BOSTON — Track is my sports love.
Football was my first sport, but when my gift of speed became fully realized, track became the sport that helped me become a preferred walk-on at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. Track and field still has my heart although my gift of speed expired like old milk many years ago.
On Feb. 4th, the 28th edition of the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix was held at the barely year old the TRACK at New Balance, which is part of the New Balance complex in the Boston Landing area of Brighton. For the lead up to the actual meet, World Athletics held a pre-meet press conference at the Lenox Hotel in downtown Boston Friday morning. The question that was asked to all eight athletes on the panel was: ‘If you were president of World Athletics, what would you change?’
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When people say that they are track and field fans, I always question them. I ask them, do they watch track and field or do they just watch the Olympics? The distinction is important. Every four years, the globe comes together to celebrate sport. And despite having disciplines ranging from fencing to the newly added 3x3 basketball, all eyes focus on track and field. It’s a reason why Athletics is the final discipline to be contested at the Olympiads.
But what about the years in between? Do you watch the World Championships that are contested every two years? Do you watch Diamond League meets? Do you even watch track and field at all during non championship years? Answering yes to these questions differentiate true track fans to casual viewers who only enjoy watching Jamaica vs. USA in the 4x1 relay because the rooting interest is team based. (Team USA serving as the surrogate stand-in to more traditional team orientated American fixtures like the NFL or NBA.)
The relevance of this distinction is important because it isn’t the die-hard track fans that matter in the long run (don’t get me wrong, all fans matter) but those once-every-four year casuals to whom Athletics need to sustain are the focal point.
Trayvon Bromell, last year’s World Championship bronze medalist in the 100 meters answered, “I feel like the biggest thing is the promotion sense. We look at a lot of big networks like football, basketball and we know a lot of money is in those sports but anybody who knows about finances knows that you have to spend money to make money sometimes.
“I feel like to be able to promote the sport better in the eyes of the national consumer who don’t know what we’re doing, we got to bring some type of excitement to them.”
Athletics, track and field, has always had an aptness to get in its own way. Doping has been the biggest hurdle (pun intended) or the international false start rule that changed from athletes getting two false starts to one drew the ire of many – athletes and fans alike. So I get it that it’ll be hard to convince casuals to become fans of a sport which still wants to stay amateur despite having professional athletes. And Bromell has the right idea – but there’s more.
What Bromell was suggesting is in-meet entertainment, like how HBCU football have a ‘Battle of the Bands’ during halftime or basketball has fan interactive activities during timeouts or quarter breaks. Track meets are continuous – rather it be a distance race or a field event being contested as hurdles are being set up or removed or with the case Saturday, one of the track’s embanked turns being lowered. Meets have introduced runner intros for championship heats and Saturday, New Balance did a shirt toss to the loudest section. I don’t know what else can be done during the meet but the promotion has to occur externally.
Athletics specifically, or sponsors generally, has to lift up the sport, their athletes to the general populace. The best known track athlete today is retired Usain Bolt and he, himself, was a walking billboard his entire eight year reign as the greatest sprinter to ever put on spikes. But promotion has to be a year round practice. ESPN’s new ‘ESPN Offices’ spot featuring world record holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone can be the start and maybe positive responses to the ad will pay dividends to athletics being able to be pushed forward into a more lucrative endeavor and growing its popularity.
There was a sellout crowd at the TRACK at New Balance on that Saturday. It helped that Northampton and Harvard’s own Gabby Thomas participated in the meet’s international finale. Maybe that will carry over to other events throughout the season, especially outdoor season when the Puma sponsored American Track League gets underway at a local track near you. Athletics is making strides — the pace just has to be quickened.