In 2024, ex-BBC producer John Evans has been lured back into watching the sport he has worked in for many years, and here he suggests some changes that could pay off in the future.
The man in seat 461, which some of us will always know on the east side of the Olympic Stadium, leaned toward his much younger neighbor to ask, “Can you hear what the announcer is saying, or is it just me?”
“No, not really,” replied the younger audience members, who almost certainly have better hearing.
I was the person in seat 461 at the London Athletics meeting in July and had to make the most of not being able to see the finish line properly and hear the PA system. I had opted for cheaper tickets so I knew I was in the front row at home I won’t be, but I assumed (wrongly, as it turned out) that big screens would help me bridge the gap.
My improvised solution was to watch the live broadcast as best I could and then watch (and listen) to it via the BBC broadcast a few seconds later. Not ideal. It made me wonder why something like that wasn’t available , like the local radio stations you might find during events like Wimbledon and the Open Golf Championship.
This must be about the 50th track and field meeting I’ve attended, but it was my first as a paying spectator.I was a producer for BBC Radio almost four decades ago, organizing its athletics coverage and interviewing the likes of Seb Coe. , Frank Dick, Carl Lewis and Fatima Whitbread during the Antrim to Zurich matches during the sport’s heyday.
John Evans and fellow BBC commentators
Working on London’s bid to host the Olympics and then London 2012 sparked a new interest, but really athletics had become something for me to adjust to during the Olympics and possibly the World Championships.
Now my interest was growing again, fueled by the success of athletes such as Keeley Hodgkinson, Matt Hudson-Smith and Josh Kerr, and impressive documentaries on the BBC about the stars we knew simply as Linford and Daley. I was back to caring about athletics and about reading AW: For the first time since the days of Mel Whatman.
Now I wonder if and how the success of those 1980s years can ever be repeated.
Coe has referred to that era as the zenith of the sport, which helped build his extraordinary rivalry with Steve Ovett. Add in more personalities such as Daley Thompson, the fact that Britain can call upon a strong spread of talent in the region, and the sporting drama , which aired on prime-time TV when there were only three or four channels, and the recipe for success was simple. This was before the plethora of TV platforms, red buttons, countless smaller channels, and websites and apps took some of the sports drama off center stage.
Steve Crum defeats Steve Ovett (Mark Shearman)
At a time Coe saw as a “disgraceful product” being delivered by football, a time when “all our big, national sports were underperforming.” It may be unfair to English clubs who have won Europe for 6 years in a row cup until the 80s, but the mood has a certain gritty precision.His sport, Coe told Thompson’s documentary, brought something “wholesome” to the paper (This was, of course, before Ben Johnson, doping in Russia and all).
Athletics has been fortunate to have big names, big personalities, big successes and sometimes big controversies to keep it in the headlines, but things are much tougher now, even though the sport’s reach is actually growing.
In the three Olympic Games of the 1980s, 21 countries won gold medals in track and field. In the last three, Rio, Tokyo and Paris, that number has risen to 41. This vastly different world brings with it much more diverse and global sporting talent, with some sports and much of the broadcasting landscape dramatically different than 40 years ago.
Except for behemoths like football, every sport has to fight for attention, so is there an easy way to get people like me back into athletics and, more importantly, attract newcomers?
To do that, that new audience needs to be more receptive than I felt in July. A dedicated radio or online channel that explains a lot more about the people, the action, the tactics and even the technology being used will make such a difference.
Why not then meet and greet the stars to connect with the audience for the first time? Why not include something for the new audience in the event program or even as a separate announcement? These cannot be one-off initiatives, but should be repeated at every big meeting time
It would be great to think that a competition like Michael Johnson’s Grand Slam Track or a TV series like SPRINT could make a big difference, but I have to echo Cathal Dennehy in his doubts about Netflix’s admittedly very fine documentary on the film’s likely impact.It appears to have been a ratings success, but as he wrote in July AW:“If we think it’s going to magically create a new, loyal fan base, we’re in for a disappointment.”
Elixir, the solution the sport has been waiting for, writes Dennehy, “is far from a Netflix series.” Yes, there are some encouraging signs here, especially in the middle distance events. there seems to be a huge opportunity for understanding right now.
Further investment and manpower to identify and develop talent, ensuring another generation of stars to follow in the footsteps of the current British crop, will be at the top of the wish list, but to do that, of course, will need money and the help of today’s big names to attract sponsors : Talent and success, combined with media training and imaginative marketing to make athletes attractive and newsworthy, can raise a sport’s profile over time. and help get more people in the door.
However, it’s crucial that the stadium experience is memorable for the right reasons when the public shows up. That would certainly be a good place to start.
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