Reuters runs piece today saying lack of "local interest" at 2022 Eugene Worlds was "baffling." Really?

We just don't care about track&field.

Unless you are doing it yourself or having done it in the past there is not much relationship there to T&F. I watch the occasional clip somewhere but would I spend mega $$ to see an event in podunk Eugene? No, of course not.

I personally was shocked at the lack of advertising and recognition in Portland. The airport which was receiving athletes from around the world should have had large colorful banners/advertisements and welcome signs throughout. There should have been freeway billboards everywhere etc etc. The fanfare was so lack luster.

I've traveled through Salt Lake for example during the Olympics and the airport was awash with promos and logos and ads.

Portland is my home and a great city but no one outside the running community seemed to even know the event was taking place in Eugene. missed opportunity.

I will also say they should do the same for NXN when it occurs every year. Get the city excited.

You are right about pricing, cars and hotels too.

I had a friend need a rental car up in Portland due to an accident in their personal car and couldnt even find one here.

My wife and I traveled 1500 miles for Worlds in Eugene. Brilliant event. Our motel was a four-minute walk from Hayward Field and we paid $150/night. Front row seats surrounded by coaches, high-5's with gold medalists, friends around the country noticed us on NBC. 'Got in 6 miles cheering for Sara Hall during the women's marathon, and ran the heck out of Pre's Trail. Not everyone was so lucky, but Oregon 22 was far from a bust for spectators.

Rojo makes great points but your take was mine exactly.

Good comments, rojo.

Well Rojo I would be very hungary for a trip to Budapest. On the bright side, at least in Eugene you didn’t have to go crowdsourcing as a hitchhiker to Stillwater, Oklahoma.

No major athletic event should be in Eugene. They should be in major cities. Budapest is a world city. London is a world city. Nothing in Oregon is close.

The showpiece track stadium for the country should have been built in a major city with capacity for 100,000. No reason a track event like Prefontain doesn't have the same demand as the Super Bowl. More actually since it is a real world wide event, not one country's fake World Championship.

Make that three of us.

There are not many stadiums in US that can host a big event. I know people here love to complaints about Eugene, but please channel the energy to the cities which have no interests to build such a stadium and host a large scale track event.

*complain

1) find someone to pony up the $$$ to build a track facility with 100,000 seats.
2) Build it.
3) Round up all 10,000 track fans in the US and fill that facility to 10% capacity for major national and international events.

I can only speak to the "Local" part, by which I assume the author meant the Pacific Northwest. Why out-of-towners didn't go was well explained by Rojo. What he wrote was correct.

But Rojo's 5th point was spot on for why locals didn't go. Those of us who love track had the Oregon HS State meet at Hayward, then NCAAs, then PRE, then USAs, then Worlds. That was broken up by the Portland Track Classic which also had world-class racing for a few bucks right in most people's backyard (right in Portland).

Essentially I had 6 elite level meets to go to all within a few months. I can't (and don't want to) spend every weekend of my year doing the same thing. Only psychos go to "all the NASCAR races" or "all the rodeos." Most us us in the local scene also like to run and race for ourselves, so sometimes I'd opt for travel, family, or my own races over watching another elite race.

Plus World's was too watered down (time-wise). Compared to PRE, where 20 great races happened in 24 hours, Worlds took the 20 good races and spread them over 10 days. That is just not a fun way to watch a track meet. And yes, I did go to Worlds but for only one day... I even saw Rojo there (he was very amiable).

Exactly all this. I am local and would have loved to go to more days but it was spread extremely thin per day. Paying for tix to see a few key races per day really adds up. Plus time off work hotel blah blah. I’m a huge track fan but that made it an impediment. And yes I had just gone to the HS state meet and USA’s..

University of Oregon football averaged 49,468 in the 2021/2022 season. Autzen Stadium is 2.8 miles from Hayward Field.

Too remote, not enough infrastructure, period. And having 3 large track events in one year? Enough. Stop it USATF. Complete and utter fatigue from locals, and a ton of people who couldn't get there, couldn't find a place to stay, couldn't find a car.

People, its not that hard to figure out. There is nothing so mysterious here. They wiffed on staging a great even taht most people couldn't see or couldn't afford to.

And how much do tickets cost for students?

Well put. As I keep telling the mindless runners on here, nobody in the freaking U.S. cares about track & field except for athletes, coaches, and families of athletes. Outside of that, Joe Q. Sixpack Public man & woman doesn't give 2 shiites about t&f. And that goes 10-fold for some out-of-the-way place called Eugene. Nowhereville U.S.A. only know for the University of Oregon. Nowhereville U.S.A. that you HAVE to WANT to go there. Unfortunately, this sport has tied its fortune to that of Nike. Worst decision over the past 40 years. USA T&F existed for many decades BEFORE Eugene ever came into the mix. Time to go back to that era. NOBODY wants to go to Oregon.

Max student tickets = 5448. Student season ticket costs $250. Average ticket price for a game (across all tickets student or not) $61. 61*49468 = 3,028,528.

Rojo, I'll bet you've never been to Eugene to see the World Championships before. This is like saying you've been to Miami many times, but you'll skip the Super Bowl the next time it's held there because you've been there before.