After Sha’Carri Richardson’s 2023 NBC Frustration, Track & Field Community Brews Another Viewership Fraud: “What Nonsense Is This?”

For the last several years, the track and field veterans and standouts have been expressing their displeasure about the lack of exposure to the sport. A sizable chunk of that crowd blames the lack of interest and investment, being the reasons for this. However, the broadcasting channels often fell short of accepting and addressing the factors. Last year, the problem had shown up big time in the US Championships and Sha’Carri Richardson had pulled the broadcasters like nothing else. 

Richardson went hard on the same NBC authority after the latter had decided not to air the US Championship. “These companies continue to make it HARDER for track and field to have exposure!!! All they want is to continue to exploit sports!!!” the reigning 100m world champion had lashed out. Meanwhile, after a year, the situation seems to have shown no improvement, as one more broadcasting fiasco made it to the ground during the Prefontaine Classic aka the Eugene Diamond League.

This time the SuperSport has opted out from broadcasting the quintessential meet. There was no notice from the broadcasters beforehand narrating their stand to broadcast the event. But coming to the penultimate day, the viewers have discovered that there has been no update on the live event. Rather, the channel authority has moved on to feeding the highlights of previous Diamond League games. This adds one more page to the ongoing debate started after FloSports acquired the major track and field games’ broadcasting rights from NBC, significantly increasing the subscription rates.

Upon coming across the Prefontaine classic debacle, several viewers have thrown their sharp questions asking the legitimacy of such channels. The lack of professionalism in those channels’ rulebooks has also come under the scanner. And the audience took up the reins to rough up the broadcasters without mincing their words.

Fans loathe the channel authorities for all the right reasons 

The SuperSport is one of the official broadcasters of the Eugene Diamond League. So, the usual expectation remained a thorough feed without any glitches. However, that was not followed up on the game day. Furthermore, the discontinuation in the broadcasting kept moving in despite the sky-high subscription rate. So the X-handle, @Iammrels penned, “What nonsense is this na, we can’t watch athletics meets again after increasing your tariffs??” However, there was no sign of a public apology even after the blockade in broadcasting. 

Rather, a comical approach was carried out to sweep everything under the carpet, and unapologetically, the channel broadcasted old clips from the league. The X-handle, @lungie_klass pointed out these facts. @SuperSportTV why is the @Diamond_League in Eugene not playing and there is no apology or any message #EugeneDL”, the handle added. The displeasure in watching the repeat telecast touched several audience aesthetics. One such remained @MzwaCFC. 

The concerned X-handle took the issue into its own hands and criticized the authority for being a failure to provide service despite taking full subscription charges. “Now wonder a lot of people are quiting. We are supposed to be watching live the Diamond League Eugene, but you guys are busy with repeats sies,” lashed out the user. The repeat telecast issue also bothered a fan, @MeyerClyde who preferred to watch the race where sprinters like Sha’Carri Richardson or Elaine Thompson-Herah entered as the top sprinter. So calling the Prefontaine Classic “race of the year”, the user vented the emotion by penning, “@dstv The race of the year featuring at Diamond league Eugene and you are broadcasting old races”. 

As the Super Sport stopped broadcasting without notice, several fans could not digest the lack of clarity. But all they asked for was a speedy initiation on the issue and a solution. However, Siyabashaya raised the point,“@SuperSportTV Where’s the Eugene Diamond League feed on 208? It should have started at 22h00 according to your own schedule.” Despite such arguments, no improvement was visible in the situation.