OK, so I get it: The 10,000 meters is a long race and, yeah, at times it can be a but boring and repetitive. Even some of the runners who compete sigh and say, “25 laps is a lot.”
But Wednesday night, in the only final on the first day of men’s coverage at the NCAA Outdoors nationals, ESPN+ showed only 15 minutes 42 seconds of a race that lasted 28:07. No less than five times did the network break away from the 10,000-meter coverage to either (a) run paid advertisements; (b) run promos for other ESPN programs; or (c) check out field-event covereage that happened earlier in the meet.
This is, sadly, not a new phenomenon; in fact, it’s standard practice for track and field coverage in the U.S.
This rant, of course, will do nothing to change the practice because, well, many other rants from many other track fans over many years has not done a whit of good.
But rant I will, because it makes me feel better to vent.
It’s not just the 10,000 meters that gets the short shrift, either. ESPN+ on Wednesday cut away from both heats of the 3,000-meter steeplechase. They only “stepped aside” once in the eight and a half minute race, but, in both heats, both times key tactical moments took place during the time viewers were watching adds for Colgate, Pizza Hut and All State.
I mean, really? Are people’s attention spans so short these days that TV producers do not feel that viewers can stick around for eight whole laps of a steeple race? Apparently so.
Thus, in Heat 1 of the steeple, the race’s big move came about during the break. When Dwight Stones first intoned, “Let’s step aside…,” Virginia’s Nathan Mountain, the favorite, was comfortably in the lead. Three minutes later, with less than three laps to go, when coverage resumed, Eastern Kentucky’s Hakim Abouzouhir not only was leading but was 20 meters ahead of the pack.
Stones: “OK, quite a development while we were away…”
Commentator Larra Overton: “A 67-second lap while we were away…”
Heat 2 of the steeple had the same problem. The favorite of the race, Texas A&M’s Victor Kibiego, dropped out during the time ESPN+ was showing us a fragrance ad and something touting Linked In. In that almost-three minute span, several moves were made. Yes, ESPN+ gave us a replay showing Kipiego pulling up, but it lacked the spontaneity of seeing it live.
Fortunately, the 10,000 meters (lack of) coverage didn’t miss huge moves — and certainly was around for the three-runner fall in the final two laps — but the viewer cannot get into the mood of the race when it breaks five times for ads. For instance, at the first break New Mexico’s Habtom Samuel, the eventual winner, was in the lead. When coverage resumed, he was 10th. After they broke again and came back, Samuel was in fourth. Then, after another break, he was in the lead.
Frustrating.
I have no answers. ESPN+ needs to make money; hence, commercial breaks. But can’t they squeeze them in during lulls in the action, between races?
One solution would be to give distance fans their own live stream, as ESPN+ does for all the field events. So, if you really want to watch all 28 minutes of the 10,000 meters, you can — just like hammer throw fanatics can see every grunt and hurl.
Be prepared for more of the same tonight with women’s distance events, and Friday night. ESPN+ probably will break once or twice during an epic men’s 5,000 — Nico Young’s last collegiate race, when he squares off against Stanford’s Ky Robinson, Samuel, North Carolina’s Parker Wolfe and Harvard’s Graham Blanks.
You can almost count on something big happening just moments after Stones tells viewers, “We’ll step aside …”
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