UVA located in a pee hole outhouse sells out NCAA XCs, why last 3 big meets at UO total disasters?

Population within 300 miles of Eugene - 11 million.

Population within 300 miles of Charlottesville - 55 million.

Plus do you know how easy it is to fly to DC as compared to PDX?

End. Of. Thread.

statsamerica.org

Big Radius Tool: StatsAmerica

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The Big Radius Tool provides data for a mileage-based radius from 25 miles to 500 miles.

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For the record, we've been told paid attendance is north of 5,000. Here it is for the last few years:

It's a credit to Vin Lananna the greatest track and field coach of all time.

UVA is a few hour drive from NYC, Philly, Baltimore, DC… All with huge suburbs where XC is most popular.

Yes, closer to a bigger population, but the meet itself is hard to reach from Charlottesville. Seems like a cool spot for an XC meet, but maybe not for a big national meet.

It's no Mt Sac but suitable for the kinds of runners in that area.

Yes. Imagine being a coach of a team from DC suburb in VA. You are getting a bus ready to take 50 kids until you find out 2 days ago that you can't attend. Very odd. I hope to see teams like this park 2 miles away and run in. I expect to see the road full of runners and bikers.

While I agree that it's way past time to move big meets away from Eugene, is it fair to compare 5,000 tickets for cross country to 10,000+ capacity over a week-plus?

I do recognize that XC is much more niche and harder to watch in person than a track meet, so big props for selling that many tickets.

Thanks for this tool, rojo.

Comes in handy sometimes.

Many courses are loops and/or different loops in the same area. I think in the right place a course can be designed to be very spectator friendly.

I had a 5K loop course where about 75% of it was visible standing near the start/finish. Parents loved it.

The original course at my high school (in 1961) started and finished on the football field, went up school grounds, across a creek and wound around a hilly field, then back across the creek to the football field, 100% viewable from the home bleachers!

Artificial turf, fences, turf baseball field, new neighborhoods and natural growth of trees make that impossible now.

Does anyone remember 2007 USA Champs in Boulder? Crowd estimates were 15000.

XC is a very popular HS sport. Just need to make it accessible and easy and big crowds will turn out.

Bring back Piedmont Community College cross country course!

To me, nothing beats Terre Haute. It's the perfect venue for viewing with thousands in attendance.

It also hasn’t been on the east coast in over a decade, can’t miss opportunity for most of us

No way. Sprained my ankle there. It isn't easy at all. John Hunt Park is one of the best. Virginina is way better than Terre Haute for spectating.

Remember when the NCAA awarded the meet to Oregon in 2011 despite them not having a course? Remember when Terre Haute had to bail them out? That was awesome. What's the common thread here?

I've always thought about that- just local high school runners and their coaches should be going.

Just in my local area (which is relatively small) that would be over 2000.

I went to VCP for the USATF meet back in about 2006 or so. I don't know numbers but it was very crowded.

Would LOVE to see it at Lehigh again.

I think that this is the place I went to see a mtn bike race in Earlysville a number of years ago. If it is, I went for a run on the roads during the race a ways out, down to a river, and then up a steep hill and back. The hills are huge around there but it is not a good place to run on a day with any traffic because the shoulders are slim to none. So, take a lot of care if you are trying to park and run in.