Track and Field Fan Fest

I might be completely wrong on this, but the recent upswing of fan fests in major sports is happening because of the success that's been seen in the city of Chicago, with John McDonough first popularizing Cubs fest as president of the baseball team, then getting a successful fan fest going with the Blackhawks when he became president of that team. Regardless, the recent upswing in fan fests has me thinking...why doesn't USATF put on a few fan fests?

Of course it would cost money (that's what sponsors are for), and it would take being incredibly organized (something USATF is decent at), but USATF should gather up 8-10 of the biggest stars in our sport and take them on a short (2 week?) tour of the U.S., hyping up the domestic track season by staging 4-5 fan fests from coast to coast.

As a fan of the sport, and living in Chicago, I never get to see any professional track and field athletes in person, unless they are distance runners running the Chicago Marathon, and even then the only time you can actually get a photo with them or an autograph is to attend the expo. However, taking our sport's finest athletes on a short U.S. tour to start drumming up support for the biggest meets the U.S. has to offer would be worth it to the fan and to the athlete (marketing, marketing, marketing).

The fan fest would not only have a meet and greet, but you could stage a carnival-like setting around it, hosting a road race, a 100m dash, a high jump, a shot put and 1-2 other events that fans and generally interested folks could take part in. Having notable food vendors, loud music, etc. could all be part of it as well.

The options really are endless for making this event a success, but this is something that would not only draw attention to the sport in the spring, not only bring more press and notoriety to our top athletes, but might create more national buzz then we've seen towards the sport in a long, long time.

Note: I believe in this idea so much, I am forwarding on this blog post to CEO Logan. I'll post again if he responds to it.