Where are the fans?! Hayward looks empty

hjm wrote:

I'm surprised their aren't more people there. Almost 100% capacity is allowed and it looks half empty at best.

Did the Covid delay cause everyone to stay home? Planning a vacation on 3 weeks notice isn't feasible. Is that the takeaway?

I take it back. I think it's 25% at best. Is Track Town dead?

Usatf sucks!! When you charge ridiculous amounts for tickets then this is what you get. And please don’t come back with a comment telling me this is olympic trials so it should cost a lot. Apparently not when no one is there. I say again USATF sucks a big burrito!

It's just opening rounds besides the men's 10k. They should charge more accessible prices especially since they didn't give people that much time to plan and I assumed hotel/airbnb availability would be tight.

Hopefully things will liven up over the weekend. Im wondering how many scalper tickets available for walkups. Supposed to get lretty hkt by Monday as well. Womens gymnastics trials was sparse too. Dont know abkut swimming or wrestling.

They release unsold tickets day-of, I think, but Tracktown fans probably didn’t descend on Eugene like normal years. Many stayed away. It’s too bad to not fill up that beautiful stadium, but it has been very hard to host meets this year with covid, with new and continually changing rules.

sublime wrote:

They release unsold tickets day-of, I think, but Tracktown fans probably didn’t descend on Eugene like normal years. Many stayed away. It’s too bad to not fill up that beautiful stadium, but it has been very hard to host meets this year with covid, with new and continually changing rules.

The sport is probably just on the downfall. MLB is having no problem filling seats post COVID. full houses in most stadiums across the country.

I am watching half-heartedly, with the tv muted to make it bearable.

Sprintgeezer wrote:

It’s not just that USATF sucks (true), it’s that track is dying.

It’s hard, and nobody gives a crap because they can’t relate.

I think track is dead for a very long time. It's just that you track running enthusiast haven't noticed. I am a long time runner but I never have been to a real track event after being adult.

Wait, once I went to a age group "World Championship" but only because one lady of our running group was running there.

Sprintgeezer wrote:

I am watching half-heartedly, with the tv muted to make it bearable.

Sanya & Ato > Carol & Larry?

Equally bad.

How full would it normally be for a track thing?

What is the capacity?

Do they have a sport field (football or soccer) in there?

I can't imagine that many people ever go to watch track and field events.

Is this any less than what would normally be expected?

Elam King Bigly Beer Drinker wrote:

How full would it normally be for a track thing?

What is the capacity?

Do they have a sport field (football or soccer) in there?

I can't imagine that many people ever go to watch track and field events.

Is this any less than what would normally be expected?

It was packed opening day 2016 with a parade of past Olympic champions following a cool montage of past trials held at Hayward Field. Whats happening today is embarrasing for the sport and not worth the ticket price.

They need to cut down the number of days for the meet but that wouldnt help the coffers that look to be pretty empty at the moment.

Did I mention Governor Kate Brown SUCKS!

From what I have seen, and I am probably wrong here, they released a huge block of tickets to the general just last week.

So you have late notification of ticket availability,, ridiculous ticket prices (I think 40% higher this year versus 2016 trails), expensive hotel rooms ($250 plus when I looked the other day...,no dorms this time around).

Recipe for disaster, tbh.

Hard now to remember how bad Carol was, but SRR is awful. Boldon’s ok bit he is given crud to read and talk about.

I checked out nosebleed seats for the Tampa Bay lightning playoffs, and they were ~$250 per seat. Packed house every game. Might be a bit cheaper scalping at the arena.

How much are the trials tickets? I would like to go to a big track meet, especially the trials. However, it is a bit painful to watch races of 10 secs or 4 minutes with at least 5 minutes downtime between each heat. I can only watch on DVR.

Field events are not exciting to me as I can’t relate, although I’m pretty sure I couldn’t throw the shot out more than 20ft , so the WR was pretty cool.

I don’t know how they make it more interesting for the general public. They need to speed it up somehow.

They're charging a truckload of money for fans to attend these events, and even if Stubhubbers snap up the tickets to spike nominal attendance, no one's buying at the inflated place on resale markets.

COVID still isn't out of the woods yet and people aren't going to travel to a place like Eugene unless they need to.

Also, Eugene is not exactly an airport hub, so flying there is not particularly convenient or cheap.

Also, though it's summer, people still have jobs and things. They're probably not going to take time off to watch the Olympic Trials live, especially given all the above.

In the end, sports like Athletics and Swimming are all about human performance and the display of the human body. It may be politically incorrect to observe, but people watch to watch the human body in motion and to compare how differences in body type align to the different events. I presume that those who identify as female may have a greater interest in a male 1500m freestyle swimmer as compared to a male 1500m runner. Two completely different body types, but those swimmers are ripped. However, those who identify as male may find the female 1500m runner more traditionally attractive than the female 1500m freestyle swimmer. Speak truth and admit that the primary purpose of life is to procreate in order to perpetuate life, whether you are a dolphin, rabbit, or human. To accomplish this task, one seeks the most compatible and fittest member of the opposite gender with which to mate. In the end, once you get past the laudable efforts of dedicate training, perseverance, and mental toughness, Athletics at a base level is a carnival of the human body. So, celebrate it as such.

Huh? 50 lbs and 40 years ago I was very fit and in close proximity to track females on a daily basis. Im still pretty fit for my age and probably in the top 10% of Americans in my agegroup. I look much healthier now with muscle mass but my physical behavior is quite different and im sure more women find me physically appealing than they did 40 years ago.

I still believe track athletes are beautifully fit physically and its like watching ballet. They are formed specific to the activity/behavior they unaturally spend their time doing compared to most humans. However, at that time and still today I personally LOVE women who look like women (in a mating way) and not like men or skinny, breastless twigs. I cant speak for the dudes who slobber over other dudes or dudes that want to look pretty and pretend to be women. Elle Purrier is about as good as it gets for distance runners from what i saw yesterday. The rest look like somebody needs to feed them a sandwich (or burrito) but that's just the nature of the game.

Good conversation. What's not to like about a farm girl?

Covid has to still be a factor, Liberal track fans on the West coast are probably still months away from sitting in a stadium just to be a fan. Oregon, Washington, and California have been really slow to open up and I’d imagine over the top precautions are still in everyone’s heads despite vaccinations.