The sport of running is slowly dying :(((

Why is it so important to you that the professional and spectator side of the sport grow? What benefit will it bring to your life other than having something else to watch on tv? Because there's already PLENTY on tv already.

Now if Eugene truly is Tracktown USA there should be no reason to not be packed. Regardless of whether there are too many events. Travel shouldn’t be an issue because you put the meets in Eugene because the locals are such die-hards. I guess Tracktown no longer applies?

That's the subject of this thread. You are actively derailing it.

Because I like watching track. My friends like watching track. I don't watch much TV, personally, but I love to tune in to track. I like to show up at meets on occasion, and it's a lot of fun when the crowd is roaring.

Should I never go to a bar? There's PLENTY to drink at home.

Okay, good luck with that! Maybe one day you'll achieve your goal of having something new to watch on tv.

Your life would be better off if you didn't go to bars OR drink at home. But you've informed me that a health crisis is off topic, so I won't go there.

There are hundreds of thousands in Europe that would disagree w/you. Not sure running has ever been truly alive in the US though in comparison to our mainstream sports.

Speaking of bars, they’re a great place to watch a big game. It’s too noisy to hear the commentary and the interaction between opposing fans enhances the experience. During a NFC championship game, we cleverly chanted “Cowboys Suck!” and one of the Cowboys tables came back with “49ers Swallow”. Although humbled, we got the last laugh when the Niners won the game.

Back to real, on topic conversation. If people started chanting "Bowerman sucks" during a meet, I bet we'd get a mile long IG post from some of their athletes and coaches talking about sportsmanship and how that hurt their feelings.

Doping has definitely had an impact. It's harder for me to get really invested in pro athletes, because at a certain level, I think doping is almost inevitable if one wants to train at the level necessary to compete internationally.

And I dislike the extent to which Nike has come to dominate the culture of running.

What this means is, yes, I have less interest in running at the professional level.

That said, I see much to be optimistic about running at the ground level. I see so many people running for health, for pleasure, for socializing, and that gives me much to be pleased about. And high school and college athletics is such fun to watch, particularly women's sport.

So I think for me, it's that the emphasis of the sport has shifted.

Red Sox fans constantly chant “Yankees Suck” and nobody’s feelings are hurt. Yankees fans used to chant “1918” but were shut up permanently after 2004.

Chanting “Bowerman sucks” would be bizarro world.

I always wondered why so much money went into Eugene to make it "Tracktown USA." It is a tiny market in a very small state (OR population is just over 4 mil). But the Adidas Grand Prix in NYC never took off and lost the Diamond League to Morocco. So, it may be that Eugene is the pick because costs are low and so many US runners (read Nike athletes) are local.

I was in Fayetteville, Arkansas in early May to watch the USATF Multi Event championships.

Now the first day had a respectable crowd of over 2 to 3 thousand people mainly because the Arkansas twilight meet was being run there. But at the 2nd day when they were going to crown the men's and women's champion and select the team that was going to represent the USA at the World Championships there were scarcely 100 people in attendance probably all with a personnel connection to one of the athlete's.

What I am slowly starting to realize is that the USA Track and Field association doesn't care if any fans attend their events.

The idea of staging almost all of the domestic championships in Eugene was because there was a built in audience for track there and usually the venue would always be full or at least close to capacity. But the pandemic has taken away that fanbase and the new Heyward field isn't nearly as accommodating to fans as the old field was.

Also traveling this summer by airplane and rental car to stay at a hotel to watch a track meet is ridiculous. To get to worlds my plane ticket for only me is a $1000 dollars, the rental car $2000, and the hotel $4000, that's $7000 dollars to see a track meet in my own country!

One last thing why spend 270 million dollars on a stadium and put a less then state of the art track there. Not having a super mondo surface but using an all weather surface instead doesn't seem appropriate for this venue!

You will see a better showing of fans. Europeans love track and field. Another reason why several American track athletes go to Europe to compete. It pays them enough $$ to continue training.

This is relatively accurate. Even in CBus the running groups at the major shoe stores trend liberal.

I think T&F had a big boost in the longer races after the bombing. People wanted to actually try to run Boston not just as a bucket list but as a genuine goal and to feel like they were helping others. Meb was shouting USA! USA! afterwards and that did help. However, that was almost a decade ago at this point...

Because they are the fastest people in the history of our country. They deserve more recognition than most of the knuckleheads who bonk into each other to play silly ball games.

why? be factual and logical, not just because you like track more than games that involve a ball

Running died when the olympics took it over in 1896. It was a popular pro sport before that, with gambling and beer

They should really serve beer, every pro meet I've been to, I've bought one ticket for myself. If they served beer, I could easily talk a few friends into going with me.

The real question is are drunk rednecks as pedantic as letsrunners