelle at the NCAA, the Tarmoh/Felix affair, and of course, all the belated drug DQ's.....the latest being when Adams was denied her immediate victory ceremony in London??

the question of what constitutes a "pro".......i.e. Mary Cain not competing for her HS, racing as an "unpaid pro"......yet NOT being a pro??

all the nation switching, and whether they're qualified to break their new nation's national records??

what is eligible for World Record status......for example, can a 2 mile be called a WR??

all the different groups who determine what a "High School Record" is??

The BASICS of the sport ARE simple---not complicated!!
Who runs fastest, jumps highest or longest, throws farthest.
Add all the above.......and it's !!

[BillVol]

So there is the NFL Network, MLB Network, NBA TV, and even Hockey Channel(at least for those living in the US). Would a Track and Field channel ever work? Has there ever been one? I assume it might be but outside of the us(maybe in Europe). The closest I have come to having a track and field channel was Universal Sports but those idiots just had to ruin everything.

I posted this ten years ago on there, fast. I was only 13 years old at the time.

http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/discussion/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=123&hilit=network#p776

[pakillo]

I don't see it any time soon even in Europe. But I imagine that should be a channel that broadcasts live all Diamond League meetings, World Challenge meetings, many EAA meetings, some national championships, marathons, continental championships, WChamps, OGames, news, analysis etc. Just never gonna happen.

[Halfmiler2]

The idea of an "Olympic" channel, focusing on those sports has come up several times. Certainly T&F would be a main-stay there, but the $$$ have never come through. We just don't have the fan-base for it.

It would probably only work if NBC got behind it.

I'd settle for an hour feature show on Olympic news and features each night on NBC Sports - sort of like ESPN Sportscenter.

[Marlow]

The idea of an "Olympic" channel

It would probably only work if NBC got behind it.
I'd settle for an hour feature show on Olympoic news and features each night on NBC Sports - sort of like ESPN Sportscenter.

Wouldn't you think that with all the niche sports that are in the OG, and their small, but rabid fan-bases, there'd be sponsors who'd want to target those specific demographics?

[gh]

that's not how advertising works.

[Mighty Favog]

Cable TV channel? I dream of this in between thoughts of winning the lottery and being seduced by the latest Hollywood starlets.

If I could subscribe to an online service that gave me HD streaming video that I could view on my HDTV set, then we're talking. And that's slightly less pie-in-the-sky.

One thing we should take a serious look at is the PAC-12 network. Once spring rolls around there is a lot of air time available that track could use. And don't think for a moment that Vin Lanana isn't working hard at getting every single Oregon home meet on the network.

[Marlow]

that's not how advertising works.

Indeed - far too logical.

[athleticshushmail]

Probably a stupid question, but did Universal Sports show only the finals in most of the events in the 2011 Worlds in Daegu or did they air all of the rounds in their entirety?

[eldanielfire]

I don't think a channel would work. ANd besides T&F in America needs mainstream TV coverage outside the Olympics. If a channel promoted and hyped the usual events and followed, analysed and chatted about the diamond league like the NBA or NFL then the profile raises and more people make time for T&F.

In the UK we are fairly lucky the BBC has always supported Athletics both T&F and the Marathon and Cross Country events. Sure they could do more but a British Gold medalist is generally quite high profile in the public eye for part of the year. However the Diamond League could sell its self better, hype up people who are top of the table more often and keep interest ongoing like Newspapers and TV shows do. If I visit a football, american football or NBA etc website, the current standinsg or last big game are generally an obvious click away and the big news, result or fixture currently on the first page with a big picture. Why the heck is the Diamond League not so this way? Why aren't all races or highlights uploaded to YouTube straight after. The NBA and MMA do a great job by connecting their online following with hype. T&F stuff seems so dated and limted in it's approach. The Diamond League website is essentially a fixtures list and old picture banners of athletes not much more. It's neither athlete, personality or news oriented. No regular twitter updates of what is happening today, no breaking or exclusive news no hype or excitement nor anything information that basically isn't out of date nd no hype on how current form could affect the next race or how Athletes are looking for the world/european championship or Olympics. If somebody makes a breakthrough this week they probably won't appear on the website in a major way until a year later. There is no chance of Linsanity or the Tebow effect from T & F because they refuse to embrace modern media and moden audiences despite having an exciting product and the most famous and popular athlete on the planet to build hype around.

T&F in general just needs a good mind in the US to grow it as ell a sglobally. It's not a niche sport, the Athletics world championships gets as many viewers as the Champions League final globally. That's 100+ million. Plus it has the massive advantage of being the Olympic centre piece and considered first amongst equals with other sports when the Olympics comes around. It has a great foundation to build upon, it just needs the right mind to use it to increase regular popularity.

[jazzcyclist]

Probably a stupid question, but did Universal Sports show only the finals in most of the events in the 2011 Worlds in Daegu or did they air all of the rounds in their entirety?

They showed all the rounds.

[j-a-m]

T&F in general just needs a good mind in the US to grow it as ell a sglobally. It's not a niche sport, the Athletics world championships gets as many viewers as the Champions League final globally. That's 100+ million. Plus it has the massive advantage of being the Olympic centre piece and considered first amongst equals with other sports when the Olympics comes around. It has a great foundation to build upon, it just needs the right mind to use it to increase regular popularity.

Yeah, sometimes it seems t&f fans are just too negative. When you ask soccer fans about the popularity of their sport in the U.S., they point out how big it is internationally. When you ask t&f fans about the international popularity of their sport, they point out how it's not big enough in the U.S.

[Conor Dary]

When you ask soccer fans about the popularity of their sport in the U.S., they point out how big it is internationally. When you ask t&f fans about the international popularity of their sport, they point out how it's not big enough in the U.S.

That is because soccer worldwide is getting bigger, while track is steadily shrinking.

[j-a-m]

One thing we should take a serious look at is the PAC-12 network. Once spring rolls around there is a lot of air time available that track could use. And don't think for a moment that Vin Lanana isn't working hard at getting every single Oregon home meet on the network.

Exactly, there's a lot of potential there.

[fasttrack85]

The popularity of all sports can wane and increase throughout the years. To me all Sports are like physical soap operas. You need to know who the characters are, the plots, locations,etc to truly appreciate the story. If you can't tell the guy in lane 1 from the guy in lane 8 why should you care who wins????

I think the average viewer of any nationality would tune in if they saw Usain Bolt in a race because they understand his significance within his sport. I also think the average viewer would tune into a race with Lolo Jones because they are aware of her backstory and would be curious to see how the performance matches up as well as her being generally considered attractive.


I don't give a damn about all this talk about niche marketing and not enough of a fanbase talk. I have 2-3 channels that deal only with killing deer,birds, and fish that run 24 damn hours. WHO THE HELL IS WATCHING THAT???? You mean more people would rather watch that than track? Show me those people so I can line them up with the deer, birds, and fish and work on my target practice.

Once again Universal Sports really did a good job while they lasted which is why I am so mad with them. They showed every diamond league and showed repeats all weekend probably 5-6 times so if you missed the original premiere you could def catch it later. They also did a good job at packaging the favorite athletes so the viewers know who the main players are. That channel is/was reallly in love with Allyson Felix btw and alot of that rubbed off on me .

There are many options to get track and field out to the masses and I don't see that happening. Even at the college level they show only the NCAA Finals and some of the Division finals. There are channels that are showing College Football and Basketball games from the 1970's barely even in color but they would die first before they show a NCAA track meet. Marketing is all about making people think you should be buying thiss, you should be watching this. People like annoying songs simply because they can't get it out of their head. You can't leave it to people to seek out a sport and love it when it is in a state of obscurity.

Is RG3 or Jeff Demps had made an olympic games or even a championships the viewership would be extremely high because the race would have relevance to the average viewer who likes football(lotta people). Maybe Track and Field may want to lure NFL players do take part in speciality events(semi freak shows) to advertise the season. Maybe track and field athletes should run the 40 yard dash vs football players? Allyson Felix even said she would be willing to race male football players. How can the powers that be hear things like that and try to make nothing happen? It's time for ppl to wake up and stop sleeping on the job.

[CookyMonzta]

Why are they idiots? How did they ruin everything?
It is all about numbers of viewers and advertising revenue.
While probably everyone on this message board would religiously watch such a channel the reality is that, except for the Olympics, the general sports viewing public just is not interested in watching TNF.

Unfortunately you are right, but only because, in my opinion, the people are conditioned to withhold their interest in certain sports until the Olympics come around. They are also conditioned to believe that track and field is the dirtiest thing on the planet, despite the fact that, once or twice every month someone in American football comes up dirty, and once every 2 months someone in baseball comes up dirty. Every now and then you even hear about a dirty horse!

Dirty shame that, since the Olympics, the only attention given to track was when Suzy's call-girl past was leaked and went public. Even this year's World Champs in Moscow won't get this much attention.

[tm71]

Dirty shame that, since the Olympics, the only attention given to track was when Suzy's call-girl past was leaked and went public. Even this year's World Champs in Moscow won't get this much attention/

totally missed the story about SFH when it came out. i just googled it up after reading this thread. at least it wasnt another story about track athletes being caught using PEDs !!! too bad track gets the "negative type of attention" during the off seasons.

[fasttrack85]

Track needs to drum up the fanfar. Where's Lolo Jones when you need her?