Oregon Crowd

So...is the suggestion that to save US track we should abandon the most successful venue? Shouldn't other locations raise their game in order to establish themselves, or are we supposed to bow down to cities with 5M+ populations simply because they have more people? With this logic we would never have professional football in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Groups of athletes live and train in the LA area, sure, but there is a rapidly growing contingent of distance athletes living (and moving to) Eugene and Portland...in fact, the state is even attracting non-distance athletes, such as Grant Lindsey and Jesse Williams (HJ). Before we throw the baby out with the bath water, perhaps we should analyze what makes Eugene successful in both the eyes of the athletes and the attending fans, then attempt to duplicate those in other venues. Finally, do you really believe that television fans (or channel surfers) tune in to a track meet based on the population size of the city in which the stadium is located? Don't people care about the athletes entered and the possibility for great competition more than if the event is held in LA or NYC? I think the argument that folks are making here has absolutely nothing to do with the success and iconic status of Hayward Field, but rather with the ongoing challenges that our sport has with establishing itself in the US sporting mainstream.

Correction. TV is the most successful venue for T&F.

Save track ? Track and field is a monsterously huge sport in the U.S.A. Every city, town, and high school has numerous tracks wherever you go. There's not enough USATF Certified Officials to handle all of the meets. Often they have issue battlefield commissions to team members and coaches to help usher and officiate events. I hate you bozos who put on airs trying to sell us on saving something that is already a massive success with children, kids, coeds, masters, etc. You are full of sanctimonious B.S. !

"Save track ? Track and field is a monsterously huge sport in the U.S.A. Every city, town, and high school has numerous tracks wherever you go. There's not enough USATF Certified Officials to handle all of the meets. Often they have issue battlefield commissions to team members and coaches to help usher and officiate events. I hate you bozos who put on airs trying to sell us on saving something that is already a massive success with children, kids, coeds, masters, etc. You are full of sanctimonious B.S. !"

Looks like you broke out the thesaurus, good job. Pious totally work in this situation.

Hey I love track too but calling it monstrously huge is kinda silly, especially considering we're talking about college/pro track not junior high meets where the only people who go are parents and bored siblings.

You retarded little eff ! Every juco and college had a track and field in the U.S.A. before you were born. No other country has as many insane track fans and athletes as the USA has. The U.S.A. has had the #1 track and field team in the world since before you were born. 29 medals were brought home by USATF athlete from Beijing 2009, 25 from Osaka 2007. Track and field is a massive sport in the USA because of Penn Relays, Texas Relays, Mt Sac Relays, Drake Relays, LSU, Arkansas, UNC, TxA&M, UT, UCLA, CPSLO, Stanford, Tennessee, WSU, NYRRC, BAA, ChiMara, Peach Tree, Elite Racing, Bolder Boulder, Kansas Relays, etc. etc. etc. T&F only needs to be saved from the lying little effs in Eugene like you.

And as Craig Masback always believed...TV works against you unless your event projects interest in the form of fans in the stands. So, he always made sure that the telecasts projected to areas of stadiums that had fannies sitting in the seats. For this very reason, Masback always thought highly of televising track meets from Eugene, a place where fans actually showed up to fill the seats. He understood Olin Cassell's failure to recognize this fact and the fiasco that was New Orleans' Olympic Trials. Those Trials were held in a beautiful 50,000 seat stadium, but usually only about 10% of the seats were filled. It is a disaster for promoting track and field with TV when this is the scenario. Similarly, the Adidas meet this weekend in LA (Carson) was a disaster.

And Masback was fired from USATF. So WTF ? Partz iz partz. CEOs are like coaches, a dime a dozen and on sale at Wal Mart.

Hayward Track has it's place as the Home of Prefontaine.

Home Depot has it's place as the Home of the Olympic/WC T&F Champion GOLD Medalists.

Mt Sac has it's place as the Home of the World's Largest Track Meet.

The L.A. Coliseum has it's place as is the Home of the 1932 and 1984 Olympics

Franklin Field has it's place as the Home of Jamaican Track.

add more tracks and meets...

The sum total is what we have for our sport. We need each other and we must support each other's succeses because, no one outside of the T&F community even knows we exist except 2 weeks every 4 years.

I'm interested to know what the demographic is of those who attend meets in Eugene. Does anyone have specifics? Age, race, gender, if they are local or travel in for the meets?

If TV is what matters, why would putting it in LA or NY help? TV works just as good if it's filmed in Eugene as if it's filmed in SoCal. If it doesn't affect TV might as well have it somewhere that has track fans who care enough to go watch the meet. As has been stated, this projects interest to the masses and adds a relatively small but far from trivial amount of revenue. The Adidas Track Classic proved that the greater LA area is NOT one of those areas.

Lauren Primerano wrote:

I'm interested to know what the demographic is of those who attend meets in Eugene. Does anyone have specifics? Age, race, gender, if they are local or travel in for the meets?

Sorry I don't have specifics- only impressions. For the "local" meets- Oregon preview etc, mostly a local crowd, but people do travel from Portland ( 120 miles). Remember the UO has season tickets for T&F, so there would be around 3000 season ticket holders ( only a guess)). Then, if there is a certain angle/interest in the meet, you will have more locals who buy the tickets for that day. Remember the Register Guard does a good job of providing good advanced coverage of the meet, so people are quite well informed of the matchups. Also the Oregonian newspaper in Portland provides good coverage.

For the "national" meets- Pac-10's, NCAA's, USA's, there clearly is a large influx of out of town track fans and supporters of the athletes.

Finally, there is the "Pre" meet every year which seems to always sell out (11,000+), and attracts in addition the casual sports fan with the World and Olympic headliners.

As far as demographics, the "hard core" season ticket holders often have been attending meets for years.

Although there are some kids and college students at the meet, the majority are older.

The Track crowd is definitely a different demographic than the Football crowd. Less boorish behavior, less beer drinking if I can stereotype. ;-)

Tim Thompson wrote:

fiasco that was New Orleans' Olympic Trials. Those Trials were held in a beautiful 50,000 seat stadium, but usually only about 10% of the seats were filled.

Please do your homework and cease spreading lies. Tad Gormley Statium only holds 26,500 folks which is about 1/2 of your estimate. I was there for each day in 1992 and can assure you the place was filled. While I can not offer a head count as you do, I bet I can dig up a few photos that will show a full stadium. As I recall there was even a large crowd for the added afternoon session of a single 400m that allowed Butch to compete.

Also, what was the fiasco you mention regarding that meet? The Butch Reynolds saga? 16 year old Marion Jones? Reebok's Dan and Dave show? The exciting closing kick by Jose Parrilla coming from the back to finish 3rd in the 800? Jim Spivey's 1500? Or Greg Whitlely running a round of the 1500 with his shorts on backwards?

good assessment, and having raced at and attended large venues across the country I would add that eugene brings that supportive element out of visiting teams and their support groups as well. you will have the entire east grand stand in a Pac-10 meet (which is about 50% filled with athletes, coaches and their friends and family) clapping in unison for a pole vaulter from whatever school, simply because they are doing well.

everyone is enjoying it together. it happens to some extent at other meets but nothing near what happens at hayward field. when the crowds erupt during a big finish it's not necessarily for an oregon runner or by just oregon fans. it gets infectious while your at that track no matter who you went their to cheer for.

If you're going to attack Eugene for being too small and rural, you'd better share some hate with Götzis. If you don't know why, then you're simply a troll who knows nothing about track & field.

Adidas proved that innovative programming will reach viewers and sell shoes. Millions will tune in and watch Olympics and IAAF Worlds GOLD Medalists at home in the evening. As much as we apppreciate youth, junior, college, elite, and masters athletics, the public will not tune in to watch them unless it's the NCAA Championships.

Production costs are far cheaper if meets are help in LA. The top talent (announcers, photographers, editors, sound, so on) lives in LA. Lower costs means *more* profits for producers. Producers risk their own personal money to bring you track and field programming. The more profits that are being made means more programming.

LA is the TV, media, college sports, entertainment, recording, fasihion, rock n roll, motion picture, pro sports, track and field, porno, olympic champion, culture, style, hip hop, etc. capitol of the world. (Nashville is the C&W capitol.)

Every major TV producer is located in LA. The entire economy of LA has been based on the media/entertainment industry for nearly 100 years. The new web media is centered LA, Yahoo Sports, Universal Sports, CSTV (CBS).

USATF and NCAA are rumored to be moving to Westwood/WestLA/Santa Monica/Beverly Hills.

No, learn to fucking read.

The Oneders wrote:

So...is the suggestion that to save US track we should abandon the most successful venue?