Sacramento: We're a better track town than Eugene - we just don't have the Nike money

LosersRant.com wrote:

field color commentator seriously asked the sacramento attendees why they were leaving and not staying for the distance events (including two finals)!!

Seriously?!?

Not surprised with light attendance today, but it wasn't likely nobody was there. Decent enough for workday full of slow prelims in a non-world championship/olympic year.

Agree though that announcer pleading for fans to stay was total bush league and embarrassing. In general, I think the announcers are talking WAY too much and need to pipe down.

Yes, that was awkward.

Don't think I'll concede this one based on fans votes on a web site (this is a popularity contest for who markets best not necessarily about quality), but to be very clear neither Lagunitas nor Sierra Nevada are based in Sac (Chico and Petaluma ain't Sac). The micros in Eugene include Ninkasi, Oakshire, Agrarian, Claim 52, Falling Sky, Hop Valley, Plank Town, Rogue, Sam Bond's and Steelhead. Remember we're talking about Eugene with metro population of 351,000 vs. Sac with 2million plus.

If you think popularity is the key, check out domestic beer sales - love that Bud -

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/04/the-state-of-american-beer/360583/

. Or craft,

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/31/top-craft-breweries_n_5062484.html

. With Sam Adams at the top pretty much proves that bigger isn't necessarily better - bigger distribution often equates to lower standards but better mktg (notice Sierra and Lagunitas are in the top for sales).

Bigger doesn't necessarily equal better. I grew up during my teen/early twenties in Bay Area and am plenty familiar with Chico, Sac, SFO (I'll take Oakland) and South Bay and still love to visit. Come on up to Eugene and experience these micros right from the casks/on tap. We may still disagree, but you might not so easily dismiss.

Epic fail. For the first 2 days (Thursday & Friday), the attendance in Sacto is the lowest since . . . way back in 2005 in Carson, CA (Home Depot Center).

Perhaps it's unfair to compare it to the real TrackTown, which drew 43% more fans in the first 2 days of the meet in 2011, because that wasn't an "off year."

But I think it's fair to compare it to 2010 in Des Moines (Track Central), which drew 12% more than this cowtown.

John Mansoor and the local sports commission can bloviate all they want, but the "larger fan base numbers" they claim are not translating into many butts in the seats.

You are welcome.

Fans of distance races are also fans of sprint races. Fans of sprint races won't spend a second watching anything longer than a 400m race.

Hayduke wrote:

Fans of distance races are also fans of sprint races. Fans of sprint races won't spend a second watching anything longer than a 400m race.

Given the OP is claiming Sac is better track (note, didn't say better sprint fan) town than Eugene and even assuming for the sake of argument what you say is true, what is your point ? That Sac only has sprint fans and therefore isn't a suitable host for USA T&F championships.

Sac has better sprint fans, but Eugene has better distance fans.

Hayduke wrote:

Fans of distance races are also fans of sprint races. Fans of sprint races won't spend a second watching anything longer than a 400m race.

this

Damien Sandow wrote:

Epic fail. For the first 2 days (Thursday & Friday), the attendance in Sacto is the lowest since . . . way back in 2005 in Carson, CA (Home Depot Center).

The attendance was awful last year in Des Moines. They said there 8000 people last night. Officially Des Moines might have had more but I think the accuracy of the attendance numbers is fair to question.

Even in Eugene for NCAAS, I asked one of the local writers "are there really 10,000 people here" and he laughed and said if you count every athlete, worker, security guard, volunteer, etc.

LosersRant.com wrote:

Fans/Attendance: Regardless of weather, time of day/night, etc. fans in Eugene stay for ALL T&F EVENTS.

Not true. At NCAAs fans were pouring out before the start of the women's 10k this year. Way more fans may pour out in Sacramento, but let's just be accurate.

Does anyone konw how many season ticket holders there are for Oregon track? I think it's like 4000. They are mostly Oregon fans first and foremost, very old, but with that foundation Eugene is going to outdraw almost everyone.

Track meets as presented are usually boring. Eugene even tried to spice up the presentation of NCAAs this year.

I call complete BS.

I was at NCAAs and while some people left before women's 10k, "pouring out" is a bit of an overstatement. There were still A LOT of people in the stands and didn't require an announcer to chasten the fans to stay for the the rest of the races like in Sac.

Also, let's not compare apples to oranges. USA National Championships (pro) are different than NCAAs. A more apt comparison would be the Friday night races before the MAIN Pre DL meet. 7,500 people in the stands for a 10k that started at 9:17pm

Let's face the facts, The attendance hasn't been great at Sac (which is a MUCH bigger metro area by far compared to Des Moines or Eugene), the fans have left two hints in a row even though there were more events to take place and today's attendance from what can be see on NBC doesn't look good.

Typo above, in last sentence should be "two nights in a row"

It's pathetic that most of the time spent here is:

1. Rojo pretends he is interviewing runners when he is really just looking for attention.

2. Rojo thinks Wejo was juicing so there is tension between the brothers and Rojo will spend the rest of his life prosecuting PED offenders since he never got the attention of his brother and didn't understand how he as a twin was not equally fast.

3. It seems like Wejo is embarrassed to even show up on this website.

As someone that's competed at both venues, I prefer Hayward Field. As athletes, we just get the royal treatment at Hayward. Sac State, not so much. Hayward is like playing baseball at a stadium and Sac State is like playing at the local high school park.

Just finished attending my 4th day at Sac State venue.

I have been to many meets at Hayward field, including the Olympic trials years past, as well as the last two. I also attended the last two here in 2000 & 2004.

A few thoughts from me, a long-time fan and coach of track and field(high school, in Oregon):

This time around seems to be less of a proper effort to make this a great experience for the fans.

The new turf field has forced meet directors to move all throwing events off the main field, w/ the exception of the discus.

Running races the opposite direction to get some wind-aided marks that look good in the moment, but don't really serve any useful purpose once the race is done. Fans who pay for seats near the finish line want to see the end of the sprint races, not the starts.

Watching on the video screen here is no comparison to Hayward Field.

Cheesy interviews with the funny guy don't improve the meet quality for a lot of us who come to watch the meet.

Playing music during the men's and women's 5K races last night was a distraction/annoyance.

Not having a program and updated heat sheets and results available each day is a big annoyance, since checking this info on a smartphone in blazing sun is not something I want to do.

Lack of an area to sit and eat or drink when you come down to the "amazing" Sacramento food carts is another minus.

Being unable to see all lanes from a majority of the seats and then everyone standing up when races finish is another minus.

When is Sac State going to invest in permanent public restrooms for their football stadium?

Sactown Native said: Agree with Jason Williams 55 here - Sacramento's airport easily wins in this category. You can fly direct from Sacramento to almost any major U.S. city. I know people from the East Bay who drive to Sacramento rather than deal with Oakland or SFO because it's easier.

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If it makes sense for Bay Area people to fly into Sacto, then it makes sense for track fans to fly into Portland. The drive from Portland PDX to Eugene is probably quicker than the drive from Sacto airport to the Bay Area. That pointed out, all the arguments about Eugene's airport being too small just don't make sense. If you don't like the smaller Eugene airport, just fly into PDX and either bring the train, a bus, or rental car down to Eugene.

Oklahoma Oakie wrote:

Sactown Native said: Agree with Jason Williams 55 here - Sacramento's airport easily wins in this category. You can fly direct from Sacramento to almost any major U.S. city. I know people from the East Bay who drive to Sacramento rather than deal with Oakland or SFO because it's easier.

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If it makes sense for Bay Area people to fly into Sacto, then it makes sense for track fans to fly into Portland. The drive from Portland PDX to Eugene is probably quicker than the drive from Sacto airport to the Bay Area.

False.

From certain parts of the Bay Area, the drive to Sacto Airport is about 1 hour. PDX->Eugene is longer than that.

In any case, you're comparing apples to oranges. Basically all we are saying is that Sac Airport (close to the track) is far superior than Eugene Airport (close to the track). Sure there is PDX, but that is two hours away. But if we are going to start comparing airport options outside of town, then Sac also wins with OAK, SFO, RNO, SJC all being driving distance. Basically Sac wins for flights and logistics no matter which way you look at it.

This is a total mischaracterization or beeradvocate.com. There is quality info and good metrics there.

I don't care what the population is. We aren't talking about "best beer per capita". I'll give Eugene credit...some great breweries as you mention. But don't s*** on Sac or NorCal breweries, many of which are also world-class.

Nice red herring. Where did I say Bud was a good beer? Stop putting words in my mouth. Sierra and Lagunitas are good breweries, by the way. Just because they are semi-popular, doesn't mean they suck.

Not dismissing Eugene beer options, just saying that Sac has equally good beer options and has really stepped it up the past 5 years. In Sac in Feb I can walk into a random bar and get Pliny the Younger on tap. Nothing to scoff at.

wejo wrote:

Track meets as presented are usually boring. Eugene even tried to spice up the presentation of NCAAs this year.

This is the real problem. Track meets generally speaking Hayward of Hornet are just flat out boring. Too much downtime, terrible announcers, crap/expensive food...just not worth attending.

Where are the promotions like dollar beer night, in-stadium gambling, live music between heats, etc? It's like the organizers want the sport to die!

Hold on, you seem to be changing your arguments as you go. The comparison is between Eugene and Sacramento. Your prior post on airports clearly argues that. Now on microbrews you want to compare Non-Sacramento brews with Eugene micros. You need to argue with quality microbreweries that were founded in Sacramento.