true, very true. I just returned from Oregon on a short vacation and I would have never thought of going to the WC's, not because of the ticket cost, but the location. Travel to Eugene and staying there is terrible. This die-hard track fan isn't going to go because the logistics are just terrible.
And the idiots who decided to put EVERY important meet in Eugene this year? Clearly they don't understand simple supply and demand. Hadd they moved the Pre meet to Stanford (like 3 years ago), put NCAAs at USC and USAs at Indiana, Oregon would be STARVED for high level track and field. Save those dollars and that time commitment for the cream of the crop, the World Championships. Instead they over saturated the market and destroyed what should have been teh crown jewel in USATF's schedule.
Idiots. But then, dating all the way back to the AAU and TAC - there is nothing so good that the ruling body of track and field can't f'up.
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charles yo wrote:
true, very true. I just returned from Oregon on a short vacation and I would have never thought of going to the WC's, not because of the ticket cost, but the location. Travel to Eugene and staying there is terrible. This die-hard track fan isn't going to go because the logistics are just terrible.
And the idiots who decided to put EVERY important meet in Eugene this year? Clearly they don't understand simple supply and demand. Hadd they moved the Pre meet to Stanford (like 3 years ago), put NCAAs at USC and USAs at Indiana, Oregon would be STARVED for high level track and field. Save those dollars and that time commitment for the cream of the crop, the World Championships. Instead they over saturated the market and destroyed what should have been teh crown jewel in USATF's schedule.
Idiots. But then, dating all the way back to the AAU and TAC - there is nothing so good that the ruling body of track and field can't f'up.
1. Die-hard track fans have been flocking to Eugene in big numbers for more decades than you've probably been alive.
2. You must have a lot of difficulty traveling places and staying at them. They have roads, airports, and hotels, just like other places.
3. The *Prefontaine* Classic is never going to move out of Eugene. Think about it.
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qdog wrote:
If you go to Ticketmaster or StubHub it looks like there are lots of empty seats for most World Champ sessions. Last minute purchasers may get some deals.
Lots of empty seats, but no empty hotels.
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TrackCoach wrote:
qdog wrote:
If you go to Ticketmaster or StubHub it looks like there are lots of empty seats for most World Champ sessions. Last minute purchasers may get some deals.
Lots of empty seats, but no empty hotels.
Yep, and the hotel markups were insane too. A hotel that went for ~ $70/night during USATF Nationals was $209/night for Worlds (that was the rate back in December 2021 when I was looking for hotels).
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FatSlowOldGuy wrote:
If they hadn't made buying tickets so hard when they first put them on sale they might have sold more.
This was my experience. I went to buy tickets for four people right after they became available. The cost was higher than I expected. The seats were already not the best. But the main thing was that Ticketmaster made it buying by the day. No sets. We just wanted the same seats the whole time. Nope. Okay, simple ordering. Nope. Booked a trip instead. I am sad to miss it, but I do think Ticketmaster was the culprit, no experience with such an event maybe. It was far too much a pain. Later I wrote the event. Much later they wrote back saying they could help with booking sets. But too late. Sad, this one in the USA was not one I expected to miss. Not buyer friendly, or I missed some easy path that was there.
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As someone who lives in Eugene, it's a hellhole and I'm not surprised that no one wants to come here. We have been flooded with an absurd amount of track meets here over the last couples of years, and ticket prices are always ridiculous. It's no wonder that there were fewer than 4000 people at US Champs. It seems that the people who decided to make Eugene the crown jewel of the USA track world forgot that it's a city of 170,000 people with very poor tourist infrastructure (they tried to build it up, but it's still not adequate). There are certainly a lot of diehard track fans who are native to here, but I'd say that the majority of the attendees at Hayward meets are casual track fans who go because they don't have anything better to do. I don't see how this town will want to support this high saturation of track meets for much longer, especially considering the strain that Worlds is about to put on us. What a mess.
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Kiowavt: And after all that they have changed my seats more than once. Why becasue I have an obstructed view. Why do I have an obstructed view? NOt because I bought cheap tickets. Because after I looked at the seat map and choose my tickets they built something in front of them.
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Skippy The Punk wrote:
Nothing more dumb than having an event like Worlds, and having an empty stadium. I said it a the U.S. nationals, Nike can afford to give tickets away to, church groups, middle school students, coaches, first responders. They could have contest to win free tickets. Millions of ways to get rumps in the seats on all days. All of this should have been thought of after the U.S fiasco last month.
But Nike is too avaricious for money to think of this.
I really hope they do something like this if there are empty seats. Schools, youth groups, athletics clubs, etc. Like I posted in another thread, it could spark a lifelong interest in athletics for some children. It's way better than the seats being empty! There are so many ways they could do it. Personally I hope they sell out but we'll see!!
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No surprise. The transportation, lodging, and car rental costs are insane. That's on top of overpriced tickets. Even if you can get a discount on tickets, you'll be paying $1000 domestically for plane tickets and $300/night for an f-ing Motel 6 all the way in Springfield. Not worth it roast in the hot Eugene sun for the hammer throw prelims.
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track chick wrote:
Skippy The Punk wrote:
Nothing more dumb than having an event like Worlds, and having an empty stadium. I said it a the U.S. nationals, Nike can afford to give tickets away to, church groups, middle school students, coaches, first responders. They could have contest to win free tickets. Millions of ways to get rumps in the seats on all days. All of this should have been thought of after the U.S fiasco last month.
But Nike is too avaricious for money to think of this.
I really hope they do something like this if there are empty seats. Schools, youth groups, athletics clubs, etc. Like I posted in another thread, it could spark a lifelong interest in athletics for some children. It's way better than the seats being empty! There are so many ways they could do it. Personally I hope they sell out but we'll see!!
It would of been great to use this as an opportunity to give back to youth track coaches and athletes in America. They should’ve offered free day time tickets to every youth track coach and athlete in the nation.
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It's all very well to say give the tickets away. Try explaining to someone who paid 150 for a ticket that they gave the seat next to him away for free. Plus its kind of an admission that even the most competitive event in the world with the best athletes has almost no audience. Did the Champs in London average something like 400,000 ticket applications for each session. I know the first session I went to in Athens 2004 had about 6,000 people there.
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Interesting that people had such a hard time. I wanted to go, so signed up for the pre-sale, then purchased tickets to each day by clicking the seats I wanted and paying. Sitting front-row for the M1500 final and paying less than I did to sit 300-level at a mediocre NBA game last year. Got hosed on housing, but that was expected, and frankly not that much worse than a decent hotel in any major city (downtown).
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I remember lots of empty seats during the day sessions in LA in '84. Day prelims have never been a big draw in the hot sun.
At the same time I completely agree Eugene needs to not be the only choice for meets. I'm pretty sure that LA/Mt Sac could fill more seats for WC's than Eugene will. Better flights, transportation, food, 18 million people in the region to sell tickets to...
I get that Pre will always be in Eugene, but the NCAA's should never be there for that very reason.
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That is interesting because there were complaints from all over the world that you couldn't do that! I couldn't do that from the US and a friend couldn't from England. Also if you were on an ipad or iPhone you couldn't get to the part of the menu to decline insurance!
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This is Jim Kiler wrote:
Nike got its start by selling "Asics" as Nike. Fitting that this would bite them back.
There was no Asics when Nike was distributing their shoes. It was Onitsuka Tiger. Asics came later.
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Well they wasn't a Nike either. It was Blue Ribbon sports
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According to the story posted on Letsrun, 70% of the tickets are already sold. WA expects the evening sessions to sell out. If this is true, attendance would be 126,500 only for the evening sessions. I imagine the empty seats the OP mentions are for the less popular day sessions.
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Stop the whining. Even sold.out events have tickets on ticketmaster. And stop whining about Eugene. They have the best facilities and are willing to put on a world class meet. The other places are not. They would rather just fly in and compete. Bravo to Eugene for taking this on. They have no control over flight prices or the less than nfl like interest in track.
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What do you expect? Nobody wants it. Nike bailed out IAAF. World Athlectics is a sham. They can't get bidders for their so called "World" meetings. Hayward Is such a puny, small, insignificant Texas High School Football sized venue they knew it wouldn't hold many when they designed and built it. This isn't Rome or Athens.
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You didn't drink the Kook Aide did you?
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