The Flotrack Throwdown rolled into Portland, Oregon, last Saturday hyping itself as the track meet for people who don’t like track. Ditching protocol, meet organizers parked a food truck in the infield, set up a beer garden, cranked thumping music, and threw what amounted to a three-hour party aimed at broadening the sport’s appeal beyond its niche following. FloSports cofounder Mark Floreani even offered a reward for anyone bringing two nontrack fans to the meet with them. “I will personally buy you a beer,” he advertised in a pre-event press release. “Or if you’re under 21, some food from the food cart.”
By the time the strobe lights dimmed at southwest Portland’s Duniway Park, 2,800 people had come through the gates, many of them talking about the meet’s fun vibe and intimate atmosphere. But if the festival-style event drew swarms of first-timers, they were hard to find—even with free beer on the line.
“Nobody came up to me,” Floreani said. “Maybe it’s because I was moving so fast.”
There were at least a few beer-eligible guests in attendance, but on a weekend when Portland also played host to concerts by headliners Sam Smith and Arsenio Hall, the Throwdown, with a ticket price of $10, didn’t break onto the mainstream radar. Instead, the crowd seemed typical for a good track meet. There were high school runners traversing the infield with their teammates, college athletes getting boozy in the beer garden, and the occasional spouse dragged along by a hardcore fan.
Sonja Hultsman, who grew up watching track meets at the University of Oregon’s Hawyard Field, said she invited some friends to join her at the meet, but only her son ended up tagging along. “My friends weren’t too interested,” she said.
Flotrack has been among the sport’s creative thinkers when it comes to boosting track and field’s popularity in the United States, especially with younger fans. In nine years, the website has built a national audience for its in-depth (and characteristically goofy) video-driven online coverage of high school, college, and professional track and field. Last December it created some buzz in the national media by hosting the inaugural Flotrack Beer Mile World Championships in Austin, Texas.
With its latest endeavor, the Flotrack team wanted to craft a track meet that would attract more than just the sport’s usual supporters. Instead of a day-long event with dozens of races, the Throwdown featured a three-hour schedule with plenty of interludes for fans to refill their beers or play yard games. The festivities wrapped up with an after-dark party in the infield, complete with strobe lights, dancing, and more beer.
But while the festival format drew positive reviews, they mostly came from fans already well acquainted with the sport. Sitting in the beer garden before the elite races, local runners Matt Palmer and Trish Merrion said they’d been anticipating the meet for months. “Usually fans have to be way up in the stands,” Palmer said. “It’ll be really exciting to see the big names right here in front of you.”
Doug Tucker, a high school cross country coach, liked the blend of youth races and elite competition. Only a couple hours after elementary school and middle school students took the track for the community 100-meter dashes, star elite runners such as Nick Symmonds, Other Hearst Subscriptions Galen Rupp sprinted down the same straightaway. “I love the mixing,” Tucker said. “It really helps personalize the sport.”
The Throwdown’s creative twists also scored well with the athletes. In addition to $1,000 prizes for every event winner, the male and female athletes of the meet split a special prize purse, funded by a share of total beer and food sales. After entering contention for the top athlete award with his 1:46.84 win in the 800, Duane Solomon joked that he had more work to do. “I’m not a beer drinker,” he said, “but I’ll try to bribe as many people as I can to buy some drinks. (The athlete-of-the-meet honors—and the $1,000 bonuses—went to pole vault winner Ashton Eaton and women’s mile champ Fiona Benson.)
Meanwhile, the showbiz performance of the night belonged to Symmonds, who finished his 400-meter race by dashing to the infield, imitating Maurice Greene’s gag of spraying a fire extinguisher on his spikes, and chugging a beer. The two-time Olympian said he thought the Throwdown would help win over new supporters.
“Not everyone here is a fan of track and field, I guarantee it,” he said. “They heard the music blaring and heard that Rogue was pouring beers and they thought, ‘Oh, I’ll go see what that’s all about.’ Maybe some of these new fans will see what we’re doing out here and they’ll become permanent fans.”
After spending much of the night trying to test that theory, Runner's World Newswire found a pair of nontrack fans in attendance, noticeable by their dressy attire in a sea of running T-shirts and shoes. David Hotchkin said this was his first track meet, and he left impressed. “This is really exciting. It’s great to be so close to the action,” he said. “I came for the beer and ended up watching the track meet.”
But Hotchkin and his fellow nontrackie Alison Weatherby also gave Flotrack some suggestions for improvement, like adding more beer vendors to keep the lines down and providing seating around the track. And one other thing: “Having Mark available to buy beer for the guy who brought two nontrack fans!” said Hotchkin, whose friend never was able to track down the meet organizer.
It appears that Hotchkin and company will have another chance to redeem their free beers next year. After the meet, Floreani was already talking about throwing a bigger party in 2016. “We’ve learned a lot about marketing and getting the word out,” he said. “With these events, the second year is always bigger.”
