I can’t imagine that her presence alone sells that many more tickets. Maybe if the organizers promote a her vs Bol event, but you say that rarely happens. Maybe it’s changed since I haven’t gone to a meet in quite a while, but formerly track & field fans go because they enjoy the sport as a whole, but may have preferences for sprints, distances, jumps, whatever. Not so much to see athletes whose replica jersey they are wearing.
I doubt that it does too, but that's largely because she primarily runs major championships where you get a whole program. There were people who would be maybe considering buying a Continental Tour or Diamond League ticket, who would be more likely to do so if Usain Bolt was running. There are people that you might not be buying tickets specifically
for like it's combat sports or anything like that, but where the chance to see that particular competitor plays a role in audience interest and also interest in the event from sponsors and advertisers that gives the organisers better reach to promote the event and sell tickets not specifically relating to that specific athlete appearing.
I think she
is a draw, simply because it's so rare for her to run that is carries some sense of occasion when she chooses to do so, but the issue is that the wider audience hasn't had the chance to get to know her and to develop an attachment to following her achievements.
But who is Femke Bol next to Sydney? Are you pretending there is a rivalry?
The thing was that while SML was injured, Bol improved greatly and had completely obliterated the field she was facing a hundred times over. And that might not even be that hyperbolic a figure, since Bol is the complete opposite of SML and runs anywhere and everywhere, a couple of years she was maybe even running too much. The fact SML was running even less than usual led to a situation where there was nobody left but her for Bol to test herself against, but she
couldn't test herself against SML, and the most egregious of the latter's stans kept on slating any achievement as worthless and complaining about any article or video or punditry that didn't basically preface the story "Bol achieves excellent time / wins major accolade / beats all comers - but McLaughlin-Levrone would have been better" and insisting that fans could only enjoy the athletics they were watching viewed through the prism of how much better SML
would have been had she been there; simultaneously there was a lot of unfounded speculation about the nature of SML's injuries that led some of the more vocal Bol fans to vastly overstate her chances against SML.
There was never a rivalry between the women on track nor have they pretended that there is; they didn't face each other for over two years and SML has won every face-off between them. It was purely an invention of the fandoms and the media. To continue my analogy of the old NWA, Femke is like the regional champion of your territory's federation, whose exploits you follow week to week, and Sydney is the overarching national champion who jets in once or twice a year to remind you why she's the champion.
www.bbc.com
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram