USATF national championships put financial strain on athletes despite long list of sponsors
Morgan Campbell | for CBC Sports | Posted: July 6, 2023 1:32 PM | Last Updated: July 10, 2023
Expenses are almost prohibitive for competitors without major backing
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The USATF national championships, which begin Thursday night in Eugene, Ore., isn't just the event where American hopefuls gather to try to qualify for the world championships. Aside from the worlds, the USATF nationals might present the stiffest competition on the planet.
At worlds, where the best of the very best gather, it's normal to see three or more sprinters eclipse 9.9 seconds in the men's 100 metres — last year's world medallists were Fred Kerley (9.86 seconds), Marvin Bracy-Williams (9.85) and Trayvon Bromell (9.88). And the podium from U.S. nationals the previous month? Same runners, same order, all under 9.9.
And that's just one event, and U.S nationals feature prime-time performers in several disciplines. Talent like that draws sponsorship dollars.
Corporate backers include the telecom company Xfinity, presenting sponsor of the men's 100, and Nike which will present the women's 100 metres. Prevagen, the brain-boosting supplement, sponsors the women's 800, and the entire meet is brought to us by Toyota.
Those companies represent a partial list, but several free-spending sports sponsors stand out by their absence. No events presented by sports books, and none by Ozempic or Rybelsus, the diabetes drugs commonly used for weight loss. The first event hasn't yet lined up and we've already set a record — the first big-time North American sports event to take place in 2023 without help from gambling companies or semaglutides.
Footing the bill
Another noteworthy, tangentially connected, subplot to this track meet: Some of your favourite athletes are incurring significant credit card debt for the chance to compete at an event with no appearance fees and modest prize money. First-place finishers get $8,000 US, down to sixth and seventh place being awarded $1,000. Maybe it's a normal setup in Olympic sports, where more funding is an evergreen need for most national sport organizations. But these are abnormal circumstances.
Whether the cause is inflation or price gouging, just about everything costs more these days. And as this Reuters article illustrates, a long, expensive trip looms between athletes and the start line in Eugene. Long jumper Tara Davis-Woodhall tweeted that the cheapest flight to Eugene from her training base in Arkansas would cost $1,200 US. Sprinter Kenny Bednarek pointed out that he also had to pay for his support staff to travel.
Flights, lodging, food, incidentals — it all adds up to another financial strain on athletes in a sport with a stressed-out, shrinking middle class.
There's no analog to this situation in mainstream, North American pro sports. NFL players don't pay their own way to travel to road games. Neither do college athletes, who, technically, don't get paid to play.
Even in boxing, where rules are few, and promoters sometimes cut corners, nobody expects the b-side fighters filling out local cards to fly themselves in from Mexico or Argentina or Hungary. Promoters pay to bring you in and put you up, the same way organizers of Diamond League track meets do.
WATCH | Canada's Aaron Brown on how to improve pay structure of track and field:
Again, high-level athletes in Olympic sports know that national championships aren't like events on the circuit. Transportation and lodging are the athlete's responsibility, and veterans are used to the routine.
But Eugene, which has a long-term contract with USATF to host outdoor national championships, seems to have hit a sore spot with competitors.
In some ways, the location is a no-brainer. Eugene, home to the University of Oregon, and its high-powered, Nike-sponsored athletics program, bills itself as Tracktown, USA. For stakeholders in a niche sport, it must feel nice to know that deep local interest in your event is guaranteed. If Yared Nuguse walks into a cafe in Eugene, people will recognize him as Yared Nuguse, the distance runner. In New York or Chicago, they might not know it's him unless he wears a bib that reads "Yared Nuguse… the distance runner."
But there are tradeoffs. The Pacific time zone, for instance, ensures awkward broadcast times for marquee events. Friday night's men's and women's 100-metre finals are scheduled to start just before midnight Eastern. A small inconvenience for the hardcores, but for the casual fan the start time all but begs you to do something else.
And then there's travel. Eugene is not Portland, which has a major international airport and nonstop flight options. Eugene is Eugene, where booking travel on less than two weeks' notice means choosing from a list of long, expensive, multi-segmented flights.
Plenty of story lines
For the fans who manage to get there, as of Wednesday afternoon tickets were still available for Friday's session, which will feature the men's 100, the women's 100, and plot lines galore.
Sha'Carri Richardson is slated to compete in the women's event. Avid track followers are intrigued with her potential, casual fans love her swagger, and we're all curious to see if 2023 will be her breakthrough season.
On the men's side, Bromell and Bracy-Williams are back, as is Christian Coleman, the 2019 world champ. But the favourite might be Noah Lyles, who set an American record when he ran 19.31 to win the world 200-metre title last summer. That gold medal pre-qualifies him to run the 200 at worlds, so he's running the 100 at nationals, hoping to win double gold next month in Hungary. For his part, Kerley, the 100m champion in 2022, is skipping that race to focus on the 200 in Eugene. He, too, plans to win both short sprints at worlds.
He and Lyles can't both be correct.
WATCH | Lyles ties Bolt's record for most sub-20-second 200m finishes:
Either way, if those two stars, along with the other sub-10 sprinters rounding out the U.S. team, are healthy and in shape, the men's 4x100 relay team will have the raw speed for a run at the world record. Whether they actually complete three smooth handoffs is — as always — a separate question. But we'll see the relay roster come together in Eugene.
For the super-elite sprinters likely to make the cut, travel to the meet is less of an issue. They're often subsidized by deep-pocketed sponsors, who, if they can't shorten the trip, can at least soften the financial impact.
But for athletes who are backed by smaller companies, or, like hurdler Alaysha Johnson, not sponsored at all, the cost is almost prohibitive.
"It's better to have something that's more central, that's more affordable for every athlete of all calibres," Johnson told reporters at the NYC Grand Prix last month. "If they have the standard, they should be able to come and not worry about being in debt."
Or maybe raise money to start a fund to help defray the cost of the trek to Eugene.
Would a ticket surcharge do it? A 50/50 draw? Pass the hat? Those ideas are so 20th century.
This track meet has a long list of sponsors, and it's 2023.
Maybe it's time USATF asked its doctor about a popular diabetes drug.
Corrections:- A previous version incorrectly stated no prize money is awarded at the U.S. track and field championships. July 10, 2023 2:24 PM