I saw that while hotel rates are absolutely exorbitant in Eugene, if you're willing to go from 33 to 50 miles away you can stay for $75-90 per night at a hotel, and there were tickets available at the official site for $15-25 per day.
BINGO! This is the unadulterated truth. Our sport's fan base is mostly participatory tightwads. Which is ironic since these people don't give a second thought to driving two hours and paying $75 to jog a holiday themed 5K because the t-shirt looks cool.
If you were to draw a Venn diagram of the people who jog holiday 5ks and the people who buy tickets to track meets, there would be very little overlap. VERY little.
Truth. The latter group is mainly high school, College and Post-Collegiate runners, their friends and families.
Track and Field has almost no mainstream support outside that little bubble.
Surely there must be at least one other stadium somewhere in the United States that's located within an actual metropolitan area?
Why repeat the same mistake over and over again?
You serious think that they are going to permanently move a meet called the Prefontaine Classic away from Eugene? That's not going to happen.
They will call it something else.
Nobody really cares about that Prefontaine guy. At least whoever still does is too elderly to sustain interest in a big world class meet in his honor. Face it, the guy won absolutely nothing of note on the world stage.
This post was edited 14 minutes after it was posted.
Reason provided:
The big US meet should named after someone better - Jim Ryun, Carl Lewis, etc
I saw that while hotel rates are absolutely exorbitant in Eugene, if you're willing to go from 33 to 50 miles away you can stay for $75-90 per night at a hotel, and there were tickets available at the official site for $15-25 per day.
Was also looking at going but not worth it. Even the Motel 6 in Eugene is over $300/night this weekend lol
Really don't know how they expect people to go to these meets that aren't already local
NY meet was sold out but I don’t know if it would be were there bleachers on the other side of the track. But it’s on Randall’s Island which isn’t exactly the same as these European cities with the stadiums in the city. If you had an outdoor stadium actually in NYC hosting a DL meet I’m confident it would sell twice as many tickets as Millrose at least.
You mean Millrose, the meet that moved from MSG in Manhattan to wherever TF Randall’s Island is because fewer and fewer tickets were sold every year? That Millrose?
Huh? Dude, the Millrose Games are indoor T&F. Randall Island stadium holds outdoors T&F. Try again.
You mean Millrose, the meet that moved from MSG in Manhattan to wherever TF Randall’s Island is because fewer and fewer tickets were sold every year? That Millrose?
Huh? Dude, the Millrose Games are indoor T&F. Randall Island stadium holds outdoors T&F. Try again.
Milrose is at the Armory which holds 5K. Icahn stadium is on Randall’s Island and holds the same. MSG holds 20k so OP is not wrong.
I saw that while hotel rates are absolutely exorbitant in Eugene, if you're willing to go from 33 to 50 miles away you can stay for $75-90 per night at a hotel, and there were tickets available at the official site for $15-25 per day.
Was also looking at going but not worth it. Even the Motel 6 in Eugene is over $300/night this weekend lol
Really don't know how they expect people to go to these meets that aren't already local
The "product" at an NFL game or U2 concert is worth a lot more than watching three events I love (mile/3000/5000) over two days and embedded in hours of events I don't really care about (sprints, jumps, throws).
DL final is like U2, Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars and Harry Styles having a joint concert. If you like only one of them, 3/4 of the concert feels like a waste of time and money.
That's the fundamental problem with track & field as a spectator sport.
It just hit me how bummed I am that I will miss the Diamond League/Pre in Eugene. What hit me the hardest was thinking about that big river right there in town that goes from rapids to slow moving. We just strolled along while our kids did a long run down & back. Spencer Butte may even be more enjoyable certainly more challenging under a canopy of leaves. Don’t take my opinion Google it.
it's just inconvenient to get there. you're gonna pay a fortune to fly there. a fortune for the hotel, and then the car rental. being from the eastern half of the US, i probably could have done a WEEK LONG trip to Budapest for a lot less money.
it's just inconvenient to get there. you're gonna pay a fortune to fly there. a fortune for the hotel, and then the car rental. being from the eastern half of the US, i probably could have done a WEEK LONG trip to Budapest for a lot less money.
First of all, you could not have and had you actually planned on going to Budapest and priced it you would know that. Secondly, you had no intention of going to Budapest and no intention of going to Eugene anyway because you are a fake af track "fan" that just complains about sh!t but never does sh!t. The Superbowl is expensive too, hotel prices get jacked up and people still manage to go, no matter what city it's in. Pick your binky up off the floor and stop the gd whining.
This post was edited 2 minutes after it was posted.
You serious think that they are going to permanently move a meet called the Prefontaine Classic away from Eugene? That's not going to happen.
They will call it something else.
Nobody really cares about that Prefontaine guy. At least whoever still does is too elderly to sustain interest in a big world class meet in his honor. Face it, the guy won absolutely nothing of note on the world stage.
You can tell how attendance will be by the hotel cancellations and the plummeting ticket prices. Many of those that reserved hotel rooms are now cancelling them as the free cancelation window closes, so there are now a bunch of available rooms where just a week ago, there were very few. Also tickets are $15 for the same seats that people paid $50-$100 for in March.
Pretty sad.
Does it hurt squinting your eyes so much from within your glass bottle? If you consider the broader context (economic conditions, promotional strategies, and the impact of external factors), you'd be slower to categorically name this a flop.
It's a shame so many "track fans" on here seem to take joy in hoping the Prefontaine Classic is a bust. Yes Eugene is a pain in the ass to get to with overpriced, average hotels. The Pre meet is there every year. Go or don't. I think the bigger issue that is bleeding into this thread is that Nationals/OTs are held in Eugene nearly every year. It's far too often especially with the cost and difficulty of getting there. That's the real issue and USATF needs to move Nationals around. As for Eugene, they can't do much about flight costs, but they can try to address the ticket costs and work with the local hotels about the price gouging. If they continue to overcharge, eventually not enough people will show up for the hotels to make the money. Hopefully they don't screw themselves and everyone else going for the quick buck like they have been since the rebuilt Hayward Field opened up.
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