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!
I love this idea, but I'm pretty sure they lease to a semi-pro soccer team and can't even host the high school state meet. I think they built over the throws venue, so that would need addressed too. IU Bloomington is awesome facility, but there warmup track is a cinders and parking isn't great.
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
yes, Brown Stadium can hold up to 20k. However, you wouldn't be able to see any field events (aside from HJ) inside the stadium. The other field events are somewhat squeezed around the periphery of the stadium on the parcel. There's also not much other room around the stadium for setting up team tents and such as it's in the middle of a big city residential area (I also would think limited parking as well).
Kezar, great place, easy to get to from airport, but not easy from hotels. Accomodations and transport lacking in the immediate area near Golden Gate Park. It is on the southeast corner of the park.
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
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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?
The Washington Commanders are leaving Maryland and headed back to neighboring DC, leaving behind Fed Ex field Stadium. They plan to redevelop that land for sports, recreation and of course some retail and residential.
It would be PERFECT for a new state of the art duplicate of Heyward Field and an indoor facility. Funny enough is there is already an indoor and outdoor track right next to it called the PG Sports and Learning Center, which hosts the Maryland High School track and field State Championships in both indoor and outdoor. So you could have a whole track and field village with EVERYTHING right there. I posted about this before.
The opportunities in Maryland are absolutely amazing.
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?
The Washington Commanders are leaving Maryland and headed back to neighboring DC, leaving behind Fed Ex field Stadium. They plan to redevelop that land for sports, recreation and of course some retail and residential.
It would be PERFECT for a new state of the art duplicate of Heyward Field and an indoor facility. Funny enough is there is already an indoor and outdoor track right next to it called the PG Sports and Learning Center, which hosts the Maryland High School track and field State Championships in both indoor and outdoor. So you could have a whole track and field village with EVERYTHING right there. I posted about this before.
The opportunities in Maryland are absolutely amazing.
Maryland is hurting for money. They've got some massive funding issues right now and are, I think, are facing a $3 billion budget deficit.
They are also looking at funding projects like $800 million for stadium upgrades to the Ravens (football) and Orioles (baseball) stadiums, along with funding for a new Key Bridge (although most of this will be federal funds), a replacement for the aging Annapolis Bay Bridge, plus redevelopment around the Inner Harbor area (mostly private money, I believe).
I wonder what the cost of building a say relatively bare bones 6,000 seat track facility would be. I have to think it couldn't be THAT much if you did bleachers and no roof with minimal concession. Essentially you build a high school stadium. Where it gets expensive, I have to image is adding seats and a roof, even a partial one. Honestly, if you're going to go down the route of a basic facility (bleachers, no roof, etc), just save the money since there is plenty of high schools and colleges you could hold it at...
This post was edited 3 minutes after it was posted.
I've seen a few people mention San Jose. Not gonna work.
SJSU doesn't have a physical track - they train at a nearby community college. Santa Clara University doesn't have anything resembling a track either. Stanford doesn't have anywhere near enough seating, and the facility as a whole isn't great. West Valley college doesn't have functioning lights, and don't even get me started on any of the high schools in the area. San Jose city college MIGHT be able to work, but even that's a stretch. It's decently run down and parking in the area sucks.
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.
Yep, been there. It would take a lot less work to upgrade a couple pieces of the facility than to build seating. Other equipment issues aren't really major, they can be solved easily. A jav runway is simple and you have plenty of landing area.
The U is a great competition facility, for you and a couple dozen of your closest friends and railroad mavens.
UGA outdoor track will be finished this fall. It would be a great spot to host nationals. It would make traveling a lot easier being close to Atlanta.
Are they renovating Spec Towns? I wasn't aware of that. Great facility but the problem is, if they do not add a lot of seating, it can't host any major meet. I think it only holds about 1,000.
When talking cost of attending do you mean cost to athletes/schools or people traveling to the meet to watch? At the end of the day a college town hosting a college event in the most historic stadium in the sport makes sense to me. Until someone wants to invest the way that city/venue (obviously with help $$$) has then I wouldn't want to see it moved. You can fly into Eugene/Portland/even Seattle so you can mitigate flight costs if you're willing to drive a little longer. Flying into Eugene is amazing. Small airport + short/ez drive into town. Eugene has trails around campus + plenty to do for parents making the trip. Get out in nature or drink your way around all the breweries/wineries. Drive out to the coast. Drive to the mountains. There's really a lot to do if you're willing to explore. This topic comes up often but I haven't seen evidence that putting T&F meets in big cities moves the needle. GST had poor attendance in big cities. USATF cancelled their LA meet. Eugene works. I don't get why we don't just embrace what we do have.
Between the facilities needed, the size the community needed and the weather/altitude preferred... there aren't a lot of options.
Austin is great on all fronts but the weather. Not really fair to the distance guys.
You could get decent weather at altitude but again. Not really fair to the distance guys.
Here in Oklahoma we handle the travel part of it but we don't have a track facility that could seat the number of people required.
I'm glad to see this thread. I was doing my own research on this last week. I disagree that there aren't a ton of options.
Any site that hosted regionals could do it.
Minnesota or Buffalo seem ideal weather wise. It's funny so many are saying Minnesota as I was on wikipedia last week just looking at random track. I think we only need like a 7,000 seat stadium and came across this random stadium at St. Johns in Minnesota:
FOOTBALL Dating back to 1908, when drainage of a cranberry marsh was completed in preparation for the new football field, Clemens Stadium has been home to many
That got me thinking. Bascially any track could host it if you are willing to pay to add a few seats. I called up the Princeton coach and told him he should host and just get an alum to pay for some seats. He didn't hate the idea. The first collegiate meet was held at Princeton in 1873 so it's a shame we didn't think of this earlier. We easily could have found a rich alum to pay for the seats to celebrate 150 years of Princeton track in 2023. There is a football stadium next door for warmups and an indoor facility as well.
Seems ideal. So Princeton is officially hosting one year. Eugene can host once every 4. We need some others.
What about Chicago or somewhere else in Illinois? Michigan? Thinking about weather.
But i also like Virginia/ Raleigh/Durham. Lots of options.
Jonathan Gault told me he thought the NCAA likes to have it on the West Coast (so they can hav ewon championship in east, one in middle and one in West). What about Seattle if we aren't doing LA?
Eugene local here. I'm originally from Florida but all my family is in Eugene. I remember when I was younger in the summers, we would come up to visit family. My grandfather was city manager of Springfield and was on the Trials Committee for a long time before he passed, and watching the Trials with him are some of the fondest memories I have of my childhood. It was mesmerizing and magical. I still remember Galen Rupp setting a Trials record in 2012 in the pouring rain and thinking "I wanna be like him someday". I grew up racing the All-Comers meets at Historic Hayward and running laps around my grandfather's farm out in the country.
I moved up to Eugene to purse my master's at Bushnell - the "other" Eugene school. I got a solid scholarship offer and Eugene has always been the place I feel most at home, so it was an obvious choice. Except for the Olympic Trials in 2024, I haven't attended any meets at Hayward, even though I live a half mile from the facility. The reason is simple; it is so dang expensive. I love track/running and in my opinion, there is no better way than waking up, going for a run, and then sitting at Hayward watching young men and women chase their lifelong dreams but I just can't afford to spend $100+ every weekend watching track meets. Although I prefer Old Hayward, I must admit that the new facility is quite remarkable and very athlete friendly. However, Eugene is not the same city it was 10 years ago. More and more people are moving into the city who couldn't care less about track. It also isn't easy to get to. Yes, the Eugene airport has grown in the past decade, but it definitely isn't a huge airport and flights aren't ideal.
At the end of the day, I love Eugene and feel really blessed to live in a town with so much running history, to do my daily runs following the footsteps of the Greats. But maybe change is necessary. I would be sad if it went elsewhere for a year or two - but maybe that is for the best? It certainly doesn't hurt to try it out for a year or two and see what happens? Regardless, Eugene is still one of the best places to train as an athlete and its history is unmatched. Unfortunately, historical significance can't always translate to modern success.
I think Hilmer Lodge Stadium at Mt. Sac College in the LA area should be in rotation for the NCAA Champs. The facility is top notch (renovated a few years ago), has a 9 lane track, and seats 20,000+. The venue has a storied track & field history and routinely hosts large scale meets (i.e. the annual Mt. Sac Relays and recent league championships for the PAC-12 and the Mountain West.
There are 4 airports to fly into - LAX, BUR, SNA and the nearby ONT (PSP and SAN are also viable alternatives) and lodging options that are wide ranging and numerous. The improved affordability will make it easier for families to support the athletes in person and entice T&F fans to make the trek.
Most of the country is at risk for either very hot and/or humid weather, or thunderstorms, or both. Hence why I suggest looking at SD State. Mount Sac could get warmer in June than you think, but still a better spot than Texas, Arkansas, the Mid Atlantic.
Although I'm in Texas, I would prefer nicer weather that time of year for records and spectating. Not sure the best options for 60-80 weather, not Texas or even Oklahoma/Arkansas.
As someone who has relatives near Madison, Wisconsin could probably do a good job hosting. Early summer weather there is typically pretty temperate, and when they’ve hosted NCAA XC Nationals, the turn-out on raceday has been great.
So far Mt. Sac seems to be the number one contender. Just under 11,000 in seating with the ability to expand to 20,000, 9 lanes and infield throwing, good weather, and relatively easy travel. They also have experience running large meets smoothly.
I double checked Minnesota, and as nice as the weather and city would be, seating is only 2,000 and I don't actually see any way to realistically expand that. The track backs up against an active railyard. So probably a no go.
Wisconsin probably has the capacity to add seating, but the facility looks a bit too underbuilt to host a national championship.
Princeton isn't a terrible idea, but I think capacity for expanded seating is limited. There's basically just one space on the back straight to put more bleachers. Probably no more than 500-1000 in additional seating there.
It really is a shame there's not a world class facility in Chicago. So much potential.
Here's a dark horse for you: IUPUI. Check out the stadium on Google Maps. 9 lane home straight, plenty of seating (up to 12,100), major city. Discus.
