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Wednesday, 05 October 2011 07:53 By Robert Taylor
The US is currently the biggest consumer market in the world, yet US athletes are not consistently raking in millions in endorsements.
Apart from the sponsorship Nike and Addidas provides, track and field athlete's earnings mostly come from meets they participate in around the world.
In the US, the turnout for track meets at the International level are greatest where there is a strong contingent of Jamaican nationals.
Penn Relays is by far the biggest and the stadium is filled with the vast majority being Jamaicans; the same goes for the annual International (Adidas) meet at Icahn Stadium in New York. Oregon seems to have great fan support but not the turnout of a Penn Relays.
The problem with low US fan support I believe, comes about through (1) the US Federation's' lack of ability or will, or both to sell the sports. (2) The US athletes themselves and (3) The US journalist who covers the sports.
Starting with the US Athletic Federation, they were never able to come up with a strong marketing plan, to sell the sports after the end of the cold war.
The belief about US and the evil empire was so imbedded in the minds of some that when the cold war ended, track and field lost its zeal.
In the USA, athletics are only relevant when it is the Olympics; The World Championship is a hidden secret to the US public. As a friend of mine said to me, “If poker can be marketed as a sport there is no rhyme or reason for the fan support to be so low in America”. I endorse that statement whole heartedly.
At the youth level, the participation in track and field is very strong. Yet the fan support at the highest level is non-existent in some markets. The US Federation to me, seems to be complacent because funding from Nike etc is there, so lack of funds is not a problem.
Unlike other sports where private owners is in it to make a profit, track and field is about individual athletes performing to win with no ownership group competing or colluding to make the overall product marketable and profitable. Where there is no private ownership the task is left up to the federation and the US federation abscond their duty.
The athletes are their own worse enemies. There is no other country like the US, 99% of the time you read about an athlete openly questioning or accusing someone of using performance enhancing drugs, the accuser turn out to be a US athlete or former athletes. They are an equal opportunity accuser, they accuse their fellow team mates and they accuse athletes from other countries. Mostly they accuse their fellow team mates.
To compound matters, the US seem to have a hard time coming up with a personable athlete to sell the sport. Sprinting is king, I guess due to human tendencies to have short attention spans. Thus the 100m rules above them all.
Tyson Gay, a great athlete seems too docile. Walter Dix a young sprinter with great potential spends time seeming like a sour loser. Wariner, a once dominant white 400m runner has no personality to back the fortunate situation he was in. Merritt seems to have a great personality but is now tainted. Mike Rodgers is likeable but not at the dominant level where he could sell his personality.
The female side has many candidates but I guess the biases that go against female athletes being the face of any sports when there are male athletes performing at a much higher level make it improbable.
The sports journalist is the worst. They only cover athletes during major events; they do not follow the sport like a fan, unlike other US popular sports.
The journalist are mostly ignorant or cynical. Their cynicism is reserved for great performances by both US sprinters and sprinters from other countries, especially sprinters from other countries. They sometimes cherry pick athletes development and past performances to prove their point. Their excuse is always Ben Johnson and the Seoul Olympics. This is funny because for a country that preaches they are the most democratic nation in the world and you are innocent until proven guilty, this is thrown out the window for sprinters.
At 16 Bolt ran 20.13. He did it when no senior athletesran under 20 seconds. As a junior he and the USA's Shaun Crawford had the two fastest times in world. That year Bolt was injured and Crawford was the Olympic champion. Injury sidelined Bolt for a few years but now he has matured and is the most dominant and one of the most recognizable athletes in the world; Yet a US journalist sees it fit to compare him with Marion Jones.
Bolt and Marion Jones have nothing in common. Using his methodology, Michael Johnson and all the former great’s performances are questionable. He never choose to use balance so potential fans can form an educated opinion. The aim was only and only to discredit great performances. Of course Ben Johnson and more recently Marion Jones are use as examples from time to time.
If others were to go this rout, can you imagine the consequences for mankind? Slavery, Crusaders, anti-anything and everything etc. Moreover, no one is able to tell the limits, growth and development of an athlete. Yet they those choose a method of guilty until proven so. A no win situation for a great athlete.
Accusationsare made by bloggers all the time, whether out of ignorance, jealousy, jingoism or cynicism. The problem with major journalist is that when a report is publish in major electronic and or print media, more find it credible than not and problem is that the accused athlete have no way to counteract such statement or prove his or her innocence. The response would always be,”Marion Jones did not test positive”. Of course ignoring the fact that WADA has improve their testing quality and is storing samples for further testing as the technology improve.
The thing about the athletes and Journalist in the US is that they are destroying a potential for the athletes to earn millions more than they currently earn. The US market allows athletes in popular sports to earn even when they are not in the overall top tier performance level. Second and lower tier performers make money from endorsements if only in their local market.
Track and field in the US I think is run by people who are inept in marketing skills. The journalist that covers the sports are either too jingoistic to report with balance or too ignorant about the sports and too cynical. The athletes out of jealousy and myopia spend time accusing when they lose instead of spending time trying to come up with ways to market the sports so that they themselves benefitted economically.
Track and field in the US is suffering from a three prong attack. They hinder the sports from achieving the status where great athletes can make a lot more than what they are earning so far. The sad part is that this will only cause the sports to lose potentially great athletes to other sports with more following and greater potential to earn money.
Wednesday, 05 October 2011 07:53 By Robert Taylor
The US is currently the biggest consumer market in the world, yet US athletes are not consistently raking in millions in endorsements.
Apart from the sponsorship Nike and Addidas provides, track and field athlete's earnings mostly come from meets they participate in around the world.
In the US, the turnout for track meets at the International level are greatest where there is a strong contingent of Jamaican nationals.
Penn Relays is by far the biggest and the stadium is filled with the vast majority being Jamaicans; the same goes for the annual International (Adidas) meet at Icahn Stadium in New York. Oregon seems to have great fan support but not the turnout of a Penn Relays.
The problem with low US fan support I believe, comes about through (1) the US Federation's' lack of ability or will, or both to sell the sports. (2) The US athletes themselves and (3) The US journalist who covers the sports.
Starting with the US Athletic Federation, they were never able to come up with a strong marketing plan, to sell the sports after the end of the cold war.
The belief about US and the evil empire was so imbedded in the minds of some that when the cold war ended, track and field lost its zeal.
In the USA, athletics are only relevant when it is the Olympics; The World Championship is a hidden secret to the US public. As a friend of mine said to me, “If poker can be marketed as a sport there is no rhyme or reason for the fan support to be so low in America”. I endorse that statement whole heartedly.
At the youth level, the participation in track and field is very strong. Yet the fan support at the highest level is non-existent in some markets. The US Federation to me, seems to be complacent because funding from Nike etc is there, so lack of funds is not a problem.
Unlike other sports where private owners is in it to make a profit, track and field is about individual athletes performing to win with no ownership group competing or colluding to make the overall product marketable and profitable. Where there is no private ownership the task is left up to the federation and the US federation abscond their duty.
The athletes are their own worse enemies. There is no other country like the US, 99% of the time you read about an athlete openly questioning or accusing someone of using performance enhancing drugs, the accuser turn out to be a US athlete or former athletes. They are an equal opportunity accuser, they accuse their fellow team mates and they accuse athletes from other countries. Mostly they accuse their fellow team mates.
To compound matters, the US seem to have a hard time coming up with a personable athlete to sell the sport. Sprinting is king, I guess due to human tendencies to have short attention spans. Thus the 100m rules above them all.Tyson Gay, a great athlete seems too docile. Walter Dix a young sprinter with great potential spends time seeming like a sour loser. Wariner, a once dominant white 400m runner has no personality to back the fortunate situation he was in. Merritt seems to have a great personality but is now tainted. Mike Rodgers is likeable but not at the dominant level where he could sell his personality.
The female side has many candidates but I guess the biases that go against female athletes being the face of any sports when there are male athletes performing at a much higher level make it improbable.
The sports journalist is the worst. They only cover athletes during major events; they do not follow the sport like a fan, unlike other US popular sports.
The journalist are mostly ignorant or cynical. Their cynicism is reserved for great performances by both US sprinters and sprinters from other countries, especially sprinters from other countries. They sometimes cherry pick athletes development and past performances to prove their point. Their excuse is always Ben Johnson and the Seoul Olympics. This is funny because for a country that preaches they are the most democratic nation in the world and you are innocent until proven guilty, this is thrown out the window for sprinters.
At 16 Bolt ran 20.13. He did it when no senior athletesran under 20 seconds. As a junior he and the USA's Shaun Crawford had the two fastest times in world. That year Bolt was injured and Crawford was the Olympic champion. Injury sidelined Bolt for a few years but now he has matured and is the most dominant and one of the most recognizable athletes in the world; Yet a US journalist sees it fit to compare him with Marion Jones.
Bolt and Marion Jones have nothing in common. Using his methodology, Michael Johnson and all the former great’s performances are questionable. He never choose to use balance so potential fans can form an educated opinion. The aim was only and only to discredit great performances. Of course Ben Johnson and more recently Marion Jones are use as examples from time to time.
If others were to go this rout, can you imagine the consequences for mankind? Slavery, Crusaders, anti-anything and everything etc. Moreover, no one is able to tell the limits, growth and development of an athlete. Yet they those choose a method of guilty until proven so. A no win situation for a great athlete.
Accusationsare made by bloggers all the time, whether out of ignorance, jealousy, jingoism or cynicism. The problem with major journalist is that when a report is publish in major electronic and or print media, more find it credible than not and problem is that the accused athlete have no way to counteract such statement or prove his or her innocence. The response would always be,”Marion Jones did not test positive”. Of course ignoring the fact that WADA has improve their testing quality and is storing samples for further testing as the technology improve.
The thing about the athletes and Journalist in the US is that they are destroying a potential for the athletes to earn millions more than they currently earn. The US market allows athletes in popular sports to earn even when they are not in the overall top tier performance level. Second and lower tier performers make money from endorsements if only in their local market.
Track and field in the US I think is run by people who are inept in marketing skills. The journalist that covers the sports are either too jingoistic to report with balance or too ignorant about the sports and too cynical. The athletes out of jealousy and myopia spend time accusing when they lose instead of spending time trying to come up with ways to market the sports so that they themselves benefitted economically.
Track and field in the US is suffering from a three prong attack. They hinder the sports from achieving the status where great athletes can make a lot more than what they are earning so far. The sad part is that this will only cause the sports to lose potentially great athletes to other sports with more following and greater potential to earn money.
Paul Marin -19 is one thing, 20 is a whole other matter. It gets even worse if they win the UCL. *groan*. 
05/18/2011.MU fans naah cough, but all a unuh a vomit?-Lazie 1/11/2015