coach d wrote:
What? You didn't see the thousands of us leaving before all the distance events?
From the data at T&FN, it appears that Sacramento's attendance figures were higher than either of the previous 2 off-year championships, so I think the organizers are probably happy. There were a lot of people at the stadium on Sunday despite the heat. The stadium seats 22,000, so half full is still a lot by track and field standards.
Actually on Thursday night the announcer even chided folks for leaving before all events had been completed (two steeple heats and a 10,000m finals), but there weren't even enough in the stands to to begin with for "thousands" leave. Daily Relay even had video footage of folks leaving and has commented about low turnout.
And give me a break - anyone watching could see the stands were not even half full. I like the (glass) half full philosophy, but after all the bluster of how great Sac's fan base is and it's better than Eugene - I'll rely on what everyone plainly saw as a pretty empty stadium on the day of nearly all finals. Even Sac officials listed it at 9,600 and as the great Rojo has said related to attendance figures, you can't trust what the host site reports.
Btw, there were 7,500 folks in attendance for the Friday Night (pre) Pre Classic where only 5 events were contested and nearly ALL stayed for all events, the last starting at 9:17pm (yes, it was a 10,000m).