Diamond League: IAAF announces changes

wgtomblin

Changes afoot for the Diamond League from 2020... with reduced number of events.



https://www.bbc.com/sport/athletics/47527083


Distance running fares badly with events greater than 3000m getting the chop. The principal reason behind that would appear to be the desire to reduce the overall meet times from 2 hours to 90mins.
Don't be surprised to see 10,000m being cut from the Olympics in near future. :rolleyes:

robinph

Daft as it is to get rid of distance events in order to reduce the meeting length of Diamond League to fit TV schedules better presumably, that wouldn't be a good reason for getting rid of the 10000 or 5000 from the Olympics. They would still need something going on in the stadium in order to fill up the time for a few of the sessions that they want to sell tickets for, they would need to find another few hours worth of activity or sell a couple of days less worth of tickets in what is the biggest stadium at each olympics. 80,000 x 3 sessions(?) less bums on seats, if not more, is a lot less income for the host city and tshirts and cuddly toys sold by the organising committee.

wgtomblin

I hear you.. but there were previous reports that it was already under consideration. TV audience and advertising carries more weight. IOC are keen to attract a younger audience and need to make room for other sports like karate, surfing, breakdancing etc.. They would do this by axing 10000m, shot putt, triple jump and the like.

10000m is relatively rarely run in the IAAF calendar already. The latest decision for the Diamond League is a further blow, IMHO.

Murph_D

How are TV revenues distributed in the Athletics world anyway?

BeepBeep67

wgtomblin wrote: »

I hear you.. but there were previous reports that it was already under consideration. TV audience and advertising carries more weight. IOC are keen to attract a younger audience and need to make room for other sports like karate, surfing, breakdancing etc.. They would do this by axing 10000m, shot putt, triple jump and the like.

10000m is relatively rarely run in the IAAF calendar already. The latest decision for the Diamond League is a further blow, IMHO.

I wouldn't like to see the 10,000m dropped it's a highlight for me. If they did, moving it to a non-stadia 10k should be considered.

robinph

Non-stadium 10km's would be great for encouraging people to watch athletics and take an interest. 1.5'ish km long laps around city centres, bit of music and burger stands going on around the closed of bit in the middle and would get a good bit of interest. Can't charge for entry easily though so needs a big sponsor to fund it.

For the multisport championships though, I really can't see how the host city would want to be reducing the number of tickets they sell for the athletics stadium. OK, so it might not get televised because there is some kid skateboarding across the other side of town, but you'd need to sell out 10 days worth of 2 sessions per day of tickets of the skateboarding in order to match the amount of tickets sold for one session of athletics.

Chivito550

wgtomblin wrote: »

I hear you.. but there were previous reports that it was already under consideration. TV audience and advertising carries more weight. IOC are keen to attract a younger audience and need to make room for other sports like karate, surfing, breakdancing etc.. They would do this by axing 10000m, shot putt, triple jump and the like.

10000m is relatively rarely run in the IAAF calendar already. The latest decision for the Diamond League is a further blow, IMHO.

I don’t agree with anything being dropped but at least with 10k, there are other options available (5k, marathon). Dropping shot putt is absurd. Where are those athletes supposed to go? Same with Triple Jump which is quite different from long jump.

IvoryTower

it does sound like it's going to be more fun throughout the season for spectators though

IvoryTower

Chivito550 wrote: »

Same with Triple Jump which is quite different from long jump.

For the more casual spectators I can see why they would drop one of those

wgtomblin

Chivito550 wrote: »

I don’t agree with anything being dropped but at least with 10k, there are other options available (5k, marathon). Dropping shot putt is absurd. Where are those athletes supposed to go? Same with Triple Jump which is quite different from long jump.

Absurd? Not so sure. Comes down to whether people are interested in watching the event. Several events have come and gone over the course of the Olympics. The shot putt has a strong tradition ... but if younger generation doesn't engage with it, it maybe needs to either change or die.

Murph_D

wgtomblin wrote: »

Absurd? Not so sure. Comes down to whether people are interested in watching the event. Several events have come and gone over the course of the Olympics. The shot putt has a strong tradition ... but if younger generation doesn't engage with it, it maybe needs to either change or die.

Of course it’s absurd. If it came down to continually reducing the offering to measured audience statistics, well, there would be no athletics at all, we would all be watching more popular/populist sports, or not sport at all. The ‘younger generation’ will never engage with the shot put - or anything else - if they can’t see it. Survive or die is the rhetoric of neoliberals, not athletes, or sports appreciators in general, who tend to appreciate variety. A pox on the Diamond League and anyone else who subjects sport to TV metrics. Bah!

RayCun

I thought shot was one of the events they were moving out of the arena, into the city?