Repeating my message from 4 years ago, December 21, 2015……..

Experiencing groundhog day and deja vu all over again. Here we go again with the argument over which event we should use, the mile or the 1500m.

Come on man!!!

The sport has been around a while. Why can’t we all just agree to abandon any and all repetitive foolish statements about our sport that were made 40 years ago, and again 30 years ago, and again 20 years ago, etc, etc. So that both younger and older crowds can all get on the same page on this, let me help those in the older crowd who should have some institutional memory to draw on, and let me help out the younger crowd who seem to be convinced that all statements and belief systems they experience in the sport are new.
1 — track & field isn’t dying.
2 — the 1500m isn’t preventing track & field from acquiring new fans
3 — track athlete drug use and news stories about drug use aren’t killing, haven’t killed, and won’t kill track & field

So lets all agree to stop with these.

Sport promotions. That’s the only thing that matters. We won’t and can’t change anything about where our sport is today in the United States until we go there and do that. Sport Promotions!!!

Running the mile rather than 1500m at the college level does little to address or resolve that issue. Altering event distances isn’t sport promotions. The 1500m isn’t a barrier to attracting new fans of track & field in the United States. Making the sport less standardized doesn’t facilitate sport promotions. Stop. Focus on making championships meets more standardized, from high school to college to pro, and yes that means at the high school level running 400m hurdles, 1500m, and 3000m.

Relative to the NFL, NBA, and baseball, we are where we are as a sport because they have a 30 to 40 year head-start on us in sport promotions. Its not about news stories on drugs. USA Track & Field isn’t stealing money from athletes. And Nike isn’t the devil. Our situation as a sport is not about the metric system. Sport promotions…..Stop wasting time and energy looking else where. You cannot change what you will not acknowledge.

Place your attention on sport promotions. That’s all that matters.

One of many examples to provide an idea of what sport promotions can or should look like for our sport. TheETG Track & Field Promotions Project
http://www.theetgtrackclub.com/documents/TheETGTrackPromotionmasterofsport.pdf