● From our sister site, TheSportsExaminer.com ●
There was, in many track and field circles, as much interest in the attendance, optics and feel of the L.A. Distance Classic on Friday and the L.A. Grand Prix on Saturday at UCLA’s Drake Stadium as there was in the events themselves.
At least from Saturday’s L.A. Grand Prix, there are some noteworthy conclusions to be drawn:
● UCLA’s Drake Stadium, once one of the premier showcases for the sport in the U.S., shined brightly as an excellent competitive facility, with world-class performances in every event and more than a dozen stadium records. Not a huge surprise for the first high-end invitational there in 33 years, but still great to see.
Olympic and World Champion Ryan Crouser‘s spectacular men’s shot put world record of 23.56 m (77-3 3/4) was the highlight among world-leading performances in seven events.
● The attendance was a critical measure of success for this meet and while the 11,142-seat facility was hardly full, the crowd was good. Announced at 7,246, there were actually about 4,500 there on Saturday (and just less than 3,000 tickets actually sold).
But this was the best crowd for a meet in the Los Angeles area since the 2005 adidas Track Classic at the (then) Home Depot Center in Carson. And, given the indifferent promotion of the meet, was a concrete demonstration that Los Angeles is still – after all these years – a very viable market for track & field.
● The meet had a lot of important eyes on it. Underwritten by Southern California-based Internet Brands (WebMD, CarsDirect and many others), there was an evaluation team from World Athletics on site, as well as a member of its Executive Board. New U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee President Gene Sykes, also an LA28 Olympic & Paralympic Games Organizing Committee board member, was in attendance.
What they saw was an unevenly staged meet, beginning with the Friday night L.A. Distance Classic, a meet designed to create fast races for qualifying purposes, along with a few field events.
It was cold and dreary, excellent distance-running conditions. Not as good, however, was that the runners were in the dark as soon as the sun went down, because the 1999 renovation of Drake Stadium installed lighting for the soccer field and not on the track.
The 1,200 or so spectators could barely see Ahmed Jaziri of Tunisia win the men’s Steeple at 8:17.64, no. 2 in 2023, with American Isaac Updike just behind at 8:17.96 (no. 3). But the women’s 5,000 m – won by Emily Lipari of the U.S. with a 69.34 last lap in 15:08.87 – was hard to follow and the excellent men’s 5,000 was literally in the dark.
Too bad, because Abdi Nur scored an impressive lifetime best of 13:05.17, beating Edwin Kurgat (KEN: 13:08.46) and Morgan Beadlescomb (USA: 13:08.82); the top 12 all broke 13:20.
Crouser’s world-record performance was held at the north end circle, used by UCLA for practice and now for its low-key home meets. But when the field was re-designed in 1999, shot put circles were installed on the infield, including one just beyond the finish line, which would have been right in front of most of the spectators. But perhaps no one knew about it.
The meet is hoped to be an annual event in Los Angeles, so these issues and others can be addressed in the future. The enthusiasm of Saturday’s attendees sent a message that Los Angeles is a very viable future site for more high-quality meets like this one.
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One of the big winners at the USATF L.A. Grand Prix at UCLA’s Drake Stadium on Saturday was Rio Olympic 800 m bronze medal winner Clayton Murphy, who won his race in 1:44.75, fastest in the U.S. this season and no. 4 on the year list.
But he wasn’t happy with the meet as a whole and said so on Twitter. Back on 16 May, when Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone announced that she would not be running after being promoted as the top attraction at the meet, he posted:
● “I’m gonna say it for many athletes who might be thinking this: 99% of athletes don’t have the luxury to not race and still make a living… In a meet that you are the main attraction, to pull out post ticket sales and fans making plans to attend is a huge disappointment”
● “If your injured say it, if your [sic] not ready to race cause of an injury, that’s part of it. Our sport is struggling, and athletes are struggling. Faces of the sport who can help propel it forward continue to drop the ball There’s a select few who seem to really care about it”
In response to one fan who said he bought a ticket for the meet just to see McLaughlin-Levrone, Murphy offered to personally refund their money! Really.
On Friday, he posted:
“So the 800m tomorrow at the LA Grand Prix has been moved out of the [NBC] TV window, there is not even a live stream to watch. So imagine being a professional athlete competing at the biggest meet in your home country and no way for anyone to watch you…
“Oh and the 800 is a GOLD LEVEL PREMIER EVENT according to the meet that had moved it out of a 90 min tv window”
After the meet, he added:
“Just slapping a meet in a big city doesn’t help track grow…it takes a lot more than that.”
One poster replied: “It has to be an event bring acts out to perform fan interaction guest host. And promote the meet during other major sporting events (nba playoffs)”
Murphy’s retort:
“ZERO Fan and athlete interaction at the meet was organized by the meet that I saw, I created some by going over to the stands after the race concluded.”
Atlanta 1996 icon Michael Johnson was also not impressed:
“This meet was initially announced as a game changer for the sport. The highlight of that announcement was a music festival, but included no plans to address the obvious problems of the sport. For that reason my expectation for the meet was that it would be no game changer but actually more of the same.
“3 months prior to the meet a headline music artist few people were familiar with was announced but nothing at all about athletes or matchups.
“Some big name athletes were eventually announced but quickly pulled out.
“Few major matchups, few big names, athlete complaints, poor date planning. How does an organization plan for a meet to be a game changer, but instead end up with the meet actually being a perfect example of all the current problems?
“This is not easy but it becomes harder when you make a big announcement about a game changer and you didn’t change anything.”
That’s the opinion of two pretty important people in the sport.
Nielsen audience figures for over-the-air and cable showed a good, but not great audience of 777,000 on NBC on an otherwise light sports afternoon.
There was no single outstanding event on the day and the track meet was second in its time period – 1-3 p.m. Pacific time (4-6 p.m. Eastern) – to the PGA Tour’s Charles Schwab Challenge tournament in Ft. Worth, Texas, which averaged 1.272 million on CBS and began an hour earlier.
The 777,000 audience was up from 636,000 for the USATF Bermuda Classic meet the week before, but well short of the viewership for the better-known indoor meets in February. Those included the 866,000 for the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston on 4 February, 972,000 for the Millrose Games in New York on 11 February and 954,000 for the USATF Indoor Nationals in Albuquerque on 18 February.
On a year-over-year basis, the 2022 Prefontaine Classic in Eugene – a much better-known meet – was held on the same weekend and drew 977,000 on NBC, also on Saturday, on 28 May last year. The L.A. Grand Prix was OK, not great.
~ Rich Perelman
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