Where Your Dreams Become Reality
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Where Your Dreams Become Reality |
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Top Level Track and Field Returns to New York City with Recently Completed Icahn Stadium Fourteen years ago New York City last played host to the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships on Randalls Island. The highlights of the meet, punctuated by Leroy Burrells world record of 9.90 in the 100 meters, were overshadowed by the horrible conditions of the aging Downing Stadium. The bathrooms had been stripped of their copper fixtures by drug addicts, the concrete seating was crumbling, and the track had to be patched before the meet. It was a travesty that the highest profile meet in the country was held in a crumbling Depression Era stadium that was considered modern when it played host to the 1936 Olympic Trials. Predictably, the USA Championships moved to better and more modern facilities and major outdoor track meets in New York City became a thing of the past. Major track will be making a return to New York City with the opening of the new $45 million Icahn Stadium on Randalls Island. The track-only stadium, set to open this week, was built to meet IAAF and USATF standards for hosting international and national level meets. While its main use will come from the tens of thousands of high school and college athletes who will be able to take advantage of this world-class facility, the goal is to attract elite events such as the Olympic Trials and IAAF permit meetings. Already the stadiums impact on national level events is being felt: the USATF 8k Championships will feature the stadium prominently this Saturday, and the facility will host the NCAA East Regional meet in May. The 70 meet schedule this year will be managed by the Armory Foundation, which oversees the 168th Street Armory. Everything about the facility is state of the art: an 8-lane (9 lanes on the straights) Mondo surface that promises to be lightning fast; clean sight lines for spectators and broadcasting; bidirectional runways and straightaways ensure favorable wind conditions; wide, gentle turns lessen momentum loss; locker room facilities for 1,000 athletes, officials, and coaches; separate entrances for elite athletes and fans; training rooms, medical examining rooms, and doping-control rooms. Seating capacity is currently at approximately 5,000 in stadium-style seating on the homestretch. Most of those seats will be shielded from the elements by a cantilevered roof donated by the billionaire financier Carl Icahn, whose name the stadium bears. The roof is anchored by two 170 foot light towers that will enable night meets to escape the summer heat. Backstretch seating, to be completed in the near future will add another 5,000 seats. Future plans also include warm up areas for both runners and throwers alike. Icahn Stadium is the cornerstone of development for the Randalls Island Sports Foundation, a public-private partnership that plans to build soccer, rugby, tennis, and baseball facilities on the rest of the 480-acre island. But make no mistake - the facility is about returning New York City back to the forefront of American track and field. Built within the footprint of the stadium where Jesse Owens embarked on his quest to win 4 gold medals, Icahn Stadium will undoubtedly inspire new generations of American athletes. Photos below. Editor's Note: George Kochman, ran at Georgetown in the late 1990s.
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