I think University of Minnesota is a very underrated choice.
In a really neat major city with easy travel, nice facility, and very pleasant weather in early June (if its not raining). Only major issue is the lack of seating.
But if I could pick any place off a wishlist to build a brand new world-class stadium to host NCAAs and a whole bunch of other high-level track meets throughout the summer, it would be Chicago.
3. Plenty of lodging and things to do in the harbor or down to DC or up to Philly
Minnegan Field at Johnny Unitas® Stadium is home to Towson’s football, men’s lacrosse and track and field programs.
The sports complex, which underwent a $32 million renovation over a three-year span, seats 11,198 spectators. It ranks as the third-largest outdoor team sport venue in the metropolitan area, behind M&T Bank Stadium where the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens play and Oriole Park at Camden Yards, home of the Baltimore Orioles.
Stadium renovations, which were completed in 2002, included an addition of 6,000 seats, artificial turf, an entry-level plaza, concession stands, new restrooms, ticket booths, a four-tier press box, a field house and a promenade that conveniently connects the northside and southside seating areas. “In addition, a new FieldTurf Revolution playing surface was added during the summer of 2020.”
Unitas Stadium was the host site for the 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2014 NCAA Division I Women’s Lacrosse Championships, drawing record crowds each year. In the 2014 NCAA Championship game, a crowd of 10,311 fans saw Maryland beat Syracuse, setting a record for the largest crowd to watch a women’s lacrosse national championship game in the United States.
Towson hosted the 2021 NCAA Women's Lacrosse Championship Weekend and the 2022 Women's Lacrosse World Cup. In 2024, Towson was a quarterfinal site for the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Tournament.
Logistically speaking, this might be better than Eugene. But from a marketing standpoint, it sucks.
No one has heard of Towson University. No one knows where Towson is. I think it's a bad look to move a major championship somewhere like that. It sounds rinky dink. If we want eyes on the sport and attendance at big meets we need it somewhere that people have heard of. At least people know the University of Oregon, even if they haven't heard of Eugene itself.
3. Plenty of lodging and things to do in the harbor or down to DC or up to Philly
Minnegan Field at Johnny Unitas® Stadium is home to Towson’s football, men’s lacrosse and track and field programs.
The sports complex, which underwent a $32 million renovation over a three-year span, seats 11,198 spectators. It ranks as the third-largest outdoor team sport venue in the metropolitan area, behind M&T Bank Stadium where the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens play and Oriole Park at Camden Yards, home of the Baltimore Orioles.
Stadium renovations, which were completed in 2002, included an addition of 6,000 seats, artificial turf, an entry-level plaza, concession stands, new restrooms, ticket booths, a four-tier press box, a field house and a promenade that conveniently connects the northside and southside seating areas. “In addition, a new FieldTurf Revolution playing surface was added during the summer of 2020.”
Unitas Stadium was the host site for the 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2014 NCAA Division I Women’s Lacrosse Championships, drawing record crowds each year. In the 2014 NCAA Championship game, a crowd of 10,311 fans saw Maryland beat Syracuse, setting a record for the largest crowd to watch a women’s lacrosse national championship game in the United States.
Towson hosted the 2021 NCAA Women's Lacrosse Championship Weekend and the 2022 Women's Lacrosse World Cup. In 2024, Towson was a quarterfinal site for the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Tournament.
Logistically speaking, this might be better than Eugene. But from a marketing standpoint, it sucks.
No one has heard of Towson University. No one knows where Towson is. I think it's a bad look to move a major championship somewhere like that. It sounds rinky dink. If we want eyes on the sport and attendance at big meets we need it somewhere that people have heard of. At least people know the University of Oregon, even if they haven't heard of Eugene itself.
Outside of major college football and track fans, no one knows about Eugene. If asked where is that, they'll probably guess U of O is in Portland.
Eugene travel sucks, and it can be hot in Eugene, but the issue is more likely hot weather everywhere else. Recent hosts since 1999 other than Eugene include Austin, Des Moines (Drake), Fayetteville, Sacramento, Baton Rouge, Durham and Boise. Des Moines is probably the best bet for mild weather in June, other than Eugene. Baton Rouge must have been sweltering.
This is actually a fun mind game I play with the other assistant coaches at the school that I am at: Where would it be cool to host NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Nationals at?
We looked at a few different variables (we are probably missing some):
-Ease of travel: Major airport hubs vs out in BFE -Hotel accommodations: You need enough hotels for athletes, coaches, officials first then fans. -Facilities: Throws in or out of stadium/near by, seating, 8 lane vs 9 lane.
Short Answer: There aren't many places that can host. But we did get a good list based off of the criteria above.
Major travel hubs from east to west: Boston, New York, Atlanta, Miami, Charlotte, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Detroit, Chicago, New Orleans (more so because it's a destination spot), Minneapolis, Houston, Dallas, Denver, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco/San Jose, Portland, San Diego, and Anchorage (fun fact: busiest airport in the USA because of cargo!) Hotel Accommodations: All of those cities have hotel accommodations, and any P4 school within reasonable distance usually has hotel accommodations because football/basketball. Facilities: Here's where the list actually begins. We couldn't really find many facilities that are WA certified facilities (class 1 or 2) because there aren't that many in the world. If we want that to be of importance is up for debate but I would assume yes. Here's a list of all the WA certified facilities, both class 1 and class 2, in the USA:
CLASS 1: Hayward Field, Eugene OR John McDonnell Field, Fayetteville AR
CLASS 2: Hodges Stadium, Jacksonville FL MIDDLETOWN HIGH SCHOOL / FALLER FIELD, Middletown NY ANSIN SPORTS COMPLEX TRACK, Miramar FL
There are other facilities that could probably meet the certifications but like with most things WA, it's probably a ton of money to do so. Here are other great facilities that are not certified but are pretty dope and have a decent (I use this term loosely) amount of seating NEAR travel hubs:
Icahn Stadium, New York City NY Franklin Field, Philadelphia, PA Irwin Belk Track - UNC-Charlotte, Charlotte NC Tad Gormley Stadium, New Orleans LA - hosted 1992 Olympic trials but run down Bernie Moore Stadium, Baton Rouge LA (nearish to New Orleans) EB Cushing Stadium, College Station (nearish to Houston Airport- IAD) Drake Stadium, Los Angeles CA Loker Stadium, Los Angeles CA Wilmer Lodge Stadium, Walnut CA
Now here's a list of other track stadiums but can be/are a pain in the ass to get to: Irwin Belk Track - NCAT, Greensboro NC - has seating Irwin Belk Track - NCST, Raleigh NC Mathewson Memorial Stadium - Bucknell, Lewisburg PA - has seating UB Stadium - Buffalo NY - Has seating Pressley Stadium, Gainesville FL Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium, Columbus OH - has seating? La Porte Stadium, Knoxville TN University of Kentucky Outdoor Track, Lexington KY Drake Stadium, Des Moines IA - has seating Prefontaine Stadium, Oxford, MS Rock Chalk Park, Lawrence KS - has seating? Cessna Stadium, Wichita KS - has seating Mike A Myers Stadium, Austin TX - has seating Clyde Hart Track and Field Stadium, Waco TX Durham Track at Kidd Field, El Paso TX - would have seating if the stadium wasnt condemned Drachman Stadium, Tuscon AZ Ed Jacoby Track, Boise ID Hornet Stadium, Sacramento CA - has seating Kezar Stadium, San Francisco CA Edwards Track Stadium, Berkley CA - has seating
I am definitely missing a stadium but that's a decent start for choosing your site!
A lot of good ideas in the thread. I didn't know about Towson and looks like it has potential. A lot of other suggestions are great track facilities for athletes, but spectator seating is not great. We can argue what is needed and what's not but reality is that the most recent championships in Eugene had decent attendance. If we don't have seats, we definitely have attendance - doesn't matter if it's coaches/athletes or fans/family.
There is a lot to like about Oregon's track facility. But the cost of attending the meet is ridiculous and getting there is equally ridiculous. The other thread is talking about the expense of hosting meets in Eugene. Let's talk solutions.
The next three years will be held at Oregon, but after that, who knows.
What are some other venues that would be best for both athlete and fan?
I'm from Texas, so of course I think A&M and UT-Austin (who has hosted) would be great venues. I liked when it was at Sacramento.
Is Arkansas/Fayetteville too remote, similar to Eugene?
How about Oklahoma? Norman is super close to Oklahoma City.
What about somewhere in the Midwest, like a BIG10 school?
Nashville, Charlotte, Indianapolis, Louisville, Kansas City, Lincoln???
Sacramento is actually a great facility with tons of hotels nearby. Reliable weather.
Sacramento won’t happen. Hornet Stadium will be remodeled into a football only stadium, since they’re supposedly moving up to FBS. Whether they can put enough seats on the new track they plan to build where the current warmup track is located is at best a question mark.
Someone on here suggested Drachman Stadium in Tucson? No way. There are high school tracks with better seating than that. You’d need to blow up the track and the footprint of the facility, and the athletic department is still reeling. Money better spent elsewhere.
Oregon has the best of everything to host a big meet for NCAA's other than located on the Northwest corner of the US....I have been to New Orleans, U. of Buffalo back in the old days of the old format and Austin NCAA's...before and after the new tack stadium...I have no desire to ever go back the to Austin or NO....
After doing some more research, here are some other stadiums with decent seating capacity (at least 10k spectators). Posting here for debate:
Memorial Stadium, Bakersfield CA Plaster Stadium, Springfield MO Wien Stadium, New York City NY Tucker Stadium, Cookeville TN Hanson Field, Macomb IL University of Charleston Stadium, Charleston WV Weingart Stadium, Los Angeles CA Carroll Track and Soccer Stadium, Indianapolis IN Mitchell Athletic Complex, Uniondale NY Fortera Stadium, Clarksville TN Alfond Sports Stadium, Orono ME Hughes Stadium, Baltimore MD William Greene Stadium, Washington DC Memorial Field, Hanover NH Bowers Stadium, Huntsville TX Homer Bryce Stadium, Nacogdoches TX Greenway Avenue Stadium, Cumberland MD Brown Stadium, Providence RI (20k seating capacity???) Mayagüez Athletics Stadium, Mayagüez PR
After doing some more research, here are some other stadiums with decent seating capacity (at least 10k spectators). Posting here for debate:
Memorial Stadium, Bakersfield CA Plaster Stadium, Springfield MO Wien Stadium, New York City NY Tucker Stadium, Cookeville TN Hanson Field, Macomb IL University of Charleston Stadium, Charleston WV Weingart Stadium, Los Angeles CA Carroll Track and Soccer Stadium, Indianapolis IN Mitchell Athletic Complex, Uniondale NY Fortera Stadium, Clarksville TN Alfond Sports Stadium, Orono ME Hughes Stadium, Baltimore MD William Greene Stadium, Washington DC Memorial Field, Hanover NH Bowers Stadium, Huntsville TX Homer Bryce Stadium, Nacogdoches TX Greenway Avenue Stadium, Cumberland MD Brown Stadium, Providence RI (20k seating capacity???) Mayagüez Athletics Stadium, Mayagüez PR
No one in LA has ever heard of Weingart Stadium, I had to Google it.
You left Mt SAC off the list, which is the obvious choice.
After doing some more research, here are some other stadiums with decent seating capacity (at least 10k spectators). Posting here for debate:
Memorial Stadium, Bakersfield CA Plaster Stadium, Springfield MO Wien Stadium, New York City NY Tucker Stadium, Cookeville TN Hanson Field, Macomb IL University of Charleston Stadium, Charleston WV Weingart Stadium, Los Angeles CA Carroll Track and Soccer Stadium, Indianapolis IN Mitchell Athletic Complex, Uniondale NY Fortera Stadium, Clarksville TN Alfond Sports Stadium, Orono ME Hughes Stadium, Baltimore MD William Greene Stadium, Washington DC Memorial Field, Hanover NH Bowers Stadium, Huntsville TX Homer Bryce Stadium, Nacogdoches TX Greenway Avenue Stadium, Cumberland MD Brown Stadium, Providence RI (20k seating capacity???) Mayagüez Athletics Stadium, Mayagüez PR
No one in LA has ever heard of Weingart Stadium, I had to Google it.
You left Mt SAC off the list, which is the obvious choice.
Mt SAC is one of the worst choices. They will never do a deal with this jack as$es there again. Even Sound Running won’t touch that place ever again.
Have you been to the facility? They have one ring to throw out of, have a grass runway that is limited to throws under 65m, can't get steeple barriers to go up and down and barely have enough working hurdles. Hamline would be a better choice, but the correct answer if University of Minnesota. That would be hilarious considering the school won't sponsor men's Indoor.
After doing some more research, here are some other stadiums with decent seating capacity (at least 10k spectators). Posting here for debate:
Memorial Stadium, Bakersfield CA Plaster Stadium, Springfield MO Wien Stadium, New York City NY Tucker Stadium, Cookeville TN Hanson Field, Macomb IL University of Charleston Stadium, Charleston WV Weingart Stadium, Los Angeles CA Carroll Track and Soccer Stadium, Indianapolis IN Mitchell Athletic Complex, Uniondale NY Fortera Stadium, Clarksville TN Alfond Sports Stadium, Orono ME Hughes Stadium, Baltimore MD William Greene Stadium, Washington DC Memorial Field, Hanover NH Bowers Stadium, Huntsville TX Homer Bryce Stadium, Nacogdoches TX Greenway Avenue Stadium, Cumberland MD Brown Stadium, Providence RI (20k seating capacity???) Mayagüez Athletics Stadium, Mayagüez PR
No one in LA has ever heard of Weingart Stadium, I had to Google it.
You left Mt SAC off the list, which is the obvious choice.
Oregon has the best of everything to host a big meet for NCAA's other than located on the Northwest corner of the US....I have been to New Orleans, U. of Buffalo back in the old days of the old format and Austin NCAA's...before and after the new tack stadium...I have no desire to ever go back the to Austin or NO....
Oregon is great for home meets. They'd have to solve the lack of housing/hotels for fans for a national level meet. They can not, hence Oregon is not ideal for a big meet like this, but when lots of students and local fans want to attend, its great.
I guess I understand the Eugene-fatigue, but I live in New England and made the trip for Worlds '22 and was blown away. The town had a fun vibe, everyone was there for track (something that would be lost in a major city), Hayward was absolutely spectacular, and while expensive it wasn't more than you'd expect to pay for the crown-jewel event of a pro sport. It was also a bucket-list item for me.
I just don't think you're going to find a LARGE appetite for spectating the NCAA meet in person year after year, no matter the venue. The presentation is fine on TV, and at the end of the day it's still just the minor leagues. If the meet is in my backyard, sure, but how many commenters on this thread are really going to attend every year if its in MPLS or Austin?
Within 30 minutes of an airport with at 100+ non-stop departures/day (for comp, Pittsburgh is 135)
Ideally, it'd be within a heavily traveled population corridor (such as the Boston-DC Acela line) for ease of travel for fans, but not necessary
Similarly, and heavily correlated with the above, within a metropolitan population center of 2mm+ (for comp, Nashville is 2.071mm, and #50 in North America)
Facility must be 8 lanes (9 preferred), reversible for wind, with a warm-up area (200m track preferred) and indoor training facilities within walking distance
Facility must have ability for multiple jumps and throws to be contested concurrently without disruption to schedule, ideally inside of the main spectator facility
Facility must have seating for 5000+ fans, as well as designated areas for team camps
10-year moving average for weather needs to be between 70 and 90 as the high temperature and 50 and 70 as the low, with a less than 50% chance of disruptive rain historically
--
The more I type this out, the more I feel like the solution here is to find some land near DC and build the National Track Center. Yeah, I get it, Eugene is track town and Nike won't like it. But right now what, we have multiple high-performance training centers in Florida and California and god knows where else, why not concentrate it a little bit?
Wherever it goes, I pray it doesn’t end up in Des Moines. Nothing like dodging torrential rains and tornados during a meet. Plus, Des Moines is such a tiny, boring place
Within 30 minutes of an airport with at 100+ non-stop departures/day (for comp, Pittsburgh is 135)
Ideally, it'd be within a heavily traveled population corridor (such as the Boston-DC Acela line) for ease of travel for fans, but not necessary
Similarly, and heavily correlated with the above, within a metropolitan population center of 2mm+ (for comp, Nashville is 2.071mm, and #50 in North America)
Facility must be 8 lanes (9 preferred), reversible for wind, with a warm-up area (200m track preferred) and indoor training facilities within walking distance
Facility must have ability for multiple jumps and throws to be contested concurrently without disruption to schedule, ideally inside of the main spectator facility
Facility must have seating for 5000+ fans, as well as designated areas for team camps
10-year moving average for weather needs to be between 70 and 90 as the high temperature and 50 and 70 as the low, with a less than 50% chance of disruptive rain historically
--
The more I type this out, the more I feel like the solution here is to find some land near DC and build the National Track Center. Yeah, I get it, Eugene is track town and Nike won't like it. But right now what, we have multiple high-performance training centers in Florida and California and god knows where else, why not concentrate it a little bit?
I think these are a good set of criteria. NCAA track should have a packed stadium, if not a sell out.
After doing some more research, here are some other stadiums with decent seating capacity (at least 10k spectators). Posting here for debate:
Memorial Stadium, Bakersfield CA Plaster Stadium, Springfield MO Wien Stadium, New York City NY Tucker Stadium, Cookeville TN Hanson Field, Macomb IL University of Charleston Stadium, Charleston WV Weingart Stadium, Los Angeles CA Carroll Track and Soccer Stadium, Indianapolis IN Mitchell Athletic Complex, Uniondale NY Fortera Stadium, Clarksville TN Alfond Sports Stadium, Orono ME Hughes Stadium, Baltimore MD William Greene Stadium, Washington DC Memorial Field, Hanover NH Bowers Stadium, Huntsville TX Homer Bryce Stadium, Nacogdoches TX Greenway Avenue Stadium, Cumberland MD Brown Stadium, Providence RI (20k seating capacity???) Mayagüez Athletics Stadium, Mayagüez PR
If Indianapolis ever got their act together, Carroll Track/Soccer Stadium would be a great place to go. Track needs resurfacing, and the seating needs improvement. If I remember from the 2006/07 US nationals, there's an indoor facility that can be used for warmups. Clerking, staging, and warmup areas could be improved, but need a bigger footprint.
And, you wouldn't need to travel NCAA staff to Indy...hell, they can walk to the track from their offices!
2. Require some type of construction that would not make it economically feasible. See my post on Page 3. You'd have to build the track up and account for the curves, which the stadium might not be able to handle due to structural issues/design. Or you remove seats and no one is doing that for a "one off" meet". A 400m track with 9 lanes takes up A LOT of room.