Just turned on the tv, I thought the Trials were almost sold out. Why are the stands nearly totally empty?

yeah, none of that going on in Chicago, New York, Philly...and the murder rate isn't as high and there is an actual facility to host the meet...lower the ticket prices and give tickets away to local high school kids and their coaches

West side of Hayward

https://imgur.com/a/jVoI9tL

Bro - haven’t you been getting pummeled for the past week with email ticket offers like I have?

We had six people eliminated in the men's 400, six eliminated in the women's 400, nine eliminated in the women's 800, and eleven eliminated in the women's 100. Basically pointless heats.

I understand trying to mirror the format of the Olympics, but there just isn't much drama in the heats.

The difference between Citius and us is no one at Citius would ever post what I just posted. They are a PR outfit for athletes, shoe conpanies, Grand Slam Track, etc. I don't want to be that.

That being said, "Wejo would probably tell me. What do you get form putting that post under you rname? Post it under a fake name."

I just saw the 2nd Brojo. Eating...

Because they’re actually on site covering the event?

Lmao, no.

It's Nike Beaverton that owns Citius. The NYT has apparently asked the DoJ to stop USATF from granting press credentials to Nike Beaverton advertising agencies.

I think there are a few reasons why we aren’t seeing full stands in Eugene as we did years ago.

One is event fatigue: this is the fourth straight Olympic Trials here and the tenth USA Championships in 16 years. That’s on top of ten NCAA Championships in 14 years, a world championships, a number of PAC-12 championships, the usual Oregon home meets and the state high school championships. It’s a lot to keep going back to the same place if you have limited vacation time and money.

Another is cost. Eugene isn’t easy to get to with limited hotels and high prices when a big event is in town. And as much as inflation has raised prices, wages haven’t kept pace so you’re asking track fans to pay more now than you were a decade ago.

There’s also the Hayward factor. A lot of the hardcore base and old timers loved the old Hayward field and aren’t as excited about the modern edition.

And that point leads me to the old timers themselves. We have an aging fanbase and how many have gotten too old to travel or have sadly died in the last decade, especially with the toll that the pandemic took on the elderly? I have a few older track fans who were Trials regulars but have since died.

Nike issues Advertisers/Marketers press credentials. The ACLU and Oregon Newspapers may sue in Federal Court to stop the practice.

in the past 10 years Social Media overrides government and corporate liars. mike rielly, capriotti, knight, and china don't control the message any longer.

This is my first time at the trials and it did seem a little sparse. Eugene is definitely a little out of the way to get to (I’m coming from Seattle), but it’s a beautiful area, and my god, this stadium is gorgeous. The venue is something special (and I say that as someone who ran a few times at Hayward and was sad to see them remodel).

It’s a fantastic event. If their goal was attendance, I would say they overpriced tickets a bit. I tried to resell some of mine, and they wouldn’t even go at half price.

Side note, my friend has renamed the media tower at Hayward the Eye of Bowerman. I thought that was an apt description.

UO is suing the architects for the botched design of the walkways, urinals, and food preparation areas. UO may have to build an underground tunnel between Hayward Field and the food prep building two blocks away or Eugene Code Enforcement will shut down the food prep due to health code and food safety violations.

USA swimming is holding their trials here in Indianapolis. They are getting record turnout. 22,000 people showed on a Wednesday to watch.

I went through the airport two days ago and it's covered in USA swimming stuff. Posters, banners, all sorts of things. Floor decals that look like water with lane lines (hard to describe but very cool in person).

The city iron workers build a mini-Eiffel tower in town. The trials are being held in Lucas Oil stadium, where they built a massive temporary 50m pool in an NFL stadium -- a first.

There is a ton of energy around town about this.

Maybe Eugene is just tired of it. Maybe USATF should try to do something innovative instead of putting on the same show every four years.

This is a decent summary of what USA swimming has done:

npr.org

U.S. Olympic swim trials make history with a new world record and epic crowds

The U.S. Olympic swimming trials are underway in Indianapolis. More than 1,000 athletes are competing. Fewer than 60 will make it to next month's Summer Olympics in Paris.

Open link

Venue photo:

Open image

"This thing that has happened ten times before... is happening again?? How can this be?" - rojo

I can only speak for myself, but I do think location plays a big part in the low turnout. I'm in my early 20s and only lived in the east coast/midwest. Travel and accommodations for a trials trip is prohibitively expensive for me at this point. Sure, maybe in 5-10 years when I'm more established in my career I can afford to drop a couple thousand to go to Oregon for a few days, but that isn't happening now.

I second the people who said to hold it in a more major city, and I'd go further and say hold it somewhere like NYC or Philadelphia. Put the meet somewhere where more Americans actually live and hype it up like the swimming trials this year, and you'd see far more people. At least I'd go.

Very impressive swimming turnout. Let’s face it track was never a popular spectator sport and never will be regardless of where the major meets are located