Massive crowd at Drake Stadium!!

Right! Maybe tickets sold. You could see plenty of empty seats even in the grandstands. Why do they cover the end seats with the nike logo? Drake is a stadium. The javelin, discus, etc take place in a venue just north of the stadium so it is not Hayward. There are plenty of people outside the "stadium" watching those events as well.

No one cares. Track is dead. The only ones who care are the 0.01% of men who ran in college, parents and coaches. No one else gives a crap. They can barely stand to watch 4 minutes for a 1500.

Those covered seats are temporary bleachers for the USATF Olympic Trials. Those covered seats bring the seating up to near 20,000 for the Trials. Those seats were not for sale for the University of Oregon meets or for the Pre Classic -- liability issues? USATF rights issus?

TrackCoach wrote:

You are absolutely wrong, at the very least, there is one spectator of every marathoner. Almost no one runs a marathon with out a support person. After running 26.2 miles, the last thing you feel like doing is driving home.

Maybe in the world of the 3:45 marathoner, but I would disagree. Every race I ever ran after the age of 11 was either ZERO spectators for me or about one driver for every 2-5 runners. Somebody's parents had to take us to our non-school races.

The marathons I raced, everybody in the car raced except sometimes somebody's Mom when I was 13 and 17.

Also, now when I do 12 and 24 hour cycling races I drive myself and sometimes drive others. Not everybody is a baby like that and needs to take someone along on a 3-day trip just for a race that takes 2:30.

The NCAA's should have never left Sacramento!

During the Women's 10,000m Final, it looked like there were no more than 200 people in the stands. Really sad.

Even on the Final Day (Saturday) the stands were half empty. Guess watching CORN GROW is an Olympic sport in Des Moines.

It looked like? You weren't there? Why not? Maybe Des Moines needs to talk to Vinny so they can get Nike to buy up the tickets and give their employees the day off to go watch. Man 2008 pissed ole Vinny off when Des Moines set the attendance record for NCAA's. Had to go back home and get that changed...by any means. Can't have a Midwest town show up "Tracktown" Guess you should have watched the DL in New York. Packed House!!! On a high school track! Guess watching homeless people is an Olympic Sport in New York, or anywhere on the West Coast.

Stupid pills today ? I guess so. Nike underwrites this meet , no budget limitation , no money needed from IAAF. Its a showcase for them. Who the hell do you think bankrolled Kenyan 10K trials to be there. They can build any field they want in whatever event they want. Its about TV , its about brand building the DL series and the Pre meet is seen as a crown jewel , its about a quality meet with incredible depth in events. BTW , the Pre meet is ranked #1 meet outside of Europe by the DL.

Oh , did I mention Nike is $27 billion dollar company and the Pre meet has the most secure budget of the entire DL series ?

12,000 is SRO.

Parking lot is of critical importance for ???