The 'people won't watch if they don't see world records' argument is totally bogus. Look at women's track and field. They've got a ton of world records from as far back as the 1980s dope fests that no modern runner or relays comes close to approaching. And the women of the Golden League circuits like Sanya Richards, Allyson Felix and Blanka Vlasic are huge sporting start over in Europe, world records or not.
The one record on that side that's under constant assault is the pole vault and that's because Yelena Isinbayeva is doing the same thing that Sergei Bubka did back in the day and constantly upping her competition clearance height by a centimeter or half centimeter in order to max out on the world record bonus money. And consensus is that by taking that kind of strategy, she makes setting a world record less special because she'll do it 5-6 times a year.
The 'people won't watch if they don't see world records' argument is totally bogus. Look at women's track and field. They've got a ton of world records from as far back as the 1980s dope fests that no modern runner or relays comes close to approaching. And the women of the Golden League circuits like Sanya Richards, Allyson Felix and Blanka Vlasic are huge sporting start over in Europe, world records or not.
The one record on that side that's under constant assault is the pole vault and that's because Yelena Isinbayeva is doing the same thing that Sergei Bubka did back in the day and constantly upping her competition clearance height by a centimeter or half centimeter in order to max out on the world record bonus money. And consensus is that by taking that kind of strategy, she makes setting a world record less special because she'll do it 5-6 times a year.
