Yes, it is very nice... maybe the nicest in the country. It is not truly "ghetto", but the area around it is pretty much what you would expect in Birmingham.
It seems like a lot of teams stay in downtown B-ham, and it is about a 10-15min drive.
facility is awesome.
200m banked. hydraulics.
Great place to run. Had conference USA meet there last year.
I live in a surrounding surburb, about 20 minutes. Yes the place is as nice as it appears, maybe the finest indoor track in the US. In addition to the track and swim complex look for an equestrian center to follow. It sits on the former state fairground property and auto racing short-track. As a WASP, I have no problem with the location of the building and a need for a catalyst to build up that part of town. Nor would I have had a problem in building it downtown near the new AA baseball stadium and Railroad Park.
My buddy who first went sub-4 with a 3:58 walked in with me and said "F---, I would have gone 3:48 had I been able to run here." It is that nice.
I think someone else posted up the site. In addition to the NCAAs (D1, 2 and 3) coming there are several out-of-town colleges hosting meets...Southern Mississippi, Emory (Atlanta), Auburn (2 hour drive), Alabama (hour drive).
For the posters that knocked the area... if you don't live here, don't believe everything you see on TV.
Please take ghetto out of the title of this thread
I've run there several times. Awesome facilities. I hope they can get more high profile meets there, like D1 championships and USATF championships.
It's a great facility. It seems like they have a meet almost every day of the week. In my opinion it's a faster track than Arkansas.
Let's remember that there are other nice facilities in terrible neighborhoods. The Armory is an obvious member of that group. Reggie Lewis Center. Spire isn't in ghetto but in middle of nowhere.
Wish granted for NCAA meetsD2-2015D1-2016D2-2017D3-2018
joalturn wrote:
I've run there several times. Awesome facilities. I hope they can get more high profile meets there, like D1 championships and USATF championships.
The high school meets there are huge. The one they host at end of Jan has about every team in Alabama and a dozen or so teams from every surrounding state.
Everything about the facility is done right, 2 field event pits for all the jumps, vaults, etc. And the meets are run as professionally as the facilities.
Honestly, yes, you have to do loops around the parking lot to warm up. I did one run from the facility on an off day (I think I raced Friday and the team was staying through til Sunday) and I wouldn't want to do that again. Nothing happened to me, but if you put yourself in bad situations enough, things may happen.
That said, this is one of the nicest indoor facilities in the nation. 200m banked with a super nice surface. I think it's great that they put it where it is. I talked to numerous people around the Birmingham area that said they love going to watch meets. I think the community is more appreciative than disappointed that it's there. It's a good way to get kids to come watch meets and also a good place to start getting youth around the area involved in the sport (as opposed to a gang or something).
Tasmani wrote:
Please take ghetto out of the title of this thread
+1
We can't believe we've never heard of this place. Apparently, to try to revitalize a bad neighborhood, they put this sweet $46 million facility right in the middle of a bad part of Birmingham.
If govts are going to spend taxpayer money on this type of stuff, this makes more sense to me than putting it somwehre else:
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20140101/NEWS/140109975/1007?p=2&tc=pg#gsc.tab=0
Honestly, it looks pretty sweet as well
The article says a lot of track conferences have their meets there and a few NCAA swimming championships.
Has anyone been there? What conference meets are there?
How is the facility?
Tasmani wrote:
Please take ghetto out of the title of this thread
Your wish is granted.
Old Fairground Site. wrote:
I live in a surrounding surburb, about 20 minutes. Yes the place is as nice as it appears, maybe the finest indoor track in the US. In addition to the track and swim complex look for an equestrian center to follow. It sits on the former state fairground property and auto racing short-track. As a WASP, I have no problem with the location of the building and a need for a catalyst to build up that part of town. Nor would I have had a problem in building it downtown near the new AA baseball stadium and Railroad Park.
My buddy who first went sub-4 with a 3:58 walked in with me and said "F---, I would have gone 3:48 had I been able to run here." It is that nice.
I think someone else posted up the site. In addition to the NCAAs (D1, 2 and 3) coming there are several out-of-town colleges hosting meets...Southern Mississippi, Emory (Atlanta), Auburn (2 hour drive), Alabama (hour drive).
For the posters that knocked the area... if you don't live here, don't believe everything you see on TV.
I promise you that your buddy wouldn't have gone 3:48 anywhere and never will.
alot of black people in Birmingham but other than that yes it really is an excellent facility
It really is an awesome track to run on.
lolcats wrote:
Old Fairground Site. wrote:I live in a surrounding surburb, about 20 minutes. Yes the place is as nice as it appears, maybe the finest indoor track in the US. In addition to the track and swim complex look for an equestrian center to follow. It sits on the former state fairground property and auto racing short-track. As a WASP, I have no problem with the location of the building and a need for a catalyst to build up that part of town. Nor would I have had a problem in building it downtown near the new AA baseball stadium and Railroad Park.
My buddy who first went sub-4 with a 3:58 walked in with me and said "F---, I would have gone 3:48 had I been able to run here." It is that nice.
I think someone else posted up the site. In addition to the NCAAs (D1, 2 and 3) coming there are several out-of-town colleges hosting meets...Southern Mississippi, Emory (Atlanta), Auburn (2 hour drive), Alabama (hour drive).
For the posters that knocked the area... if you don't live here, don't believe everything you see on TV.
I promise you that your buddy wouldn't have gone 3:48 anywhere and never will.
You are right it will never happen as we are over 50. But i did understand his comment was just a compliment to the place.
The facility basically revived the indoor track season in Alabama. They had a season with an old facility that was shut down and there was no indoor track in Alabama for a few years. Now there's a bunch of massive prep meets there, including state champs in early Feb. before the 'Bama outdoor prep season begins. Definitely one of the top 5 facilities in the country and that's why they're starting to get NCAA meets there.
Spent all day there yesterday for at least the 15th time. One of the top 5 indoor tracks in the nation, some say the best.
I live in the suburbs and questioned the city of Birmingham leadership when they started this project. But there was a significant amount of private funding also raised for several years toward the project.
The area is really run down but is relatively safe for drivers. No way I would allow someone to run in the area except in the facility's parking lot. The hope was that it would help spawn some economic development in the area, not sure it will ever really do this consistently but hopefully so.
The complex also has a world class swimming and diving facility. It is hosting indoor track meets at the college and high school level, same for swimming, diving, volleyball, so other indoor sports that can use it.
This is its 3rd year of operation, it has hosted college conference meets since year one. Hosted the D2 Indoor National Championships last year and is hosting D1, D2 and D3 National Championships in the coming years.
Very nice to have it in our city. My daughter has gotten to run on it 4-5 times per year and gladly is going to run for an instate college that will also run at it 3-4 times per season.