{"id":27992,"date":"2019-03-22T11:27:47","date_gmt":"2019-03-22T18:27:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/?post_type=article&p=27992"},"modified":"2019-03-22T11:30:16","modified_gmt":"2019-03-22T18:30:16","slug":"from-the-editor-call-me-a-heretic-but-the-iaafs-diamond-league-tightening-might-actually-be-the-right-move","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/article\/from-the-editor-call-me-a-heretic-but-the-iaafs-diamond-league-tightening-might-actually-be-the-right-move\/","title":{"rendered":"From The Editor \u2014 Call Me A Heretic, But The IAAF\u2019s Diamond League Tightening Might Actually Be The Right Move"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"ONE OF THE TOUGHEST PARTS of my job as the editor of T&FN<\/em> is juggling what the readership wants to hear on one side and what my analysis of what\u2019s best for the sport overall on the other, because the two aren\u2019t necessarily taking the same number of steps between hurdles. Hardcore fans\u2014and there are no fans more hardcore than you, dear readers\u2014can\u2019t get enough of track and\/or field. The problem is that there aren\u2019t enough of us to keep the sport viable, domestically or internationally. This was true when I started at T&FN almost a half-century ago and it has only become more true with every passing year. (Was it really way back in May \u201991 that we had our infamous cover \u201cWhat If They Gave A Track Meet And Nobody Came?\u201d?).<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve now gotten to the point, after years of deteriorating popularity with the general public\u2014sporting or otherwise\u2014where our beloved sport has to reinvent itself. This certainly isn\u2019t a new concept; it\u2019s one that has been addressed in this column multiple times through the years. In my February \u201915 offering<\/a> I riffed on the news that down the road the IAAF might have to consider cutting events from the Olympic program and offered some thoughts on which\u2014from a purely pragmatic point of view\u2014might be best as candidates to bite the dust. The obvious answer for T&FN readers is \u201cD, none of the above,\u201d but the current exam, which relates to the IAAF\u2019s signature invitational series, the Diamond League, doesn\u2019t offer D as one of the options.<\/p>\n

The Monaco braintrust believes that the 2-hour TV window that has marked recent years\u2019 offerings from the DL is too much, and that distance races simply drag on too long, so the new plan<\/a> (beginning next year) is for 90-minute shows with nothing longer than the 3000 being offered up. I\u2019m no TV marketing guru, and my mindset is certainly decades away from what needs to be the DL\u2019s target audience (key word: \u201cneeds,\u201d not \u201cis\u201d), but from what I absorb from the modern digital world that surrounds me, the IAAF has a point. The shows need to be punchy, quick-in\/quick-out action-filled things. You know, like Game Of Thrones, only better.<\/p>\n

That feeble attempt at humor aside (although, man, can the king of the White Walkers throw a javelin or what?!), I am completely serious when I say that the IAAF just might be\u2014and I hope they are\u2014onto something with their version of DL-Lite. At this point, allow me to reiterate: this is me with my good-of-the-sport hat on, not my hardcore-fan one. I\u2019d be quite happy to hear the general-public audience say, \u201cThat was a great watching experience\u201d even if the hardcore fans had a take of, \u201cWow! That was way too short.\u201d It\u2019s a simple numbers game.<\/p>\n

Did I say simple? The length-of-window number was simple to come up with, sure. But there are, of course, some elephants in the room. The series will drop from 14 meets this year to 12, based on IAAF meet-rating criteria. But which meet is going to step up for the significant task of hosting the 1-meet final? Are longtime 2-part hosts Brussels and Z\u00fcrich locked in some backroom death struggle, or are both of them saying, \u201cFugetaboutit!\u201d leaving the IAAF to look for a Plan B?<\/p>\n

Why Plan B? Because at the same time the number of events to be part of the DL menu is dropping from 32 (100, 200, 400, 800, 1500\/Mile, 3000\/5000, steeple, 110H, 400H, HJ, PV, LJ, TJ, SP, DT, JT\u2014all for each sex) to 24, which means that the single DL Final will be staging all 24, instead of the 16 each did in the past. Obviously (or is it \u201cobviously\u201d?) there can\u2019t be any plans to somehow shoehorn that into a 90-minute window.<\/p>\n

The other pachyderm to consider is which 8 events are going to get the chop. Will it simply be the same 4 events for each sex or will they get creative and have it vary? One could craft a setup where each event remains part of the overall program, just not for both sexes. And what happens to the events that don\u2019t make the grade? The hammer has never been part of the DL, but the IAAF has instead created a \u201cHammer Challenge\u201d category that finds it contested in non-DL meets; will similar Challenges be created for the newly orphaned events? Or does the IAAF\u2019s longterm master plan figure to tighten the sport overall with an eye towards removing them from recognition altogether? Will the IAAF perhaps change the roster of events from year to year, so that if the \u201920 version of the DL has no (just for sake of argument) TJ, the \u201921 version will, but will drop the LJ?<\/p>\n

As a hardcore fan, it distresses me to see the sport I love being in a position where it needs to answer questions like this. I love all the events. But as a pragmatist, I know the questions have to be asked and some bold steps need to be taken. Let\u2019s just hope that Coe & Crew have done their homework and have read the potential audience for our sport correctly. Its very survival may depend on it.<\/p>\n

One place where I think they haven\u2019t done their homework well is in placing so much stock in their world rankings. They love to trumpet how the public will have a greater understanding for the sport when its athletes have a rating, like tennis players or golfers. It may well work out for the DL setup, but how do you sell it when you get to the World Championships and Olympic Games, with their 3-per nation stricture, and some member nations using their Trials results to formulate their teams, not the world rankings? In some events, many of the top 10 won\u2019t be at the WC\/OG. How\u2019s that a positive spin for the sport? \u25a1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ONE OF THE TOUGHEST PARTS of my job as the editor of T&FN is juggling what the readership wants to… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":13524,"menu_order":3130,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"issuem_issue":[689],"issuem_issue_categories":[52,31],"issuem_issue_tags":[],"class_list":["post-27992","article","type-article","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","issuem_issue-march-2019","issuem_issue_categories-departments","issuem_issue_categories-from-the-editor"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFrom The Editor \u2014 Call Me A Heretic, But The IAAF\u2019s Diamond League Tightening Might Actually Be The Right Move - Track & Field News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/article\/from-the-editor-call-me-a-heretic-but-the-iaafs-diamond-league-tightening-might-actually-be-the-right-move\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From The Editor \u2014 Call Me A Heretic, But The IAAF\u2019s Diamond League Tightening Might Actually Be The Right Move - Track & Field News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ONE OF THE TOUGHEST PARTS of my job as the editor of T&FN is juggling what the readership wants to... 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