IAAF boss giving athletes, organizers room to experiment in gaining new fans

Track and field fans were offered a small glimpse of the future at the recent world indoor championships, with athletics supremo Sebastian Coe promising nothing is off the table as he tries to rebuild the ravaged sport.

Battered by doping scandals and deserted by fans and sponsors, athletics has been on the ropes for Coe, who took over as president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) in August from Lamine Diack, who is under investigation in France for fraud and money laundering.

Overseeing his first major IAAF event, Coe freed organizers at the worlds in Portland, Oregon to experiment with the format.

IAAF's President Sebastian Coe leaves after his conference during the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) symposium in Lausanne, Switzerland, March 14, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

The meet took on a rock show vibe as athletes emerged from a tunnel for introductions to flashing lights and billows of smoke, accompanied by thumping music - all captured on giant video screens.

But all the cosmetic changes in the world will not save a sport teetering on a rotten foundation.

Coe is promising major renovations from the ground up to rebuild trust among athletes, fans and sponsors by introducing new doping guidelines, a coordinated calendar, an emphasis on social media and plenty of glitz to pull in the younger fans every sport covets.

"It has been character forming," said Coe, 59. "Actually the one thing I am really comforted by is that there is a real appetite for change.

"The overwhelming challenge is no different than it has been for the past decade and that is how do we excite more young people to want to be part of our sport?

"I welcome things that create a greater entertainment value.

"Our product is athletics, our business is entertainment. We can never forget that.

"I want people to feel they can make decisions without fearing that the heavy hand of the federation will come down and say, 'No, no, no, you can't do that'."

By taking the shackles off organizers and officials and freeing them to try innovative things, Coe is assuring every idea will be heard.

Nothing is too far-fetched, with Coe even floating the whimsical prospect of an athletics league that would see city franchises draft athletes.

But many of the issues dragging down the sport are familiar and longstanding: doping, a confusing calendar and the reluctance of star athletes to go head-to-head on a regular basis.

The indoor worlds were devalued by doping scandals that prevented Russian athletes from competing, while six-time Olympic champion Usain Bolt and other top names like Britain's Mo Farah and Kenyan David Rudisha declined to test themselves in Portland.

In fact, at the same time as the worlds championship meet was underway, Bolt, the biggest name in the sport, staged his own event with his shoe sponsor in Jamaica.

Coe has set up working groups targeting three areas he thinks are crucial to the sport's future: the calendar, the Diamond League series and social media.

The Diamond League, in which the IAAF has a 35 percent ownership, is poised for an overhaul with contracts set to expire after 2018.

"We need to get them (stars) out there more, we need more head-to-heads and we need to have a longer season," said Coe.

"We just don't have enough for you guys to be writing about.

"If we are being hard-nosed about it - and this isn't the time to be screwing around, sitting on the fence - we do not have enough athletics.

"We've got to create a season that has rhythm and pace and a narrative that people understand.

"It is complicated enough for me. God alone knows what it must look like if you're sitting out there trying to figure everything out."

Restoring trust among athletes and fans is the top priority for Coe and is by far the most demanding, with no quick fix.

The 1980 and 1984 Olympic 1,500m champion warned there is likely more pain ahead as the sport pays for the sins and failures of past administrations.

"If you do not go fishing you do not catch fish," said Coe, promising to beef up anti-doping efforts.

"I think, in a large part, we have gotten what we deserved. It's made us focus as a sport. We're not in denial, and as federation president I will defend what I think is defensible.

"But I am certainly not sitting here in denial about the stuff that has been really painful for us."

Despite recent doping controversies, Coe said he is more confident of anti-doping efforts now then when he was competing.

"We must not view this through rose-colored spectacles," said Coe.

"We must not rewrite history. I started my international career in the 70s, and it spanned the whole of (the) 80s. We are in much better shape in this space now.

"Can I tell you that I lose sleep worrying about the human rights of cheats? No, not really.

"What keeps me awake at night is making sure that we are doing everything so that every clean athlete out there knows they have a federation president that is in their corner."