Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 125, December 2019 | Page 24

SPORT MAN
Says
By
Manfred Seidler
Change Coming for World Athletics
A
t the recent World Championships in Doha,
the stadium was glaringly empty for much of
the Champs. Granted, that’s largely because
Qatar is not really a sporting nation, and athletics
is way down the list of popular sports there. Still,
the events that had the most spectators were the
3000m steeplechase, the 5000m and 10,000m for
men and women, and in particular, the 1500m for
women. Some pundits reckon that the fuller stadiums
were due to the close proximity of such middle
distance powerhouses as Ethiopia and Kenya. That’s
debatable, because Doha is not cheap for people
coming from poorer nations, but be that as it may,
those events had the most in-stadium support.
The stadium in Doha was initially empty
during the 2019 World Champs
Similarly, the television broadcast schedule in Doha
was designed to accommodate the European market,
yet the ratings were not very high. For example, in
Germany, the highest daily viewership figures during the
championships were 4.1 million. In a country that boasts
a population of 83 million, that is not spectacular by any
means. France recorded a peak of 1.65million viewers,
and Spain’s highest viewership was just 247,000.
So there’s no question that the sport of athletics
needs to reinvent itself. This is why the International
Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF) began
implementing changes to the sport in 2019, starting
by taking the 10,000m event out of the Diamond
League (DL) meets, and then also removing the 5000m.
More about that later... Next came the name and
logo change, from the IAAF to World Athletics (WA).
Personally, all I care about is the quality of the sport, but
I do understand that a new era needs new branding.
Then in November WA announced the new format of
the sport for 2020, which will see still more track and
field items fall by the wayside, even though a new track
series has been created, while the Label status of road
races has also undergone a massive revamp.
New-look Diamond League
With the 5000m and 10,000m events already having
been given their ‘marching orders’ earlier this year,
WA allegedly did still more research on the format of
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ISSUE 125 DECEMBER 2019 / www.modernathlete.co.za
the DL meets, and decided to also remove the 200m,
3000m steeplechase, discus throw, hammer throw
and triple jump from the programme. The reason for
this change? Well, boring TV... and TV is where sport
makes its money, because TV broadcast rights bring
in a vast amount of money, and sponsorship increases
with more TV. According to WA, research has shown
that 90 minutes is the ideal scenario for athletics
viewing – and it needs to be an action-packed 90
minutes, minus long, boring races, or items that do
not grab the attention of viewers.
Now South Africans will remember how successful the
Engen Grand Prix Summer Series of years gone by.
Packed stadiums on a Friday evening, peak viewing
time on SABC, a 90-minute broadcast... and no
10,000m races on the programme. In the later years,
there were no 5000m races any more, either, while
even the 3000m races were chopped short in the
broadcast. That’s because TV producers had (and still
do have) a format they adhere to, and that is largely
League,
During the course of 2019, the IAAF has begun implementing wholesale changes to the look, feel and format of athletics,
both on the roads and in track and field. Many have voiced their misgivings about these changes, and I’m not convinced
that it is all good, with some changes set to really affect the sport in South Africa.