Lane9: Track, field & money

The Rule 40 blackout period should be a non-issue for properly activated sponsorships. But for track & field, it's a dire event because the athletes and sponsors (if we can call them that) have such a superficial relationship.

When was the last time you thanked your employer? Probably never, because you trade your work for their money. Pro track & field athletes need to approach their sponsor relationships the same way, and stop talking like they have nothing to offer.

Track & field athletes lament their one-sided contracts, but the sponsors probably feel the same way. When was the last time an athlete, agent or property asked a prospective sponsor "What do you want? What would benefit you?" and then went back and figured out a solution?

Sports sponsorship requires more from the brand and the property than slapping a logo on something. What did the sponsors of recent track & field events hope to get from their involvement, and did they do anything to reach that goal? What will Puma do to activate their new post-collegiate group in North Carolina?

Two stories, five years apart, set the stage for a stark choice that everyone faces when someone new appears in your Inbox: be an eagle and respond, or be a s**tbird and ignore them.

Track & field athletes need purge the word "No" from their vocabulary, because the institutions to which they entrust their careers are far too comfortable saying "No" at every turn.

Everyone involved in "professional" track & field should be ashamed that Ben Blankenship funded a race at the American Track League. But they won't be. Our advice to aspiring pro's or semi-pro's: Look elsewhere.

Post-collegiate non-professional athletes were the majority of competitors at the 2016 track & field Olympic Trials. Any changes to the format for the 2021 trials would likely fall hardest on them.

The combined response across track & field to USATF cancelling indoor nationals was...... silence? Apathy? Ignorance? What does that mean about the sport, the athletes and anyone's prospects going forward?

Stockholm DL long jump was no different than what every other sport does all the time, but athletes and others within T&F wouldn't know that. T&F needs more experiments to create more opportunities, not less.