Wolf River Bandit
05-03-2005, 04:48 AM
A proposal has been made to develop a Pro league, to furhter develop the depth of long distance runners in the US. Heres how it will work.
there will be between 12-16 teams, that are divided into two divisions (East and West). These teams will be stratgically located in the cities where training and fan base is sufficent. Such as...
West:
Eugene/Portland, Or
San Fran, Cal
Las Angeles, Cal
Albuquerque, NM
Bouldar/Denver, CO
Dallas, TX
East:
Minneapolis, MN
Chicago, IL
Knoxville, TN
Indianapolis, IN
Boston, MA
New york, NY
other such running oriented cities.
Teams will be composed of One coach and approximately 20 men practicing together daily. Five will be on contract with a paid sallary ranging from $10,000 - $50,000. THe other 15 will pay a membership for the training and coaching they recieve. This way it is partially self sufficent. All other independent sponsorships one can recieve are welcomed.
The season will be composed of 8 regular season races, along with a National Championship. Each team will race 5 total races (4 season plus Champiosnhip). First week of the season the West teams will all race eachother at some desiganted course. The next week the East teams will race eachother at some designated course, and so on and so forth, for 8 weeks.
The incentives for the non-contract runners, is that in each race 7 run and five score, and any non-contract runner that races gets an exponential cash bonus from the team for his performance. A free place to live and some health insurance will be available to a select few that need such aid.
So, as you have probably guessed this is BS, But I see few reasons why such a League could not be developed. Sure most would have to have other jobs, But so did NBA and NFL players back when it got started. This would be giving over 60 runners an average of $30,000 for 6 months of work. The biggest opponent to this would be USATF, because they would lose tons of money. Most of the members of USATF are distance runners, and I would bet that many would rather support their local pro team than the USATF.
there will be between 12-16 teams, that are divided into two divisions (East and West). These teams will be stratgically located in the cities where training and fan base is sufficent. Such as...
West:
Eugene/Portland, Or
San Fran, Cal
Las Angeles, Cal
Albuquerque, NM
Bouldar/Denver, CO
Dallas, TX
East:
Minneapolis, MN
Chicago, IL
Knoxville, TN
Indianapolis, IN
Boston, MA
New york, NY
other such running oriented cities.
Teams will be composed of One coach and approximately 20 men practicing together daily. Five will be on contract with a paid sallary ranging from $10,000 - $50,000. THe other 15 will pay a membership for the training and coaching they recieve. This way it is partially self sufficent. All other independent sponsorships one can recieve are welcomed.
The season will be composed of 8 regular season races, along with a National Championship. Each team will race 5 total races (4 season plus Champiosnhip). First week of the season the West teams will all race eachother at some desiganted course. The next week the East teams will race eachother at some designated course, and so on and so forth, for 8 weeks.
The incentives for the non-contract runners, is that in each race 7 run and five score, and any non-contract runner that races gets an exponential cash bonus from the team for his performance. A free place to live and some health insurance will be available to a select few that need such aid.
So, as you have probably guessed this is BS, But I see few reasons why such a League could not be developed. Sure most would have to have other jobs, But so did NBA and NFL players back when it got started. This would be giving over 60 runners an average of $30,000 for 6 months of work. The biggest opponent to this would be USATF, because they would lose tons of money. Most of the members of USATF are distance runners, and I would bet that many would rather support their local pro team than the USATF.