Empty stands..

Quite simple - a great athlete with the perfect tech at his disposal and drags others along for the ride. That was a superb race.

Getting to Eugene from out of town for a meet like this is a pain and staying in Eugene is expensive. The convection oven back stretch stands are uninhabitable if it’s warm. Love it once I’m there but it’s just not worth it for many. Not sure locals go.

The crowd was a lot better than I expected. Swangard during the Friday presser emphasized that Sunday was expected to be a near sellout by Hayward Field standards. Once I heard that I knew it meant ominous things for Saturday.

NBC went out of its way to use camera angles that flattered the crowd.

Makes you wonder how long this will continue. Nike stock has underperformed the market as of late. If they decide to cut costs, track could be a casualty.

I am not paying $300 plus for a Motel 6 bed and can't find you in your assigned seat.
Please make sure that you be seated in your assigned seat today all day.

Thank you.

USATF Isn't letting them do anything.

USATF was bought.

Nike promised USATF something like $500 milliion over 20 years and the beauty of the deal is a couple million of that every year goes directly into the CEO Max Siegel's back pocket every year. When that happens in Africa, it's called a bribe. In America, we call it being a brilliant CEO and a 'performance bonus.'

It's incredible disappointing. So it's true right hardly any seats were for sale. They made a big deal telling Jon how the meet was going to be a sell out but then the one turn which is always on tv is basically empty.

I think a lot of the seats must be given to Nike employees who don't use them. If I was Nike, I'd keep a record of who used the seats and who didn't. Pink slip for those who said they wanted tickets but didn't show.

Geee... lets see. You schedule a track meet the same weekend as a home football game, and wonder why the attendance is low?

For the record, I looked up the IP of the poster to see if they were legit. They appear to be legit as they are posting Portland which is a big part of the attendance problem. There literally isn't anywhere to stay in Eugene so they have to do a 4 hours commute (2 hours each way) to get to the meet.

Rojo. You don't understand the history of the Prefontaine meet. When the possibility of the Pre being part of the Diamond League was beig bantered about, Nike seeded the crowd artificially by sending 20-30 busloads of Nike employees to Eugene to inflate the numbers. It's not just the Nikeflation, the locals are getting freebies as well. It's how they do business.

Rojo, you need to stop doing this. It's a matter of trust.

I do think it's a Eugene problem. If there was a 12,000 seat track in Baltimore - there isn't - i think it woldn't be a problem to fill it up for 1 huge meet like this. Of course, maybe that was said about the NYC DL event as well, but Baltimore is like the #2 or #3 city in terms of population within 100 miles of it. There are like 17 million people living within 100 miles of Baltimore in 2011. For Eugene, it's 2 million.

If you extend it out to 200 miles, there are 40 million people within 200 miles of Baltimore. For Eugene, it's 4.9 million.

statsamerica.org

Big Radius Tool: StatsAmerica

@IUibrc

The Big Radius Tool provides data for a mileage-based radius from 25 miles to 500 miles.

Open link

They're little by little adopting the European model presciribed by Sub Coe. The longtime ALL volunteer Pre Classic media are now under "PreClassic Broadcasting Serivces" non-profit the same as OBS, WBS, DLS in Europe. The blue smocks are silk screened with the new logo.

I agree with you and the other shoe companies can put up the money and advertise and do the same.

Nike does and still these losers hate it.

I don't get it.

When nike sponsors a meet, it’s in the contract that no other shoe companies are allowed in the vicinity. It’s common in all sports where you can only have one type of company at an event.

I was there and have some observations:

Obviously Eugene is a horrible location to have these meets in but I think the reaction to todays crowd is overblown.

The seats on the second curve are the worst in the stadium because the sun is directly in your eyes in the afternoon. Those were the sections Track Town USA was giving away to youth and their parents for free. I requested tickets through that program and they had more requests than seats. The seats were empty because not because people didn’t use their tickets but they preferred standing in the shade than sitting in blinding sun. The concourse and the shaded areas to stand (which is much of the stadium) was absolutely packed even while events were happening.

I know many people (myself included) who stay in Salem instead of Eugene. Did it for Worlds and doing it this weekend. It’s a bit of a pain to drive nearly an hour each way but I’m paying less than half the cost of a Eugene Motel 6 for a quality hire in Salem. Shouldn’t have to do it, but it is what it is.

The stadium didn’t feel empty at all yesterday. During the Bowerman Mile everyone was on their feet and the crowd was deafening. One of the best crowd moments at a live sporting event I’d ever been to.

This doesn’t take away from the fact that Eugene is a horrible place to get to and to find accommodations for. But the stadium was far from empty yesterday.

Budapest didn't have this fan-in-the-shade problem in the heat of the day. Of any of the days. Just admit that Eugene's less than packed and sub-optimally attended.

Didn’t say it was optimally intended. Simply said decrying it as anything close to empty is way off the mark.