Has the NCAA &/or USATF considered hosting their indoor national meets at a larger venue? Like having it either in a large arena or "Dome" in a big city. I would think they could draw much larger crowds this way, but maybe the demand isn't high enough. How easily do the meets sell out at Tyson?
Randal Tyson is a field house with a 200 m track. It's easy to fill with just parents, alumni, and teams. I don't think there would be much support for having indoor meets in a large dome. Rather, people here in the South would opt for winter outdoor meets. Sure, that would split NCAA track and field, but the PAC-10 already split off decades ago. The PAC-10 has the best athletics in the NCAA including football and basketball. The PAC-10 must know something we don't know.
While you are on to something, the NCAA in Indianapolis at the RCA Dome and the USA Indoors in Atlanta were a failure after a few years. Seemed like the meet got lost in the dome.
Probably another issue is/was where do you store a track between meets? The rent to store a track must be outrageous.
One possibility would be for a host city to rent a banked 200m track from a facility that has one, then truck the track. Don't know the costs associated with transporting a track.
Wouldn't mind seeing either of those meets in Tacoma...they could hold it in the Tacoma Dome...it's 35 minutes south of Seattle-Tacoma airport, with a few decent hotels nearby that could hold enough out-of-towners. People wouldn't get lost in the T-Dome. Again, the issue is a track.
Who bought the tracks from Indianapolis and Atlanta?
Thanks for the info. I'm guessing the NCAA meet would attract a larger crowd than USA's, but maybe I'm wrong. Don't you think it deserves to be on a "bigger" stage? If it were in a bigger city, many more people could make it to the meet. & if they scheduled it right, USA's & NCAA's could be held at the same location (back to back), & they could cut down on installation expenses.
I'm thinking this one would be available for rent.
Tyson isn't huge, but I love running there. Atmohsphere is great.
Been tried. I believe it was the USATF national indoor meet that was hosted at the Georgia Dome (home of the Falcons) several years back. All that did was insure that the meet was held in front of tens of thousands of empty seats.
Indoor track is better fitted for a smaller venue where you can actually have some atmosphere instead of in a large, caverous, and 90% empty stadium.
I believe Indiana University bought the track from the RCA Dome and now have it set up in their indoor facility.
1. Why would you capitalize arenas but not indoor stadiums?
2. Why would you use an apostrophe to pluralize arena and not use one to pluralize stadium?
1. Do you have nothing better to do with your time than to point out grammatical errors on a message board?
2. Does it make you feel superior to others to point out said grammatical errors?
The AAU TAC Nationals were held in MSG NYC for a long while. IC4A also
You post just made his look useful.
change wrote:
1. Do you have nothing better to do with your time than to point out grammatical errors on a message board?
2. Does it make you feel superior to others to point out said grammatical errors?
To answer some of your questions. The track from Atlanta was bought by Boise State. They are the 3rd owner. The track was originally owned by the Canadian federation. They only held a few meets on it before selling it to USATF. USATF held maybe 10ish or so meets before Boise bought it. On the logistics of moving it around, consider this,they are VERY heavy. It took 11 semi's loaded to max capacity to transport it from Atlanta to Boise, so they aren't something you want to just cart around. Anyway, just a little insight on the world of indoor track management.