While the stadium looks nice, by now it seems like they screwed up putting it in a small town. Travel and lodging is too expensive and inconvenient so they can't fill up the stadium even at major events.
It should have been built in or near Portland. While I'm not a fan of the city, at least they would have hotels, an airport, transportation, and more fans close by. They could still host NCAAs and USAs and whatever and there's no need to be close to the U of O campus. Eugene can have a tinier stadium for their all-comers meets.
I don't know much about construction or moving buildings but could they just disassemble it, move it bit-by-bit up I-5 and have it be in Portland from now on?
This is a tough one. Cities outside of Oregon that "make better sense" are irrelevant here. Knight built that stadium and he wanted it where he was raised/still lives/went to school.
The sad thing is with Portland in it's current state is where exactly you put it without it becoming sh$t magnet to drug addicts, dealers and people living under garbage. Yes you have the population here, the airport, the hotels and a large underground track following, but man, if I was making an investment in a stadium just because I could and didn't really need any return off it, I don't know about Portland right now. You'd have to build up in the western hills (sort of where the Lewis and Clark stadium is that they use for the PTF) but there just isn't enough room.
The single biggest issue with Eugene is the parking. That sounds trivial but it really is. Driving from Portland is actually really easy - it's the I-5 all the way. But you get to Eugene, you have to park on someones street, you never know exactly what the rules are and if you are going to walk back to a $100 freaking ticket from the "University Police" - it sucks. If there was a stadium lot for even 1000 cars (a 500x300ft lot?) with $20 parking it would make a huge difference. But where is that around the stadium in Eugene? On top of that you charge way too much for tickets to watch a minority sport.
All in all it's a tough one - in Eugene you have the protection of your asset from the UofO campus. In Portland you have more population/access and hotel infrastructure. No great answer but I guess it's Portland if it has to be Oregon (which it does).
Before Ole Phil started throwing his weight, Nike's weight around, NCAA T&F Championship often were held in Chicago:
About 25 years ago or so they held NCAAs in Buffalo. 25,000 seat stadium is far more than adequate and the weather in June is significantly better than Austin.
I would like to see them select a few permanent sites that rotate around the country.
West - Sacramento
South - Austin
Midwest - Des Moines
Northeast - Buffalo
East - Jacksonville
That NCAA meet in Buffalo sucked. Cold and gloomy the whole time.
Given that 2024 trials still haven’t been announced, it’s obvious that the magic of Hayward is gone. In hindsight, they should have kept the old stands and upgraded some facilities. Some of those on the West Coast don’t seem to understand how logistically challenging it is to get to Eugene from many other parts of the US, it’s not just about money - but time, and the significant investment that has to be made getting to and from there.
Give it up and go to Mt SAC - nice facility and people, and they'll feed you In-N-Out burger while you're there. International airports and lots of hotels nearby.
There is some mysterious attachment that older people have for Eugene because of the 1970s and Pre. The problem is that people that were around then, even as kids, are well into their 50s and more likely to be 70+. No one who is younger and competing now has a connection to that era, some 50 years ago. No international runner is yearning to run in Eugene. Unless they happened to to go to Oregon, of course.
I am 40 and grew up watching stuff like “without limits“ even though it was well before my time when all that went down. It had all the aura of being tracked town USA when I was a teenager. Eugene is still a very significant place to me. People my age aren’t competing anymore, but we are coaching people who are.
I live in Eugene. I can’t argue it’s not the ideal spot for international competitions. However, some of the arguments I see on here regularly just aren’t that accurate. Multiple hotels have gone up in conjunction with the new stadium, and there were already a good number within a 10mi radius of campus. The Eugene airport is mid-level, but offers tons of connecting flights from Denver/SLC/Phoenix/Seattle that aren’t far off in pricing from renting a car and driving down from Portland.
The parking is a legitimate concern. I couldn’t believe they weren’t building some sort of parking to go with the stadium. There are lots by the other sports complexes, but require a decent walk. The stadium is also a gigantic ooni oven. If you aren’t in the shade you’re getting cooked.
If it were to move up to “Portland” the only space would be 20-30mi out, which doesn’t really solve a lot of the issues of it being in Eugene.
It's an amazing stadium, but there is just not enough hotels around there. It really doesn't fit in that town.
There are literally 10 within a mile of the stadium. And that doesn’t include the dozen downtown and the chain hotel mecca that is the Gateway Mall area in Springfield. Anyone who claims there aren’t enough hotels put no effort into searching.
It was unusually cool that year in upstate NY , but at least I was not roasting my balls on aluminum seats in Austin like I did this year...I'll take Eugene any day over that.
While the stadium looks nice, by now it seems like they screwed up putting it in a small town. Travel and lodging is too expensive and inconvenient so they can't fill up the stadium even at major events.
It should have been built in or near Portland. While I'm not a fan of the city, at least they would have hotels, an airport, transportation, and more fans close by. They could still host NCAAs and USAs and whatever and there's no need to be close to the U of O campus. Eugene can have a tinier stadium for their all-comers meets.
I don't know much about construction or moving buildings but could they just disassemble it, move it bit-by-bit up I-5 and have it be in Portland from now on?
This is a tough one. Cities outside of Oregon that "make better sense" are irrelevant here. Knight built that stadium and he wanted it where he was raised/still lives/went to school.
The sad thing is with Portland in it's current state is where exactly you put it without it becoming sh$t magnet to drug addicts, dealers and people living under garbage. Yes you have the population here, the airport, the hotels and a large underground track following, but man, if I was making an investment in a stadium just because I could and didn't really need any return off it, I don't know about Portland right now. You'd have to build up in the western hills (sort of where the Lewis and Clark stadium is that they use for the PTF) but there just isn't enough room.
The single biggest issue with Eugene is the parking. That sounds trivial but it really is. Driving from Portland is actually really easy - it's the I-5 all the way. But you get to Eugene, you have to park on someones street, you never know exactly what the rules are and if you are going to walk back to a $100 freaking ticket from the "University Police" - it sucks. If there was a stadium lot for even 1000 cars (a 500x300ft lot?) with $20 parking it would make a huge difference. But where is that around the stadium in Eugene? On top of that you charge way too much for tickets to watch a minority sport.
All in all it's a tough one - in Eugene you have the protection of your asset from the UofO campus. In Portland you have more population/access and hotel infrastructure. No great answer but I guess it's Portland if it has to be Oregon (which it does).
I parked a block from the stadium for USAs. No problem cause no one was there.
The "Build it and they will Come" phenomena started with the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and 1987 Field of Dreams movie. Today stadiums are oversaturated and failing everywhere the same at UO Hayward Field.
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