Mission: Boost US fan base
Officials hoping to increase interest by 2028 LA Olympics
EUGENE, Ore. — When international track and field officials wanted to place their world championships in the U.S. for the first time, the running mecca that embedded Nike into American culture was the easy choice.
But pictures of half-empty stands in a sparkling new 25,000seat track stadium in Eugene, Oregon, and readouts of TV ratings that didn’t beat a routine NASCAR race re-emphasized a decades-old reality: When it comes to spectating, not competing, track is a niche sport in the United States.
Track and field’s leaders would like that to change over the next six years, especially in view of sagging viewership totals and flat revenue across the broader Olympic world. It’s critical, they say, to bring the cornerstone sport of the Summer Games back to its former glory in the U.S. before Los Angeles hosts in 2028.
“For the games to really work, the U.S. needs a really powerful track and field presence,” World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said. “You have the best athletes in the world. You have all those other assets. And we have to make sure that people understand a whole heap more about our sport by the time we get to 2028.”
The U.S. entered the last day of worlds with 28 medals and seemed almost certain to break its world-championships record of 30. And yet, track is, at best, the eighth-most popular sport in the United States, according to research commissioned by World Athletics. Coe said he’d like to get it into the top four — more in the realm of the NBA and baseball.
These discussions are similar to the hand-wringing that plays out in U.S. soccer circles during World Cups. If the U.S. teams are successful and millions of people play recreationally, what would it take for this to become more than a niche sport for fans?
“You’ve got to go to where the young people are. And the base of your sport, you’ve got to go where those people are, too,” said Sheryl Shade, a longtime agent in the Olympic space, while noting the relatively light social media presence of track athletes and a dearth of human-interest stories connected to this year’s worlds.
There is a potential audience. A Sports & Fitness Industry Association study estimated 50 million Americans (about one-seventh of the U.S. population) are runners.
The National Federation of State High School Associations says there are nearly 1.1 million students participating in track — more than the 1 million playing football — and nearly 500,000 in cross country. And that doesn’t account for the sizable number of kids who run but aren’t on high school teams.
“You have to look at the assets you have and figure out how to pour gas on them,” said marketing expert Joe Favorito. “You have to make sure you’re showcasing personalities and make sure everyone’s doing it. More than the TV ratings, my question would be, what’s the TikTok strategy, and how are people measuring that?”
There is no Usain Bolt-like personality on the horizon for the U.S., save the tantalizing possibility of gregarious 200-meter champion Noah Lyles.
“They’re quite boring,” track legend Edwin Moses said of the current crop of athletes.
Newly crowned 100-meter champion Fred Kerley is a seemingly likable character with a remarkable backstory — raised with 12 other kids by his aunt, who stepped in after Kerley’s parents encountered troubles. But he has done little traditional media, and his social media posts leading into worlds were mainly a string of one-liners: “Let’s get it,” and “Yessir.”
In an Instagram video posted shortly after his victory, Kerley declared himself “the greatest of all time” to his 134,000 followers. Bolt, retired for five years, has 11.5 million followers.
Moses said the personalities now are a far cry from the 1980s and ‘90s, when outsized personalities such as himself, Carl Lewis, Evelyn Ashford and Florence Griffith-Joyner often could be seen on the track during the day and on Johnny Carson’s show at night.
Moses believes a flaw today is that top runners set their schedules based not on where they can go head to head against the best competition, but on where ranking points and appearance fees are available. Those venues are rarely, if ever, in the U.S.