This year was the 30th running of the Footlocker XC Championships yet the meet in my opinion won't make it to year 35.  What has got to be the biggest and most obvious issue is the competition with Nike.  Prior to NTN, now NXN, Nike had been the primary sponsor other then Footlocker for the meet.  Yes for a while addidas had it to but Nike had it for a long stretch.  Then NTN came about and Nike sort of pulled its sponsorship.  If you look the uniforms are all Nike issued just without the swoosh and most of the athletes wearing new spikes are wearing Nike.  Yet last year all of the sudden they switched from that to the Eastbay uniforms and now nothing.  If they can't keep a sponsor then how do they expect to keep the meet going.  I mean just look at this year.  What the hell did they give those kids?  I mean the meet directors must have gone to the local Walmart and bought dri-fit t-shirts and just cut off the sleeves.  I mean those were definitley not xc uniforms.

    The other thing is that NXN now pulls away considerable competition.  There are plenty of kids who never had the chance to go to Portland and now can.  I mean I don't blame them.  It seems that Nike treats the athletes and coaches a lot better.  Compare the stuff they got at NXN to the crap they got at Footlocker.  They got real uniforms not junk.  NXN is also pulling people away since their meet is a lot more fan friendly.  There is a running scoreboard and you can see how athletes are doing as the race progresses.  If Footlocker is smart they should combine with Nike as asked before.  There will still be regionals, there will still be a national champ and there wont' be the arguement over which winner is legitly the national champ.  All they need to do is combine. And that is why Footlocker won't make it to 35.