NYC is better location for Golden League in USA than Eugene

NY is the best of everything. Anyone with even a small sense of sophistication realizes this. Having the Golden League in NY could transform the whole series, much like the Marathon trials were moved to the highest level of public consciousness ever after only one time.

Mary Witenberg and the NYRR should be consulted on this. Even if they aren't moved, they could offer suggestions for the less sophisticated race officials in the country.

Also Favoring Eugene -- longstanding, tremendous financial commitment from a huge sponsor that wants it at Hayward. For the extra worldwide exposure from being a GL event I'm confident Nike would be willing to have more non-Nike athletes.

Also Favoring NYC -- not just "athlete jetlag" but the overall travel and stay is easier into/out of NYC than Eugene (direct flights from just abt everywhere, ample hotel capacity, etc.)

I should add --I favor keeping it at Eugene. Nike Prefontane Classic has more monmentum than Reebok GP for now. And money talks, and Nike spends more.

"NY Sub Elite", your parodies are still excellent. Keep 'em coming.

Initially, I also thought New York City would be a much better choice for a Golden League meet when compared to Eugene. The bright lights of the big city would be great for the sport and the amount of marketing potential for the event is huge, especially if top stars like Usain Bolt, Tyson Gay and Jeremy Wariner took part. However, the IAAF is going to go choose the events which they think will have the biggest draw and have the best organization, and the top U.S. event is the Pre Classic.

My comparison for this is with NASCAR. I've never watched a single NASCAR race, but I'd compare the Pre Classic with the Daytona 500. Daytona Beach is not a large city, it's not even a city. Daytona Beach has a population around 65,000, not even half the population of Eugene. Yet every year the Daytona 500 is the most anticipated, most watched NASCAR event in the country, and one of the most watched sporting events of the year.

The Pre Classic is like that. It isn't hosted in a big city, and it is way out of the way if you are trying to travel there, but every year it is considered the top event in the United States, and is one of the top events in the world. If the IAAF wants to include the best meets in the Golden League the Pre Classic is the best the U.S. has to offer, thus it should be the American representative.

But NYC has shitty weather. Every single track meet I have run at Icahn has been too hot, too windy or too rainy. Every race I ran in Eugene last year was pretty much perfect. I don't think the Reebok meet has had good weather once since Icahn was renovated.

That being said, the races could still be good. But if we want to see fast times, west coast is the way to go.

you can't have the GL in the U.S. since it stresses the Euro strengths. it wouldn't make sense at all for sponsors in the U.S. the mismatch is quite a difference. eugene does not have a stadium with enough seats. icahn and penn have 95% jamaicans in the seats and i don't know if that would be worthwhile to sponsors. los angeles doesn't have a large jamaican community and can't sell enough seats. plus if the GL had the hammer, there's no iaaf regulation stadium in the U.S. that has the hammer in the main stadium and an 3 meter wide apron around the outfield for safety and crews.

The Pre is a just a smaller IAAF GP series meet. The GL series is much more involved and requires a world class city. Eugene and Portland don't hardly make the cut by a long shot. To make enough money to pay the $1M prize money per meet and the percentage of the $1M prize to the overall GL series winner it has to be broadcast on a major network on a prime time slot on the Fri, Sat, or Sun. I doubt of the U.S. has that many track and field fans. Europe is a different culture with small countries and rabid track fans. In the U.S. we're an unknown sport. Even the Olympics has become a two week, three sport show (swimming, gymnastics, and beach volleyball).

no can do wrote:

you can't have the GL in the U.S. since it stresses the Euro strengths. it wouldn't make sense at all for sponsors in the U.S. the mismatch is quite a difference. eugene does not have a stadium with enough seats. icahn and penn have 95% jamaicans in the seats and i don't know if that would be worthwhile to sponsors. los angeles doesn't have a large jamaican community and can't sell enough seats. plus if the GL had the hammer, there's no iaaf regulation stadium in the U.S. that has the hammer in the main stadium and an 3 meter wide apron around the outfield for safety and crews.

Icahn Stadium is a IAAF certified facility with the Hammer on the infield. Every event is in the stadium and complies with every IAAF rule and spec.

stanhope wrote:

any more idea's/thoughts?

Wow, just WOW.

Prime Time LIVE wrote:

The GL series is much more involved and requires a world class city.

If Lausanne can be considered "world class" enough to host a GL meet, then Portland would certainly qualify. Not that Eugene is remotely a part of the PDX metro area, however.

Actually they never do the hammer at the GL for fear of someone testing positive. It would be hard to sell a GL meet in the US given the mismatch of events, the crappy NYC weather in the summer, the lack of non-Jamaican fans, and lack of a national TV audience. It's a long shot. The only hope would be to have a late-April meet when the weather is acceptable in the Northeast U.S. But honestly, the lack of a national TV audience I think will kill any hope of a GL meet in the USA no matter where the proposed the venue is.

Lausanne is not a GL meet and is not a world class city, neither is Portland nor Eugene.

NASCAR is an American white trash sport. Track is a sophisticated global sport. No comparison, goofy.

Agree Icahn is up to IAAF Olympic standard for a track.

Stadium barely yields enough seat to supply Iaaf bigwigs, sponsors,invited officials from IOC,govt VIP etc. To be viable we need a 20,000- 25000 stadium--and please tellme how we move that many people on and off that Island--not a simple or inexpensive addition no matter the configuration.

I believe Icahn,as is, cost about $2,750 per seat.

When you shake it out L.A. Wein Stadium (17,000)Baker Field nyny is the only viable location - used for IAAF Grand Prix-NYGames in 1990s.

Look to Uniondale ??

SGP wrote:

Lausanne is not a GL meet and is not a world class city, neither is Portland nor Eugene.

I am guessing that the thread was inspired by the news (seen on the front page) that Eugene is one of a number of locations (along with Lausanne, Doha, Stockholm, London, and Beijing) being considered for an expanded version of the GL, so a comparison to Lausanne is valid.

The IAAF has to be fishing for site visit travel perks from Tom Jordan. Maybe they are planting seeds for now with expectations years down the road. I honestly don't see a critical mass, i.e. a U.S. national TV audience that they would need to foot the bill for such a grand event. The scale of funding is far beyond any GP or SGP meet.

yeah, nyc is a much better media city, easier city to get in and out of..and oh it's it new york city.

too bad nyc doesn't have track infrastracture and fans support like eugene.

as a matter of fact...big time track needs to be in nyc because it is the media capital of the world!

What NYC really needs is a decent track press corps. It doesn't even one. At all.

US Champs- Sprinters in heaven-distance runners not so much.

In `91 Leroy ran WR 9.90 at Downing and it was 173 degrees and 99.94% humidity. Expect the same for any meet in NYC.

Day One drew about 73 people to the stands mostly T&FNewstour tourist I think. So hot the windguage did not even show up.

Day 2 250 or so.