New Balance and NSAF parting ways? Anybody have the inside scoop?

USATF cancelled the Junior Olympics National Championships slated for late July in Jacksonville, FL because University of North Florida closed the campus. The facility is simply not available and the legal wrangling has commenced.

If NB moves the outdoors to Orlando, good on them! I have nothing against Greensboro but, in my experience with USATF JOs two years ago, it is equally hot and humid. The travel costs were pretty high and inconvenient (fly to Charlotte, rent car, drive 90 minutes, limited hotels, nothing for families to do on off days or to keep non-running siblings entertained, etc.). Orlando solves most of those issues. I wish that USATF would pick a permanent site or a short list of rotating sites with easy inexpensive air access, loads of hotels and Air BnB rentals across the pricing spectrum, and amenities for family travel. It's a hard sell to get working folks to pony up big money to get their kids to Hoover, AL or Sacramento, CA or Tallahassee, FL when a venue in Orlando, Los Angeles, NYC, D.C., or Chicago would provide a family vacation opportunity with theme parks, museums, and the like.

You could, in June, get a much more tolerable morning to run a distance race in Greensboro but it definitely is often hot. Orlando is guaranteed to be Orlando weather and I'd say the trade off is worth it overall for the reasons you state. It'll be tough on the 5k etc but overall Orlando is superior in this case.

If they want nice weather for all, there are many locations around the country that could accommodate.

With USATF that is clearly not a priority. I think they look for the biggest oven for JO meets...Sac, Jax, Houston, etc. I know in July its a little tougher but even then cooler places can be found.

And the problem at these broiler-fests is not just the distance events, its that nobody wants to spectate or be at the track for 1 minute longer than they have to.

Indoor nationals will rotate between NYC and Boston. They want to use their Boston facility, but NYC is a draw and more central to a larger population for indoor.

Outdoor I agree Greensboro has to go. Orlando makes a lot of sense (younger siblings can go to Disney, family make a vacation out of it, big airport). But why wouldn't some college say we will host it for free, we just want 5000 potential kids coming thru our campus? Free marketing. Would NYC at Icahn ever want to host? Lots of critiques about location, but can handle that type of meet. Philly at Franklin Field?

The Outdoor HS Meet conflicting with the USATF U-20 meet formerly called Junior Nationals has often been a Problem!

Good what comes around goes around !!

I’ve been to many JOs. The problem with any JO meet is the ridiculous size of the meet. Because you start running 3ks in the morning and the big kids don’t end up running till 1pm when it is hotter than hell. Same goes for the 1500 and 800. Distance events for anyone younger than 11 should be cut. There should be no 7-8 year old age group.

Anyone that has been to nighttime 4x8 or distance medleys at NC A&T during the NBN or NikeNats can’t tell me that there has been a nicer weather over the years. Maybe Arcadia, but that’s it.

I can’t imagine any distance runner wanting to run at anytime in Orlando in June or July.

They do not run races in the evening as much any more.

Portland Hobby Jogger wrote:

Just like Nike and NXN. NB will own high school track nats both indoors and outdoors (probably hosting indoors at their own facility starting in 2022). I'm guessing that NSAF wanted too much money and wouldn't move the championships from North Carolina A&T (a pain to travel to) to another venue.

Pain to travel? Greensboro is home to an international airport. Don't like those prices? Raleigh Durham International is just a little over an hour away. Way better than flying into Eugene for trials. This wasn't about NC A&T. Stay safe and keep your mask on moran.

Alabama BSS wrote:

I’ve been to many JOs. The problem with any JO meet is the ridiculous size of the meet. Because you start running 3ks in the morning and the big kids don’t end up running till 1pm when it is hotter than hell. Same goes for the 1500 and 800. Distance events for anyone younger than 11 should be cut. There should be no 7-8 year old age group.

Anyone that has been to nighttime 4x8 or distance medleys at NC A&T during the NBN or NikeNats can’t tell me that there has been a nicer weather over the years. Maybe Arcadia, but that’s it.

I can’t imagine any distance runner wanting to run at anytime in Orlando in June or July.

I was at Greenboro NC for NBN two years in a row years ago. It was really uncomfortably warm for distance athletes one year but really bad the other year. One year they had multiple delays throughout the day due to thunderstorms. One of the distance events was pushed back to around midnight or later due to all the delays and it was still very hot and humid for the runners. I felt sorry for the runners as you could see them struggle with the heat. I see from one website that both the average low and high for Greenboro is 4 degrees higher in July than in June. Average high of 89. If the meet were to actually go ahead this year in July the temperature may be brutal once again especially for distance athletes.

Average high low on June 21:

Greensboro 85/67

Orlando 89/74

Boston 78/62

Seems like if we ever want to see fast distances races again at nationals Orlando isn’t an option. If NB wants to move everything to their backyard it certainly seems warm enough to make short event people happy and cool enough to make distance folks happy. If not Boston, how about Randall’s Island?

A track meet in July in the South? Idiots.

NASF owns nothing other than a website.

high school xc coach wrote:

new balance can do something that is more inclusive than the NSAF. I have a feeling they will eventually win out. There are many states that are not part of NSAF for indoor track. SO they could get in, USATF stuff would be eligible, etc. Perhaps there was an issue with outdoor nationals this summer where NB wanted to be able to include time trials verified by video or USATF events they would put on in lieu of the cancelled high school schedule.

Will be interesting to see where this goes. Maybe an age group model, where some younger college kids might even be included...an 18 and under kind of thing.

No one is part of NSAF, it's not an organization that States belong to or don't belong to. It's a made up thing, that puts on 2 meets, which is great on them. But don't think of it as this actual governing body similar to USATF.

haha. ya. i said a lot of wrong things in my post. I was mixing NSAF up with NFHS. I know in my state, if we go to an indoor meet that is non NFHS, it will not count for section and state seedings, records, etc.

Im not sure if I've ever even heard of NSAF before this past week.

here's hoping that without NSAF, NFHS can recognize the legitimacy of Nationals and sanction it. maybe NSAF has been a pain in the ass in trying to do that and it may be one of NB's goals.

alexrunsmiles wrote:

here's hoping that without NSAF, NFHS can recognize the legitimacy of Nationals and sanction it. maybe NSAF has been a pain in the ass in trying to do that and it may be one of NB's goals.

This will not happen. The NFHS along with almost all state associations are fairly strongly against HS national type competition.