Eugene, OR: So this is the best stadium in the US?

the USA not pee hole towns wrote:

As I recall the Stockholm Super GP meet is on a tuesday night and was never a GL meet.

A Tuesday night? Seems your recollection is broken.

The DN Galan meet has been on a Friday in the middle of August for years, and was a Diamond League meet before there was a Diamond League (Golden League).

But it is still safe to count it as a French meet.

Why would the US have a 50,000 person capacity stadium for track and field (assuming an Olympic bid hasn't been secured)?

european T&F fan wrote:

I was watching the meet yesterday and I must admit, I was shocked. Look at the full big stadiums in Rome, Paris, Zurich, Brussels, etc. Comparing to them, this was like some village meeting. I always say that Oslo with its track doesnt belong to the elite group of Golden/Diamond league meets but this was even worse. (the quality of the field was high, thats true but thats a different story)

There is so much wrong with this comment, I could[/d] understand it if you were American, but no, you are actually European. Lets start:

Bislett:

- Bislett has hosted the Bislett Games since 1965, an annual track and field event in the IAAF Golden League (from 2010: the IAAF Diamond League)

- In 1999, the magazine Sports Illustrated ranked Bislett stadium as the fifth best sports venue of the 20th century.

- "Today, we can proudly say that Bislett Stadium is worthy of being called “the World Record Track”. No less than 65 world records have been set at the stadium. Adding the 4 junior world records brings the total to 69.

Here are some:

14.11.15 Dibaba - 14:16.63 Defar - 26:31.32 Haile - 13:00.40 Aouita - 800 m 1:42.33 Coe - 8:46.6 Grete Waitz

- Together with Zurich, Brussels and Berlin the Bislett Alliance is responsible for the creating of Golden League, now Diamond League.

- The famous Stawberry party, adding to the atmosphere of the Games, both for the athletes and the press.

Regarding the facts, how much the athletes have enjoyed Bislett Games, the amount of world records, the intimate feeling of the track and more your statement show a complete lack of knowledge.

The tracks that have been terrible is NYC and Doha. Doha especially is a disgrace, barely any audience, and a boring stadium. Its a time trial meet, the worst of them all. NYC is also a bad meet. Eugene has its place in the history and is great for all the American athletes. Rome did for example not have a full stadium, and that simply doesn't look or feel particularly good when you compete. The stadium is also quite boring, you see none of the surroundings which basically means the meet could have been anywhere.

As an athlete Weltklasse Zürich is probably the best meet with Bislett as a close second. Zurich is simply amazing to both perform in (I have) and be a spectator to.

Here is a picture and a video from Zurich to give you an idea:

Woops, seems I forgot to make an end to the bold lettering....

DN Galan was never a GL meet. It was an Super GP. The stadium is too small.

Swedish Meatballs wrote:

DN Galan was never a GL meet. It was an Super GP. The stadium is too small.

Too small, but with a full stadium of 14,000 it is doing much better than "Track Town USA" as a Diamond League host.

Its like you are comparing Carnegie Hall to Madison Square Garden for concerts. Your criticism is essentially that Hayward Field could never host a major league soccer match or a major Olympics or World Championships. But for track and field in this day and age Hayward field is every bit as good as the European stadium counterparts. I saw all the Diamond League events last year and the Pre meet at Hayward honestly struck me as more vibrant because of its size. At the big stadiums in Europe there is a lot of hollow echo noise and lots of empty seats. And I believe Hayward field does an excellent job catering to the needs of all the athletes. The quality of the track is great and its my understanding there are great facilities around the stadium for competing athletes to use.

If and when T&F becomes much more popular than perhaps Hayward field will become inadequate. But until then its a great place for major T&F events.

Bislett and Hayward are my two favorite venues in the world.

I agree, for history, and for atmosphere, for the sport of track and field, Bislett and Hayward Field top the charts. Zurich is a good meet, also, but many of the other Diamond League meets have lack of emotion and too many empty seats. Americans were ranting and raving about having a second meet in New York. We all know how that has turned out. Could California support a Diamond League meet? Unlikely as politics and lack of interest and money are stoppers. California venues have organizers who don't have fiscal resources but want fat salaries. They have been unable to show that they can balance a budget, and don't have enough paying fans to do so.

european T&F fan wrote:

I seem not to understand how come USA cannot organize two big meets while much smaller countries in Europe can. France has two in Paris and Monaco, even such a tiny country as Switzerland hosts two big DL meets with big attendance. And compare the Swiss and US TF teams, one would say track should be much more popular in America than in Switzerland.

You need to understand that Track and Field is a minor sport in the USA.

A very minor sport.

Yes, in the 1960's we could get 90,000 people to attend USA v. USSR.

Since then our professional sports, NFL, NBA, MLB have rocketed in popularity, and we created / co-created many extreme sports. Skateboarding, and surfing, and snow boarding attract a lot of youth away from traditional high school sports. (You can be counter culture in those sports, smoke pot etc.)

And it is true that attendance at these meetings has declined in certain DL venues when we can clearly see lots of empty seats.

Track/Athletics is a weird sport...for the masses.

international wrote:

Swedish Meatballs wrote:

DN Galan was never a GL meet. It was an Super GP. The stadium is too small.

Too small, but with a full stadium of 14,000 it is doing much better than "Track Town USA" as a Diamond League host.

Your comparing Apples and Oranges. Stockholm is the capital of a country.

Eugene is, essentially, in the middle of nowhere. Think of having the DN Games in Lund or something.

You can't really compare them, ergo saying "much better" than Track Town USA..etc. makes no sense.

There is a context.

NOW, my understanding is that the DL pursued Eugene to add them as the DL wanted to expand and ergo you have meets in China, Doha, and the USA.

The Prefontaine Classic may or may not continue to be a part of the DL. It was a solid meet in its own right before DL and it will remain a staple.

Different culture, different times. Even if there was the perfect brand new track and field venue in the USA seating 50k people... It wouldn't fill up for a DL meet.

Americans don't care. The culture has shifted. Times are different.

To those of us that love the sport, it is sad. But, what are you going to do.

Most Americans don't know how to watch the different races or events.

Too small, but with a full stadium of 14,000 it is doing much better than "Track Town USA" as a Diamond League host.

True.

Stockholm is like a mid-west U.S.A. town, i.e. empty, no traffic during the day, and unexciting.

Because of the warm weather the southern Swedish city of Goteborg is packed, crowded, and very exciting.

DL is the GL on the cheap.

The IAAF looked for places that were willing to pay millions up front for a TV meet and Nike took the bait and is losing millions on the PreClassic DL.

Estimates for a four story parking structure for the Knight Center are over the cost of the Knight Center itself.

If Eugene voters this fall require parking to be built for the Knight Center my guess is Nike will pull out of the PreClassic and IAAF Diamond League altogether.

There's no advantage at all for Americans to have a Diamond League meet.

The DL has simply been vanity for Phil Knight.

The old PreClassic was better with more events.

The DL is watered down and boring as hell now.

The only appropriate venues for the USOT or a Diamond League meet on the west coast are the Home Depot Center and the Coliseum.

The construction for Home Depot was never completed. It still has no permanent toilets, no water fountains/sinks, no tarmac, and the press box was mistakenly placed on the wrong side of the field. The IAAF wanted Home Depot to pay for the entire IAAF mafia for the World Cup 2006 and no sponsor could be found to pay for 3,000 IAAF national delegates, spouses, and cohorts. The different cultures virtually guarantees that no IAAF world champs will ever be held again in the US. Boston had WXC once but that will likely never happen again unless a sponsor can be found to pay for the IAAF Mafia. The IAAF DL is a minor low outlay 2 hour TV meet and does not require free fees, drinks, food, hotels, etc. for an one week IAAF convention that WXC, WIC, and WC require.

So, you watched every DL meet in Europe except for Bislett? No empty seats, no hollow echo, amazing spectators.

focus wrote:

good point. europe has few tracks, no h.s., college, jr hi, jr college, etc t&f. the us has t&f everwhere you look. my city here has is typical with a marathon each year and several 5ks and 10ks. the us is about running and training and not like europe where they sit it the stands drink beer and eat schnitzel at track meets. in the us we don't do that unless our heat is over and we don't have any more heats to run. the last thing we want is to be like eugene.

What? You should take a trip to Europe, you clearly don't know much....

focus wrote:

good point. europe has few tracks, no h.s., college, jr hi, jr college, etc t&f. the us has t&f everwhere you look. my city here has is typical with a marathon each year and several 5ks and 10ks. the us is about running and training and not like europe where they sit it the stands drink beer and eat schnitzel at track meets. in the us we don't do that unless our heat is over and we don't have any more heats to run. the last thing we want is to be like eugene.

===============

??? The poster obviously is blowing wind out his/her A$$hole. One finds tracks all over Europe, though they are owned by municipalities and Clubs. And for the post that Eugene is like Europe, with no participation, poppycock. Eugene has one or two road runs nearly every weekend year-round. The town showcases Hayward Field, but there is also the 400 meter warm up track at the University and Lane community College has a beautiful new 8 lane facility. Then there are the 8 lane tracks at the High Schools scattered around the area (South Eugene, North Eugene, Sheldon, Willamett, Churchill, Thurston, Springfield and Marist for starters). The area is littered with tracks that are open to the public and complement the soft surface trails such as Pre's Trail, the Rexius-Adidas Trail, the Ridgeline Trail and the Dorris Park trails.

good point. europe has few tracks, no h.s., college, jr hi, jr college, etc t&f. the us has t&f everwhere you look. my city here has is typical with a marathon each year and several 5ks and 10ks. the us is about running and training and not like europe where they sit it the stands drink beer and eat schnitzel at track meets. in the us we don't do that unless our heat is over and we don't have any more heats to run. the last thing we want is to be like eugene.

Americans don't appreciate how huge T&F is in their own country. Millions of people run marathons, ultras, and track. Like yoga, Americans don't spectate in running and T&F, but participate. This is a key point that Max Siegel and Renee Washington have embraced. NASCAR and NFL are 100% fat bods (dead by 40 year of age) supported. T&F and Marathons are 100% athlete, coach, and parent supported. They must merge the highly successful marathon and relays model with the USA Champs and USOC Olympic Trials. Something which has not been done before by USATF. Penn Relays, Boston Marathon, Mt Sac Relays, etc. have 1,000,000 people show up to complete, run, and watch. The key is to give fans the chance to run and compete. T&F and Marathons are participation sports in America. You are correct in you observation that the old ways are dead. We can never again go back to New Orleans, Sacramento, or Eugene and repeat those failed models.

lol! lol! lol! osu cancelled t&f. adidas pulled out of mt hood cc. nxn is moving to houston. all you have left over in the state of oregon are fatties in the stands.