Make Franklin Field a Full 8 Lanes!

Right now there's 9 with 3 "inside".

Eliminate 1 of those and you'd have 8 with 2 inside.

I don't know how complicated removing a 2 lanes worth of bleachers would be and I THINK(?) there a places where it's like there's a building not bleachers?

I'm going from memory. We need a picture.

They said they're doing some work on it soon.

The space in Franklin Field is wide enough for a World Athletics standard track, just not long enough. To make it long enough you'd need to move Weightman Hall. There is room, as Weightman Hall is set back a ways from the street, but I imagine it would be pretty expensive. Not gonna happen in the next four years unless some donor steps up, as Ivy League schools are under attack and trying to conserve money.

Nike/Uncle Phil are only interested in donating to the U of O. USATF isn't going to invest in one school/facility. That would change the model of a competitive award of big meets like the Olympic Trials to schools that invest in their facilities (like the U of O or Mt. SAC) to host meets. Penn just built an indoor track facility, so that's where their priorities are for investing in track facilities.

That track confused the heck out of 8 year-old me. 50 years later I'm even more confused.

Too expensive. No money in track

There are 4 lanes “inside” the 400m lane, which is lane 5 in the current configuration. So even if you gave up a lane, you’d have to blast out 3 lanes worth of brick and concrete along both straightaways and the far turn - there’s enough open space in front of the building at the near turn to fit 3 outer lanes. Anyway, that would more than wipe out the walkway fronting the backstretch stands, and a couple rows of seats the rest of the way around. The real question is how much additional support structure you’d need to install to keep the lower-deck of stands from collapsing.

OK, so from this thread I gather:

Poof! We have a new home for the Olympic Trials

The cost would probably be close to $20 million if not more. Just the work Mondo or Beynon would need to do would be $3 million.

The curves are enormous at FF because as someone said up-thread, the stadium isn't long enough. If you keep Weightman, I'm not sure there is a way to make it WA compliant. Stretching it all the way to the building under the scoreboard might by you another lane but would eliminate a critical walkway to get across the width of the stadium. As for simply removing bleachers, you would be demolishing 100-year old brick walls and who knows what underneath and having to replace it with taller (possibly twice as tall) walls that would much more complex from a structural perspective with higher railings to prevent someone from falling off, and it would be impossible to see the outer lanes as they would be straight down in a cave (look at old photos of racing in Harvard Stadium). All of this would cost quite a bit of money, and this isn't even considering if this modification would significant enough (probably) to trigger a code review which would require ADA changes, new railings everywhere on the stairs etc.

The dimensions are what they are. NCAAs were there in 1976 and it worked, and that was with the old 5 lane configuration, not the 6 they have now.

Kudos to actually having a thread with substance.

There have been multiple engineering studies, all of which concluded the structural changes to Franklin Field required to accommodate the necessary track geometry aren't feasible.

I recall speaking with an athletics administrator there maybe 10 years ago. They had renovated the track and there was some interest and effort to retrofit a traditional size track. I think he said some of the excavation under the stadium when they updated the weight room and other areas revealed historical / archeological finds like old Philadelphia streets , and it was going to be a Pandora’s box to do more.
you can do anything with time and money but I guess this project just seemed to be too difficult.

It is a shame for the reasons others have said about having a world class , east coast site that is easily accessible.

Icahn Stadium in NYC is accessible , if you take a helicopter.

Who cares about Franklin Field. If they want a big east coast meet there are hundreds of tracks within an hour of Philly that are nicer, can accommodate big crowds, have facilities that aren't a century old and don't require you to go through a metal detector every time you leave to warmup. It's a horrible location. Sure, it has 'tradition' but so did Heyward Field and everyone here, correctly so, complains about is location. It's a bad track in an ancient stadium. Many high schools have a nicer facility.

no

It is a Rekotan track, polyeurathane and quite fast.

Name 3

So for a 400m race, the athletes in lanes 1-4 actually start back behind the finish line? But it sounds like the shape of the track is such that they don't have super-tight turns to deal with?

I was super confused during GST when they talked about the 800m runners having to break out after the first curve, but I -think- it's starting to make some sense for me. Do they have anything to guide the inside lane runners to the correct breaking point at the lane 5 200m mark?

Trump likes Penn / Wharton because he went there. Dartmouth hasn’t really been attacked since they’re viewed as less woke. Penn will be fine

The following is an opportunity to build a true Track Town USA. The Washington Commanders are leaving Fed EX field and developers are looking to tear down the stadium and build mixed use sporting facilities. That is a HUGE piece of land with parking.

You can do a brand new Hayward Field style stadium there and attach a brand new banked indoor track and still build new apartments and retail stores. Maybe even a retractable roof for the track stadium. The ideas are endless.

wjla.com

Washington Commanders' exit prompts major redevelopment of FedEx Field site in Maryland

7News Staff

Washington Commanders' exit prompts major redevelopment of FedEx Field site in Maryland.

Open link

“Hundreds” within an hour of Philadelphia? I challenge you to name just one or two that meet your criteria.