Run The Roads

Yesterday morning I read a great article in Sports Business Journal on youth sports, and how various sports organizations (NFL, NBA, MLB, MLS) are working hard to improve their youth portion of their respective sport, not only trying to increase popularity, but trying increase the likelihood those young athletes turn into lifelong fans.

Here’s a portion of the article:

“Connecting with children 6 to 13 is paramount in turning them into lifelong fans, according to data compiled by the NFL. Fifty-five percent of avid NFL fans said they became engaged or interested in football in elementary school or earlier. Seventy-five percent of avid fans and 62 percent of casual fans participated in football at some level as a child.”

Looking at those statistics for the NFL, it is quite clear that having youth participation in a sport is a key element to creating fans for the future. Obviously playing a sport as a child doesn’t necessarily translate to becoming a fan of the sport as an adult, the example being soccer, which is maybe the sixth most popular sport in the U.S., but has the largest participation base in the 6-13 demographic. However, having some type of organized, national youth program is a key element to any sport, and one that cross country, road racing and track and field (the three branches of USATF) lack.

The lack of a well publicized youth program is one of the primary factors why track and field isn’t more popular in the U.S. If you look at high school participation, track and field is the third most popular sport behind football and basketball, but ranks well ahead of baseball/softball, swimming, tennis, golf and soccer. That type of popularity should mean good things, but it doesn’t, simply because many track and field athletes by then have played other sport, sports they’d rather watch on TV and follow when compared to track.

So, how does USATF attract new fans into the sport at that age? Well, for starters, they need to establish a youth running program in schools. I’ve actually talked with USATF about this, but starting a national cross country week and national track and field week in elementary and junior high schools would do wonders for the sport.

Second, youth track and field needs to be better organized and popularized, starting with mass organization at the USATF Association level, which the national office can lead. Third, an interactive, easily-navigated, highly organized website needs to be built and marketed to the youth sector of the sport (i.e. SI for Kids), which showcases the best athletes in our sport, so kids can follow their favorite stars, watch interviews, know when to watch a meet online or on TV, etc.

A combination of those three things would certainly help grow the youth level of the sport dramatically and could potentially create more fans at a younger age for the sport, which is always a great thing. USATF is a stretched organization, only able to put so many resources into various aspects of the sport, but this seems more like something USATF can spearhead, but put the majority of the work on the state associations. It is a complex problem, but the solutions are simple.