Runnerville

Football has The Super Bowl Shuffle. We have the Carl Lewis video. And it is phenomenal: Watch and learn from Carl’s timeless style and killer dance moves, and take notes on how he reels ‘em in. I always knew, deep down, that the European track circuit was like Studio 54, and well, let’s just say Carl shows us he can take it home. Hall? Ritz? Webb? Time to step it up boys…

[WARNING: Song refrain will be stuck in your head the rest of the day.]

A recent article got me thinking – are the Olympics losing their luster? The Sports Business Journal article stated:

“Entering an Olympic year, the U.S. Olympic Committee has added one supplier, lost one partner and announced no corporate renewals to date…”   

The article later states that, “all five of USOC’s top-tier, partner-level supporters’ agreements will expire at the end of the year. None have announced plans to renew.” Now keep in mind, each of these partners pays $20-$35 million over four years, so Read more…

  I’ve never seen a full NASCAR race on TV.  Honestly, the sport never appealed to me and probably never will.  I grew up in Chicago, where football, baseball and basketball rule.  However, over the past two years I’ve read at least five separate books on NASCAR.  Each book discussed the business or growth of the sport and through these readings I now have an appreciation for NASCAR, mostly because of how it directly relates to our great sport.

  NASCAR grew in an era where few sports can go from middle tier to upper tier in only a few years.  I don’t know if we’ll ever see a sport flourish at such an alarming rate as NASCAR has during this decade.  Time and time again I talk with friends about our sport, and time and time again NASCAR comes into the picture.  Their business plans, marketing models and creation of characters is something every sport should take a deep look at.

  Despite all the benefits NASCAR received with their growing sport over the past few years, the head of NASCAR Brian France now believes that his sport lost some of their die-hard fans from the “early years” because it became too mainstream and lost its character.  This is something our sport should take into consideration at all levels as meet directors, USATF, agents and others try to propel our sport into the twenty-first century idea that a sport is a business, and that our sport can be a viable one.

  No second or third tier sport can survive these days with a business only approach.  These types of sports, which ours falls into, need to keep the character and history it had, but also improve upon its marketing and management techniques.  It’s a fine line to follow, but one our sport can accomplish if the right minds execute the right ideas in coming years.

Could 7-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong be distance running’s biggest ambassador?

LiveStrong himself plans to follow up his sub-2:50 performance at the ING New York Marathon by running the Boston Marathon on April 21. This is Lance’s first Boston, and he will again run to benefit his foundation, which supports cancer research.

Armstrong might just possess the celebrity and drive to give the sport of running the shot-in-the-arm it deserves. He proved in New York that he’s no slouch when he laces up his Nikes, and his global recognition and appeal is much greater than anyone named Haile or Hall. What’s more, Lance clearly draws new subsets of fans — including cyclists and general sports fans — into the sport of distance running.

The point? After defeating cancer and scores of bikers in the hills of France, Lance Armstrong will look to make Heartbreak Hill his next victim. He’ll have more than a few cameras on him while he does this. This is not a bad thing.

Bobby Fischer, that eccentric mad genius of chess died last Friday in Reykjavik, Iceland, site of his greatest triumph, the 1972 Cold War showdown with Soviet champion Boris Spassky.

As we embark on Runnerville.com in this Olympic year 2008, we in the sport of running are in search of our own Bobby Fischer, someone who can do for running what Fischer did for chess: take what had always been an archaic, nerd-driven sport dominated by foreign powers, and make it cool. The world was riveted to the Fischer-Spassky matches in the summer of `72 like nothing we’d seen before in a board game. Money, media, prestige, it all came on board with Read more…

Welcome to Episode #1 of Runnerville Weekly.

On this track:
Amby Burfoot on Juashaunna Kelly and Oscar Pistorius.
Chris Lear on mystique.
Jeremy Mosher likes Roast Beef.
Matt Taylor learns from American Idol.
Robert Johnson wants to race.
Jay Johnson ponders the dual meet.
Lauren Fleshman – Rocky?
Toni Reavis looks beyond Mr. Masback.

Give us your feedback. Audio comments to +1 206-888-0346 (leave your message after the beep; we’ll try to play it and respond to it on a future episode), email to comments (at) runnerville (dot) com, or just leave a comment.

The Visa Championship Series is officially underway with . . . drumroll please . . . USA vs The World: Run For The Dream. (The meet is being webcast live and archived here.) There was very little publicity leading up to this meet and almost none about it being broadcast live (perhaps intentionally). Unfortunately, watching the webcast, it appears no one in Fresno was informed of the meet either (see photo). The stands are empty, filled no more than to a quarter of capacity. This despite the fact that World and Olympic Champions are competing! It all comes back to the product – if you don’t have something to sell, no one will buy.

Too many meets like this is what led to Runnerville in the first place…

Welcome to runnerville.com – a collection of minds in the sport of running. Many of the names involved in this project have talked with each other at some point – sometimes dozens of times – about what can be done to improve our sport in a variety of ways and for a variety of reasons. After months of discussion, it became increasingly clear that we needed to compile these ideas in one place in an effort to spark conversation, provoke thought, and promote change.

This isn’t a website covering the results of running. Rather, it’s a website devoted to discussing all aspects of the sport and how fans, athletes, meet directors, agents, and everyone else involved, can put their minds, energy, and time together to improve the sport one idea at a time. Runnerville is a mash-up of blogging, writing, and podcasting. Blogging will occur regularly, feature articles will be written semi-regularly, and two podcasts will be published – one weekly, the other not weekly. Runnerville Weekly is a (you guessed it) weekly podcast where each panelist discusses the news, views, and issues that most directly affect our sport. There are no rules, other than to keep each segment under two minutes. You’ll hear from Amby Burfoot, Chris Lear, Mary Wittenberg, Tim Hutchings, Robert Johnson, and many more. The Toni & Matt Show, featuring Reavis with Matt Taylor, looks at many angles of the running world in a variety show format. Think The McLaughlin Group meets The Sports Reporters, who get together with Mike and Mike.

Runnerville is a community-driven conversation. Join us.

If it’s in the sport, it’s on the show.