wtf Tallahassee will be permanent World XC home apparently?

They should let Japan host one, they make great obstacle courses

We disagree with you.

Your last paragraph is pretty wacky. What does grass-root and set piece have to do with an Olympic event? It takes one race time to qualify for the trials and a race to qualify for the team. XC does not belong in the Summer Olympics and would hardly become iconic if it did. A lot of 5/10 guys would take a pass on Olympic XC and just having World XC is good enough.

No. Tallahassee will NOT become the permanent home of world xc. You're very gullible. Don't believe everything you hear or read.

Apparently, that is Coe's recommendation. As quoted in the LRC article, the organizing committee sent an email after the event stating the following:

At the VIP dinner last Friday, Lord Coe recommended that World Athletics permanently hold the World XC Championships here in Tallahassee. Last night, Amanda Heidecker, the co-chair of the Championships, confirmed Lord Coe’s recommendation, telling us he privately said he was being completely serious, because this committee was the best he’d ever worked with.

I believe Coe is serious, but I wonder if his words are meant to be a threat to other organizing committees while the bidding process is open to host the event in 2029 (link below). It seems to me that Coe is basically saying to other cities: "Give me what I want, or else I'll keep this event in Tallahassee."

I enjoyed my time in Tallahassee last weekend, but I wouldn't want every edition of the meet to be there. Part of what made the experience so fun was its novelty. I think it would get stale if the meet was there every time.

It's similar to Eugene. I love visiting Eugene to watch meets on occasion, but it's a pain to get to, and I don't want to go there for every national meet. I'd rather see those meets move around and have different places to visit.

I feel even more strongly about world meets. They shouldn't be in the same place every time. Other countries should get a chance to host.

worldathletics.org

Bidding process launched for 2028-2029 out-of-stadium World Athletics Series events | World Athletics

World Athletics is pleased to announce the launch of the bidding processes for three World Athletics Series events

Open link

“Lately”? Hardly. Do a YouTube dive today on Olympic 10000m finals. Start at 1988 and work your way up. You might just be surprised.

I think Tallahassee is different. It’s a big city in a major state. It’s not like a tiny town in the middle of nowhere with no housing (so even a motel 6 or some sh!tty hotel is $400 a night). It’s centrally-ish located in Florida with a ton of housing and transportation.

I don't get this whole "Eugene is a pain to get to" baloney. It has an airport. You can fly directly to Eugene. I've done it multiple times.

There may be other reasons for not having Eugene host constantly, but travel difficulty is not one of them.

I consider any city without an abundance of direct flights to be a pain to get to. Tallahassee included. Needing to connect in another city to fly somewhere often means needing to make the difficult choice between a long layover or a short layover with the risk and associated stress of missing the connection if the first flight is delayed. The other option is to fly into the closest major airport, then drive a long distance. Either way, a city without a direct flight takes longer to get to, and it's therefore (in my opinion as someone who travels frequently) a pain.

Surely the obstacles could (and would) change every year? The broadcast suggested that this course would be used for other XC events throughout the year. Maintaining that same obstacle set year round would be impractical and expensive.

Is Coe insane - quite possibly (or just another Nike shill)? He did a lousy job of getting Europe to attend, Africa is basically eliminated (Kenya is next on the chopping block). South America barely attends, and only a handful of Asian countries. He wasn't a cross-country guy himself, but the sport seems to be on its deathbed as far as I can tell. Neither of the senior races was exciting - Kiplimo and Ngetich simply ran away from the fields, and likely neither will be allowed in again. The Junior races left Ethiopia short-handed, thereby gifting the US a medal. Heck even Britain (his home country) sucks these days.

Personally I see Coe (much like Infantino in Soccer/Football) as a corrupt demagogue selling the sport for his own personal gain - but then both organizations have a history of this malfeasance. Both should be kicked out of their roles - there is a reason Coe was passed over for Olympic head.

So, any city that's not an airline hub is a pain to travel to? That's a pretty ridiculous criterion that rules out 99% of the country.

I guess it depends on your point of reference. I live in a metropolitan area with over 2 million people, so Tallahassee seems to me like a small college/government town by comparison.

Only 5 cities/airports have direct flights to and from Tallahassee: Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Miami, and Washington DC.

Tallahassee isn't much bigger than Eugene. Its 2024 estimated population was 205,089; Eugene's was 178,786.

Tallahassee was a fine place to visit, but it's not a major tourist destination, and I wouldn't want to go there every two years.

Not to mention the higher expense of flying to Mayberry Regional Airport. It's typically much less expensive to fly from Denver to Orlando and drive a rental car over than it is to fly to Tally.

Yes, not having an abundance of direct flights makes a city a pain to get to. That's not ridiculous; it's reality.

Let's look at what it would take to get to Eugene and Tallahassee for folks who live on the opposite side of the country from either place, and let's compare them to nearby cities with major airports. For the sake of illustration, I'm going with flight options for Thursday, Feb 26 to Sunday, March 1.

• Atlanta to Eugene: The shortest trips take over 7 hours, and most are over 8. With the shortest trip, there's only a 40-minute layover in Denver. Risky! And the flight times are awful. The "best" option Kayak gave me would take 8 hours and 45 minutes to get to Eugene, and the return flight would depart at 5:10 am. Yeah, I'd consider that a pain.
• Atlanta to Seattle: Now we're talking! There are multiple direct flights at reasonable hours, and you could get to and from Seattle much faster.
• San Francisco to Tallahassee: There's a decent 8:00 am - 5:45 pm flight combo with a one-hour layover in Dallas, but the return would be a grind. It would take 7 hours and 45 minutes and arrive at 11:00 pm. Ugh. That's a pain for someone who has to get up early to go to work the next day.
• San Francisco to Orlando: Sweet! Someone can take a 10:35 am - 6:52 pm nonstop flight there and have more time to get in a run in the morning before flying out. Coming back, someone can do the 4:56 pm - 8:10 pm flight (6 hours and 14 minutes) and arrive back home at a reasonable hour before needing to go back to work the next day. Much better!

It's easier to travel to places that have multiple direct flight options.

Re: "rules out 99% of the country," I didn't say big meets should never be in places like Eugene or Tallahassee. I'm saying big meets shouldn't only be in those places. Give other cities a chance.

Why not have NY or LA working full-time union sports announcers since it supposedly was a "World" race.

Geography doesn’t travel, people do. Well north of 50% of our nation’s population lives within an hour of a major air hub or a city with an airport that connects directly to those air hubs. Sorry to the people of Scottsbluff, Tupelo, and Humboldt.