TrackTown USA my ass. Take a look at the crowd at the Oregon relays (pic)

The low interest for college and pros took down Penn, Millrose, Drake, Texas, etc. They had to water down main draw hours, interleaving Catholic HS, Jamaican HS, and several juggernaut Cali prep schools to attract parents and siblings. Too bad it didn't stop the bleeding. Today unfortunately those meets are a shadow of what they were back in the day.

Also I suspect this thread was started by a TTUSA troll. A false flag post. Wonder if that's really necessary to roll that way in this economy?

There are too many big meets in Oregon but Oregon Relays isn’t one of them. It’s never been comparable to a Penn Or Texas Relays except for having Relays in the name.

But then how would sub-elites shame hobby joggers?

Spent a summer in Eugene, and it was AWESOME. There were articles in the newspaper about upcoming meets, and stand alone articles about athletes. The pre meet was even on the public tv channel. Regular all comers meets had people in the stands, and races that might have heats with 10 year olds followed by hs stars…followed by Olympians. Easy runs on Amazon or track workouts at South HS track were like a who’s who of track and field. Regular people were somewhat knowledgeable about the athletes or meets in town. Had a whole pizza place with pictures on the wall of some of the greats.
Awesome place.

The sport of athletics in the US is suffering from dismal pay for elite athletes. We are strapped by one particular Oligarch who pidgeon holes meets to his undergraduate Alma Mater. This is why monopolies have been outlawed. We're stuck.

Doesn't Oregon have mask and vaccine mandates still? Especially at a government institution. That would lower attendance at least 90%.

Friendly reminder to alll that we are still in the middle of the World's Premier T&F Convention which draws 500,000 T&F entries -- Aztec Invitational, Trition Invitational, Bryan Clay, Beach Invitatiional, Baldy Castillo, Sun Angel Classic, Cardinal Classic, Rafer Johnson - Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Mt Sac Relays, ASU Invitational, Payton Jordan, Steve Scott Invite, Fresno State Invite, Track Meet by Sound Running, Oxy Invitational, Desert Heat Classic plus I missed another dozen.

Pre last year was about 25% full. I highly doubt it will be packed this year but I hope I am wrong.

Also, NCAA champs will be nowhere close to packed. Maybe 10% full.

Great point, I'm sure it will be stuffed to capacity at the Olympic Trials! Except... oh, wait. I was there for that this summer. It was empty and quiet for the majority of competitions. A crowd comparable to a HS state meet at best, genuinely. Charging $100/day for 8 days with no sort of family/friend discount or package deals probably didn't help though.

Something was going on last summer. I can’t recall exactly but wearing a mask and proving your vaccination status at the gate came into play somehow. One week you could buy tickets and then you couldn’t the next week. Higher powers couldn’t decide if watching an outdoor track meet was safe or not? Then only certain people with a negative test could watch? It’s was really confusing and I just threw my hands up and watched on TV.

You gotta learn where a question mark goes! (Hint, nowhere in your comment)

Incorrect. I was there and it was packed.

It could be that a lot of them bet on shtcoins 💩 which leaves very little money 💴 to pay for hotels in Oregon

There’s a lot of wealth and income inequality so suckers are attracted to get rich quick schemes

Olympics Athletics and Marathons get billions of live subscribers in several hundreds of nations. Outside of the Olympics there's a negligible audience for marathons and athletics meetings. It's so miniscule NBC doesn't produce any of them and let's competing entrepreneurs full of interns and recent college graduates learn the business from low interest products.

So, there should be a rule that you can't pay runners? All those road races and marathons shouldn't pay runners?

What exactly do you mean by "it really should only be amateur?

Yes, this and the fact that they don't advertise appearance fees and apparel contracts, etc.

Watch a Formula 1 race- it's individual, there is sponsorship, the announcers call the race.

People watch- on TV in the stands (and it's not like NASCAR, they aren't there to get drunk and party.

It's marketing and a decent presentation.

Someone has to try putting on a track meet in an efficient, fast moving way- it's possible!

Someone has to try to bring back the atmosphere of a 1980's/90's 10k road race- with elite athletes representing a few different nations not just 10 Kenyans and Ethiopians dominating.

Look at old pictures of track meets back in the 60's and 70's- we need to bring that back- it's marketing.