RIP TrackTown USA

Lived there from '99 to '18. Up until several years ago, it was "Track Town of Lane County" or perhaps even "Track Town of Oregon". But make no mistake about it, in recent years it has become Football Town of Oregon.

I wonder how many baseball and softball fans are complaining about Omaha and OK City.

Good question. Even if any other possible location had great facilities, it would be difficult to choose an ideal site--taking into account the weather and travel. Maybe Chicago if the summer weather was like coastal California.

Football became the rage since 1995, when the Ducks, perennial "Bottom Ten" nationally, played in the Rose Bowl.

Prior to that track and field played second fiddle to basketball and the Kamikaze Kids.

You guys nailed it. Letsrun.com should save/store your comments for all future conversations about Track Town USA.

Yeah, yeah, we know: The literal meaning is the only meaning.

The next time you feel the urge to channel your inner junior high English teacher, you might remember H L Mencken's take on them and ask "Is that the best I can do?"

"All the books on style in English are by writers quite unable to write. The subject, indeed, seems to exercise a special dreadful fascination over schoolma’ms, bucolic college professors, and other such pseudo-literates. In a thousand texts they set forth their depressing ideas about it, and millions of suffering high-school pupils have to study what they say. Their central aim, of course, is to reduce the whole thing to a series of simple rules--the overmastering passion of their melancholy order, at all times and everywhere."

The only problem with Eugene is they need to expand the airport. Hotels etc will take care of themselves.

It is truly a world class destination that offers far more than just T&F.

Awesome stadium, I was all for it, but im coming around to your way of thinking. Maybe at least move it around instead of tiny corner of the west coast. Its not like they have great needs seating wise? Drake, any football stadium with track that's up to date...

Anyone arguing to put this meet at Drake or Austin is not a serious person. It was VERY disappointing to see the meeting have so many empty seats. But, that's not a solution to improve attendance. Asking East Coast track fans to cross the country to EUGENE 2x a year to watch the 2 biggest (3 if you count Pre) in the country is also not the answer.

Just saying that SBCC isn't too small for the attendance we just saw in Eugene this past weekend. The issue there is no warmup track/facility unless the meet would allow the indoor facility to count.

What on earth would make Eugene a world class destination?

Hockeytown is such as Detroit was one of the original teams, huge youth hockey programs, and proximity to Canada via Windsor.

The meet was in Austin last year and everything went smoothly. Attendance was great. So why is it unserious to think NCAAs should be held in Austin (among other non-Eugene cities) more going forward?

wrong, Texas AM has and gets turned down.. Granted their stands do not support the needs but they do apply for it. Texas is a much better location. You can have distance events at night.

Agreed, Eugene is cool for a couple days, but gets boring/old pretty quick after that. Springfield does have all the Simpsons murals though.

A major river tumbles right through town - rafting…

Hiking, biking & trail running w/ snow capped volcanoes

Wine tasting is highly rated

Drive an hour to a spectacular beach Florence

Brandon Dunes for those who know golf

want more Google it

I'm reminded of that quote from "The Accountant".

"Sarcasm! Is that sarcasm?"

I mean, I really liked living in Eugene, but really . . .?

I addressed the oversaturation of meets in Eugene in this week's WTW, writing in part,

On Friday, as the men's 1500 final was about to start, my college roommate texted me excitedly to tell me he had signed up for ESPN just to watch the race. Then he added, "Stands looked empty."

I don't want to hear that the College World Series is always in Omaha. They don't also hold the All-Star Game (Pre Classic) and World Series (Olympic Trials) there every year as well.
People only have so much free time and disposable cash.

That being said. here are the official attendance numbers which are kind of a joke.

Day 1 – 8,668
Day 2 – 9,458
Day 3 – 9,997
Day 4 – 9,802
Total – 37,925

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WTW: The Biggest Winners and Losers From 2024 NCAA Outdoors - The NCAAs That Were

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There's no doubt that Chris Johnson, McKenzie Long, Parker Wolfe, Shane Coehn, Joe Waskom, and Parker Valby enjoyed their trips to Eugene. Plus some love for Eric Holt in the pro ranks. *MB: The biggest winners and losers fro...

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