Ten Ways to Help T&F Meets Become More Entertaining

Think of all the track and field meets you've been to over your lifetime. For me, I figure I've been to at least 200 meets over the past 15 years, whether it was as an athlete, coach, journalist or fan. Out of all those meets, I can honestly say that fewer than 20 were actually entertaining, and at the end of the day I could probably list a half dozen that were actually worth paying money for.

Part of the problem for our sport is that meets aren't entertaining. People don't want to come watch a track meet because there's very little going on outside of what's happening on the track, and few people actually understand who's competing and what good winning times are. It's a problem, one that is rarely addressed, but needs to be if our sport ever wants to become something greater than it currently is.

And the thing is, it all starts at the high school level. Think of a high school football or basketball game. Much of the town shows up to watch. There are bright lights shining down on the field or court, the school band plays up tempo songs, and everyone dresses in school colors to cheer on their school. Have you ever been to a track meet that is exciting as a prep football game on a Friday night?

So, for the sake of always hoping to push the sport forward in a positive direction, I've devised a list of ten ways track and field meets can become more entertaining. Please share your thoughts in the comment section.

1. Play Music - It might be the easiest thing to do to take a track meet to that next level. Every stadium in the U.S. most likely has a PA system, thus allowing you to play music before, during and after the meet. Not only does this entertain fans, providing sounds that might just get them more excited, but it also fills dead time between races, when announcers aren't necessarily announcing anything. And...it's ok to play music while a race is taking place.

2. Hire a Good Announcer - One of the easiest ways to squash a meet is to have an announcer that can't pronounce names, doesn't have a clue as to who's participating and generally doesn't understand the sport. There are always people in your community who could do a great job announcing and are knowledgable about the sport. Make sure to feed your announcer information a few days in advance so they can learn who's competing and what some of the great head to head action might be. Announcers that simply say what is taking place in the race aren't good announcers.

3. Reduce the Time - Can we all agree that most track and field meets are too long? Nothing is worse than sitting in the stands for 4 or 10 or 14 hours, watching a million athletes compete that you really don't care about. I understand that many meets are set up to include everyone, but do all the football players on the sidelines get to play in the varsity game each Friday night? The most exciting meets during the high school and college season are always the conference and championship events, which limit the amount of participants, thus limiting the amount of time that the event actually takes place. No pro or collegiate sporting event that actually draws fan takes longer than three hours.

4. Reduce the Events - At most track meets, at least 30 separate events take place. You figure there are 15-18 events per meet, then factor in boys and girls or men and women and multiple levels of competition, and right there you have a meet that is way too long and way too boring. If there is a 100m dash, does there really need to be a 200m dash? I understand that in certain situations all the events need to be covered, but for invitationals, do you really need that many events. Limiting the amount of races, only places more emphasis on each race, and the more emphasis you can have on certain match-ups, the greater the drama and the more likely the crowd will be interested in what's taking place.

5. Recruit Talent / Create Match-ups - There is nothing wrong with calling up a coach or an agent and asking if their athlete might be interested in taking part in the meet. In fact, why not do this? What do you have to lose? Creating great match-ups is what sport is all about. Head to head competition, with top athletes testing their talents against one another, it is what draws people to sports in the first place. The better the match-ups, the more fans will enjoy the meet.

6. Educate the Fan - Many people that attend track and field meets don't understand everything that is going on. They might understand the events, but odds are they don't know everyone competing or what good times are or who the top athletes in the meet are. Both prior to and during the event, meet directors should want to educate their fans on who's who in their event. Programs can accomplish a lot of this, having good announcers can accomplish this, while offering great pre-meet coverage is also a solid tool to educate the fan. The more they know, the more they can get excited about what the meet has to offer.

7. Pack the Stands - Excited energy creates more excited energy, which will build and build until the final event of the day. The more people you can fill the stands with, the more excitement the meet will have. Reaching out to the community, promoting the meet as a family event, but also as an exciting event, will hopefully draw more people, which will only increase the buzz. Sold out baseball games are much more exciting, even if the score is 1-0, than a baseball game where only a quarter of the stands are full.

8. Under the Lights - Evening sporting events are hands down more exciting than daytime sporting events. There's just something about having the lights shining down on the track and field events that creates an extra buzz. If the races are exciting enough, it can truly create a sense of euphoria that few other evening activities can match.

9. Offer More Than a Track Meet - A track meet that offers more than the meet itself is always a good thing. This is what made the Olympic Trials last summer so exciting. Track Town Plaza behind Hayward Field offered fans an opportunity to listen to live music, eat some good food, catch exciting offers from sponsors and talk it up with other track and field fans. Creating a festival-like setting is always a good thing, and fortunately, track meets are always held in stadiums, which offer plenty of space to put up some tents and offer something a little extra. The bigger the experience, the more exciting the event.

10. Be Cool - The "coolness" factor for track and field might be at an all-time low. It's not cool to be a track and field athlete in the eyes of most sporting fans, rather this is a niche sport that has very little to offer. Part of what makes a meet exciting is creating a "coolness" around the event. Pre-event promotions, getting the media involved, promoting it to a younger audience, etc. are all great ways to drive up the hype. Look at the most successful sports in the world. They are big time because they are cool. It's cool to wear a soccer jersey in Europe. It's cool to be a football fan in the U.S. So much of what makes a meet great is what happens before hand, but with the right moves that will only help an event become that much greater.