![Team GB - Athletics needs a shake-up – here is my plan](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/athletics/2023/11/14/TELEMMGLPICT000347093771_16999766344370_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqUnv3zF37IgGYgGlg_N0kNlwe2BQ8K84Hav-sNURdd9A.jpeg?imwidth=680)
![Team GB - Athletics needs a shake-up – here is my plan](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/athletics/2023/11/14/TELEMMGLPICT000347093771_16999766344370_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqUnv3zF37IgGYgGlg_N0kNlwe2BQ8K84Hav-sNURdd9A.jpeg?imwidth=680)
Athletics has always been a core sport. It is one that most kids do at school and you do not need much equipment to get involved, so it is popular. When you talk about the Olympics, athletics is always the first sport you think of, but we have to move with the times. Athletics needs a bit of a shake-up.
Introduce new formats
Athletics has always gone down a very traditional route – ‘this is how we’ve always done competitions’ – but sometimes you need to freshen things up to get more fans engaged. We’ve seen other sports change formats while still keeping traditional competitions where they are. Why not add more regular athletics competitions to the calendar? And make them short and sharp.
I love the traditional style of competitions; they are great and work really well. Something else a little different could be added to the calendar, though. You want to see more regular engagement and excitement from fans, and for athletes to want to be part of it – great events with great prize money. You need the athletes to buy in and want to go to these events.
Introducing shorter, more concise events would be interesting. Whether it is having fewer athletes involved, perhaps just the top-ranked athletes, and changing how events are structured, athletics should experiment with something else. With the field events, athletes could have fewer attempts or in the high jump, say, the bar could start higher to make the competition shorter and more exciting.
There is a real appetite for athletics and as a nation we love watching track and field, so it is seeing things in a different way. Every sport has to try something new eventually: technology has changed so much as has the way we consume TV in general, so sport has to be able to adapt. Changing formats needs other elements too…
Increase television coverage
Outside of the World Championships and Olympics it can be really hard to follow what’s happening in athletics throughout the year. Having more regular competitions and making sure the broadcast coverage is there, would make the sport easier to follow.
This year’s World Championships in Budapest were incredible – the athletics, the stadium, the crowds were all great. There was a real buzz and that translated back home on TV really well. There is an appetite for it, but we need to get more of it on TV more frequently.
![Ben Pattison - Athletics needs a shake-up – here is my plan](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/athletics/2023/11/14/TELEMMGLPICT000346947469_16999751524400_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqAPGroKF81_21T7mH10K7iVoh7ab20wSo2tHlYtk7E2o.jpeg?imwidth=350)
Cricket has done a really good job. The way T20 or the Hundred is shown on TV is very different to more traditional formats, and that brings in a different audience. Tennis also does a great job, with the frequency of events throughout the year and having the top players competing so you can go on their journey with them. That creates stronger fans and a buzz around the sport.
Tap into personalities
Tennis did a brilliant documentary, Break Point, with Netflix. You got to understand the players, the athletes behind the story and the journey they had taken to get to certain points in their career, so you wanted to watch them in their next tournament. Netflix is following a few sprinters for a new documentary that will be released next year and I think that will be brilliant.
![Noah Lyles - Athletics needs a shake-up – here is my plan](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/athletics/2023/11/14/TELEMMGLPICT000169936920_16999739564920_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqP0J2Bfd7hb3hnXpzPH8RYhc_quaRNS1Zzael-PRHHJQ.jpeg?imwidth=350)
It is important to raise the profile of athletes and find out more about them as a person to make it more interesting for viewers and fans. At major championships you get various interviews, a snippet before or after an athlete has competed, but it is almost not enough – you want to know more. The documentary will help with that, although in the future I’d like to see other events covered as well as sprinting because it would be good to see more personalities. I want to see a variety of athletes and more storytelling because that brings the sport together as a whole.
Improve the fan experience
In Budapest the stadium was brilliant and the crowds were so engaged, it was such a fantastic atmosphere. That comes from the way the city embraced the World Championships – they really got behind it. When you got off the plane, you could see all the posters, there were fanzones around the city and you could really feel that something was happening.
The set-up in and around the stadium was also great. Kids could have a go running on track or throwing a lightweight shotput to get them excited. The medal ceremonies, which are usually held inside the stadium, were staged in a fanzone outside and there was always a good crowd, so it felt very special.
It is also about injecting something else during those lulls between events. I don’t necessarily like using the word ‘entertainment’ but while athletes are warming up it would be good for the crowd to have something else to watch. We’ve seen changes to the way athletes are introduced – they come out to music and flashing lights, which gets spectators buzzing and excited. So things like that can improve the experience of those in the stadiums.
Greater buzz around the sport and personalities at the fore of events will in turn bring in new sponsors, fans and viewers.
Athletics needs a shake-up – here is my plan
Greater buzz around the sport and personalities at the fore of events will in turn bring in new sponsors, fans and viewers