Another aspect the Diamond League has to take into account are Oregon home football games. They hosted Hawai'i on Saturday evening. There are positives and negatives. Positive is that there are 52,000 already on campus for a sporting event - maybe they'd also like to see events?
There are also a lot of negatives - pressure on airfare, food, hotel, etc. Maybe a family of 4 chooses between Oregon football and the Diamond League because of the cost of attendance.
And this hits another general point. It doesn't matter where the Diamond League would put its final if it's choosing to do so in mid-September in the US. That is the busiest time of the year for everyone. Pro, college, high school and youth sports (soccer, football, cross country, etc.). The beginning of the school year. My kid runs cross-country. There is no way he could ever attend this final, no matter where it's located.
Move that Final back to mid-August and the League has a chance to gain a significant in-person audience.
Do people not understand that Track and Field, or as the rest of the world calls it, “Athletics,” is more popular everywhere than it is in the United States?
Also I read somewhere that the capacity at Hayward is somewhere around 13,000, give or take. The pictures and video I saw of the meet showed me that a lot of those seats were filled.
I don’t have a solution but from here on out, there should be a stipulation that if you start one of these threads that you also offer a viable solution. Don’t just b1tch & moan.
A bigger stadium in a city with an international airport.
Philadelphia or LA, perhaps?
Atlanta weather in September can be iffy. LA would be great, IMHO, using LA Coliseum.
Franklin Field in Philly has a large capacity.
Just because the meet is moved to a bigger stadium doesn’t mean that more people from the US will attend. The additional spectra would need to come from the rest of the world.
As I said in my other post, the sport’s popularity is limited here.
Another aspect the Diamond League has to take into account are Oregon home football games. They hosted Hawai'i on Saturday evening. There are positives and negatives. Positive is that there are 52,000 already on campus for a sporting event - maybe they'd also like to see events?
There are also a lot of negatives - pressure on airfare, food, hotel, etc. Maybe a family of 4 chooses between Oregon football and the Diamond League because of the cost of attendance.
And this hits another general point. It doesn't matter where the Diamond League would put its final if it's choosing to do so in mid-September in the US. That is the busiest time of the year for everyone. Pro, college, high school and youth sports (soccer, football, cross country, etc.). The beginning of the school year. My kid runs cross-country. There is no way he could ever attend this final, no matter where it's located.
Move that Final back to mid-August and the League has a chance to gain a significant in-person audience.
But the final is held more or less at the same time (september) every year. This makes me doubt that somehow everything would be better if you pushed it one month back? I think there is allways a bunch of excuses and things that are happening in every host city, but maybe they have done a better job at sizing the stadium?
This post was edited 49 seconds after it was posted.
Move that Final back to mid-August and the League has a chance to gain a significant in-person audience.
Hayward Field only holds about 12,000 spectators. So at best the attendance would have gone from 9,000 up to 12,000.
The REAL issue is that most people in the US don't want to go to a track meet. No matter what city in the US would have held the Diamond League Final, there still wouldn't have been 40,000 or 50,000 spectators like some of the other Diamond League meets had.
Another aspect the Diamond League has to take into account are Oregon home football games. They hosted Hawai'i on Saturday evening. There are positives and negatives. Positive is that there are 52,000 already on campus for a sporting event - maybe they'd also like to see events?
There are also a lot of negatives - pressure on airfare, food, hotel, etc. Maybe a family of 4 chooses between Oregon football and the Diamond League because of the cost of attendance.
And this hits another general point. It doesn't matter where the Diamond League would put its final if it's choosing to do so in mid-September in the US. That is the busiest time of the year for everyone. Pro, college, high school and youth sports (soccer, football, cross country, etc.). The beginning of the school year. My kid runs cross-country. There is no way he could ever attend this final, no matter where it's located.
Move that Final back to mid-August and the League has a chance to gain a significant in-person audience.
But the final is held more or less at the same time (september) every year. This makes me doubt that somehow everything would be better if you pushed it one month back? I think there is allways a bunch of excuses and things that are happening in every host city, but maybe they have done a better job at sizing the stadium?
My suggestion would be to switch Eugene to August (or another month?) and not make it the final. Have the September final in a city where there are not 1,000 other academic and/or sporting events going on that will draw from ticket sales. The final will never draw in September in the United States. There's just too much happening and not enough interest.
Move that Final back to mid-August and the League has a chance to gain a significant in-person audience.
Hayward Field only holds about 12,000 spectators. So at best the attendance would have gone from 9,000 up to 12,000.
The REAL issue is that most people in the US don't want to go to a track meet. No matter what city in the US would have held the Diamond League Final, there still wouldn't have been 40,000 or 50,000 spectators like some of the other Diamond League meets had.
This is my question too. Eugene is indeed isolated, but where exactly was it supposed to go with 50K in attendance? My guess is Eugene could have made the stadium as big as they wanted, but they chose smallish and intimate. Not sure if loud.
All I know is the announcers rave every single time anything goes there about how much everyone loved it.
What is the intention of this post?? Please stop posting this every year. Lets run nerds don't let this garbage back on the board next year. Folks Phil Knight built the track in Eugene. Nike runs track and field in the USA. Phil will always get this meet. Even if one person showed up. Moot point to discuss this. Waste time on something else. Lets run nerds don't let this on the boards next year. Tell the original poster moot point. Stop the nonsense.