Explain why Xiamen DL sold out 55,000 last week, Suzhou DL sold out 45,000 yesterday, and Eugene DL was half-empty last year

Why is this your standard go to? Like everyone in Oregon has the same brain?

23 comments and no one has noted that the CCP can compel anyone to do anything in China.

China is lucky to have two DL meets even though they have almost no globally competitive track and field athletes. They won't be embarrassed by having empty seats.

that credit score system is not in nation wide use, i live here and don't know a single person who has a social score. I've lived here for quite a few years (and in several other asian countries) and it isn't as remotely "Orwellian" as some of you want to believe. People here, for the most part, live pretty normal lives.

Comments have said as much Hobbs

China is a dictatorship and socialism society; people are constrained and inspire changes. Regular citizens would feel fresh and inspiring when they spectate foreigners achieving success in athletics.

USA is a democratic and capitalist society; people feel threatened by competition all the time. Regular citizens would cry foul or lose interests when they witness foreigners run faster than Americans.

Because my standard go to is the truth. Why are you so stubborn is the question? Oregonians do everything but track meets in the Summer. Camping, fishing, hiking, rafting, mountain, climbing, rock climbing, biking, kayaking, sailboarding (windsurfing).

Only fools thing that they can put on a successful track meet in the Summer. The lone exception would be the Olympic Trials.

They don't do track meets. How many times does this repeat and it simply blows over your head? Even back in the day when they did do track meets, it was all basketball and the Kamikaze Kids.

I think it's obvious at this point that Eugene is a complete failure and there is no event in the world large enough to draw a crowd.

If Nike wanted to build a track for hosting events, somewhere in California would probably be best from a population and weather perspective.

The problem is, you don't build a 30-50000 seat stadium that will only hold one event a year that night fill the stadium.

Again this is a silly argument. The meet still exists as a gold level meet and sells out the home stretch grandstand at higher prices than other DL meets. But the stadium is small, so you have to put up temporary bleachers (worse seats/sun/uncomfortable) if you want to have a large crowd. They don’t bother with this any more. And it’s not in NYC it’s in Randall’s Island a highly inconvenient place to get to for New Yorkers (who primarily don’t have cars). The meet draws solidly given these factors but it is in the correct spot given its location and venue limitations.

If I'm being precise and definitive this is where I start. If I keep going I'd say that Eugene has generally wonderful weather for track and a wonderful history of supporting track. But support for track there has always been connected heavily to support for University of Oregon track and US championship or trials meets. Schedule a meet that has neither and....

I think these factors combined with the heavy influence Nike has on USATF mean that Eugene is "mecca" for elite, outdoor, track in the US and I think there's a good chance that in the long term this is an obstacle to developing spectator interest in the sport.

We want track to become more like our major league sports in the US but almost everything we do with it at the highest levels happens in a minor league city. (The Eugene Emeralds are the Giants High-A affiliate.) If Eugene isn't big enough to support a major league team sport why do we think it is big enough to supprt a major league equivalent in track?

In my opinion, which could be worth exactly what you paid to see it, if we want bigger spectator crowds at high level meets they should be located in places where millions of people live close enough to the location that they can go to the meet and sleep at home, not in a hotel or campground, on the night before and after the meet.

True. So Fi, Levis, Intuit, Chase, Crypto, Dodger Stadium, Oracle, etc. are packed every Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the year, and many weekdays with concerts, shows, etc. The parking lots themselves are state of the art technological marvels. It's a massive task and accomplishment credited to professionals. Unlike Hayward Field Eugene which is run by unpaid retired high coaches and local high school student volunteers.

Because more people attended Xiamen DL and Suzhou DL than Eugene DL.

Here's a clue for y'all. You could drop the new Hayward Field in any city in the US, big, small, somewhere in between, and it wouldn't draw any more and probably fewer "fans" than Eugene because -- ready for this? -- TRACK AS A SPECTATOR SPORT IN THE USA IS DEAD.

Rojo, you often sound like a boomer glued to the TV with FOX News on 24/7. The social credit score thing was a narrative spun up to trick gullible people like you who love hearing Orientalist doomerism. I know 100% for certain that you'll delete my post because it'll offend you once you read it instead of actually engaging with the content. It was a pilot program that never got off the ground and was only tested in small cities, and straight up doesn't exist. The fact that you think it's real is embarassing.

Because flotrack SUXXXXXXX

... and Oregon has a population of 4.22 million.