What if we took Hayward Field and moved it to Portland?

For the life of me I’ve never understood why Uncle Phil hasn’t built a world class track and field facility in Portland. They had that temporary indoor track before the World Championships in 2016 and those meets always had a great turnout.
You’re absolutely right, the logistics of having a meet in Portland would be far better than Eugene.

That temporary track belonged to Fresno State and was only on loan for the IAAF Indoor World Champs as a practice/warmup track. It never belonged to Portland.

There is some mysterious attachment that older people have for Eugene because of the 1970s and Pre. The problem is that people that were around then, even as kids, are well into their 50s and more likely to be 70+. No one who is younger and competing now has a connection to that era, some 50 years ago. No international runner is yearning to run in Eugene. Unless they happened to to go to Oregon, of course.

Before Ole Phil started throwing his weight, Nike's weight around, NCAA T&F Championship often were held in Chicago:

1) Two international airports;

2) Light rail service from both international airports;

3) I-90, I-94, I-55, I-290, I-294 & I-80;

4) Chicago is a railroad hub;

5) Chicagoland has so many hotel rooms, events do not cause hotel prices to double & triple;

6) Many great restaurants in Chicago;

7) Chicago is experienced handling large events;

8) Chicago is not a time zone issue for any U.S. citizen;

9) Numerous colleges & universities in the city. Events, in theory could be spread out at various Chicago colleges & universities;

10) Weather would not likely be any worse the Oregon in the summer.

Why not have events at McCulloch Stadium in Salem. Add some temp seats if needed, it's historic and way closer to Portland

Chicago is unsafe

Boo fvcking hoo.

That's not likely with streaming giants replacing cable, satellite, and free fan boi games. Just the past summer the colleges shifted media operations to two arch rival streaming giants, Fox Sports and ESPN Disney.

And for some reason that indoor track was never sent back to Fresno State and that was the last indoor track in California. So now California has zero indoor tracks. I'm not sure where that track ended up.

That’s a lot of trouble and expense just to placate a handful of people that don’t know how hotel reservations work and want to save $100 on airfare. Isn’t it funny how a bunch of poorly paid athletes can get to Eugene but a bunch of high IQ and high earning fans with supermodel spouses can’t find money in their couch cushions to afford a trip to Eugene?

What in God’s holy name are you blathering about?

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I read on here that one black guy didn’t like living in Portland. So no way that would work out.

Cali preps have Winter Outdoor track and field. Colleges may start Winter Outdoor Track meets in 2024 now with Fox/ESPN directing the conferences.

About 25 years ago or so they held NCAAs in Buffalo. 25,000 seat stadium is far more than adequate and the weather in June is significantly better than Austin.

I would like to see them select a few permanent sites that rotate around the country.

West - Sacramento

South - Austin

Midwest - Des Moines

Northeast - Buffalo

East - Jacksonville

It would get burned to the ground by antifa. They won't try that in a small town.

That's so funny that I forgot to laugh.

Not possible at the moment. As of Summer 2023, there's no more NCAA operations to speak of. The conferences selected AI Tech driven TV operations at ESPN-Disney and Fox Sports both in Hollywood.

In tne past 50 years alot of stadiums that never lived up to the promos.

It all started will the LA 1984 Olympics inspired 1987 Field of Dreams movie.

Little towns spent fortunes on stadiums.

Few panned out as expected.

Hayward Field is one of the most tragic examples.