posted Jan 6, 2009

Good point NOSIDA.

Perhaps have a Golden League meeting in Britain each year, rotating between London (either Crystal Palace or later the Olympic Stadium), Don Valley, Gateshead and (once readied for the Commonwealth Games, assuming it keeps the track) Hampden Park.

A major annual event in the UK, wherever it is, certainly can't hurt British athletics though, that's for sure!

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posted Jan 6, 2009

I guess james olympicman may come from the south east. Certainly not from the Outer Hebrides.
Manchester gave up its track after the CG's or that would also have been another venue worthy of top flight athletics.

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posted Jan 6, 2009

It would be nice to see the Golden League. London has made some great moves forward and to be recognize it will be good for London and the rest of the UK. British athletics can benifit quite well as we dont have many great stars in Britain more pratice for them.

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posted Jan 7, 2009

I don't believe they'd even consider holding a Golden League meeting anywhere other than London, particularly with the Olympics coming up in 2012. Unless another city comes up with a huge wedge of cash of course - that would certainly swing it.

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posted Jan 7, 2009

I do not think so either really. But it would be good.

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posted Jan 7, 2009

It would be good to see Britain added to the Golden League venues. It all helps to promote Athletics in the country.

Ideally, it would be held in other areas of the country - but I guess the IAAF will prefer London for money and sponsorship reasons. After 2012 we'll also have a state of the art athletics venue in the city that will want to host all the events it can get. It would seem an obvious way to add to the Olympic Stadiums usage in legacy.

And on the question over stadium size, one of the Golden League events in 2008 was held in Oslo in a 15,000 capacity stadium, so Crystal Palace would do for now.

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posted Jan 7, 2009

I don't see why London deserves to become a Golden League meet when England has disastrous coverage of the series.

I grew up watching athletics on ITV & C4, now the best you get is a half-hour program per week on Sky Sports and a rubbish event or 2 on the beeb.

Let's sort out the coverage first before we claim to be a nation of deserved athletics fans.

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posted Jan 7, 2009

Good news if it does happen. I seem to remember the head of the IAAF saying that the Olympic Stadium should be kept for athletics. I assume this will go some way to ensuring that happens.

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posted Jan 7, 2009

With all due respect, who really cares where and when the Golden League is held? All it is is a series of one night events where a big money bonus is on offer for winners of a tiny carefully selected series of events that are about 20% or less of the full athletics programme. Womens Pole Vault and Mens 3000/5000m every year! What a surprise.

After the decimation of athletics in the public eye since the procession of drugs scandals I really think the IAAF should be concentrating their efforts on shoring up interest in major championships rather than redundant luxuries from another age like the Golden League that mean nothing to the public.

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posted Jan 7, 2009

"All it is is a series of one night events where a big money bonus is on offer for winners of a tiny carefully selected series of events that are about 20% or less of the full athletics programme."

There are no other events that consistantly have a higher calibre field than the golden league meets.

They are also a hell of a spectacle, the nearest thing you get to "showbiz" in athletics - the sort of thing that could win over fans to the sport.

I agree that it's a shame there isn't a bit more variety in the events choosen to have the jackpot, but there are non-golden league races tor at the meetings. That said, with more fixtures and talk of a revised jackpot scheme then it may be the events under the Golden League banner become more varied.

The IAAF and the athletics world needs to be about more than just one championship a year, and I think the crowds that sell out the current Golden League meetings would disagree that it means nothing to them. The sport doesn't need more people who show an interest for a fortnight a year. To suvive it needs to create and draw in more real fans.

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