The Decline of Track and Field Continues

EUGENE, Ore. —  The sport of track and field came home this past week. It came to the University of Oregon, to ancient and charming Hayward Field, to one of the few places in the United States that still will take it in.

It came here hoping to live a little.

Instead, it died just a tiny bit more.

The event was the USA-Mobil outdoor track and field championships, the trials for the prestigious 1993 world championships later this summer in Stuttgart, Germany. It was the best track meet of the year in this country. Every top American athlete was here-and they didn’t come for the money, because there was none given out. They came because it was the place they wanted to be. They didn’t whine. They just showed up. This, indeed, was a rare track meet.

Throughout the week, appreciative fans came out into the sunshine to cheer them on. These were true Oregonians, men and women who still fondly remember the late distance runner Steve Prefontaine, spectators who know that the design on the bottom of their Nikes originally came from Coach Bill Bowerman’s waffle iron.

But there are fewer of these fans now. A track meet isn’t what it once was, even to them. Two decades ago, the 12,000-seat stadium would have been filled. Now, it was one-third empty. Attendance was announced at just more than 41,000 for the five-day meet. That’s good for anywhere else, bad for Eugene. Then again, the Bulls and Suns were on television Wednesday and Friday nights.

At least the spectators came. No major broadcast network showed up, leaving the event for Turner Broadcasting System. If you don’t count local reporters, there were more foreign journalists than U.S. writers. France’s only sports daily sent two reporters; most U.S. papers sent none.

Is it any wonder that Andre Cason of Virginia Beach, winner of the men’s 100 meters, came off the track the other night and blurted out, “Track and field is a dying sport in the United States.”

The sport is in quite a bind. At the developmental level, it’s losing the children. High schools and colleges faced with financial problems find big track teams an easy target for budget cuts. With little TV exposure and even fewer U.S. meets, the sport can’t develop lovable heroes. Its biggest names aren’t helping. They spend most of the year ducking each other--and the rest of their time trying to avoid news conferences.

For the top stars, it’s a mad dash for cash in Europe, where fans do know and adore them. Edwin Moses used to say he couldn’t walk down a street in Europe without being recognized. He never had that problem in the United States.

To make matters worse, track and field is inherently boring. “You’re not making a meet attractive if it’s 9-10 hours long,” said Larry Ellis, president of USA Track & Field, the sport’s national governing body. Baseball is speedy compared to this. Carl Lewis spends much more time taking off and putting on his warmups than he does actually running or jumping.

If a spectator isn’t uninterested, he or she must be totally confused. Last year at the U.S. Olympic trials, several hours after decathlete Dan O’Brien no-heighted in the pole vault and knocked himself out of an Olympic berth, spectators hadn’t been told the significance of what had happened. They assumed O’Brien, still competing in the javelin and 1,500 meters, was headed to Barcelona. Imagine their shock when the final results flashed on the scoreboard and his name was not in the top three. Talk about your surprise endings.

Track and field is a black-and-white movie in the age of colorization. It requires something more from its fans than blind adoration. It demands patience and intelligence-and it’s not getting much of either. So the sport declines.

Realizing time is running out, the powers that be in U.S. track and field put on a forum here to discuss ways to save their sport.

After 1 1/2 hours, there were no answers.

Meet directors said they don’t get much support from the national governing body, which said it has almost no control over its athletes, who say they are not properly paid or promoted.

You get the idea. In the world of marketing, management and ingenuity, the sport of track and field has been left in the starting blocks.