IAAF Announces 2019 Worlds Live - And The Winner is.....Doha.

Doha usually has some of the fastest times of the season with their Diamond League meet. There is a large East African fan base. So - atleast for the distance events there. It'll be fine for fan support.

Doha also has some of the fastest half and marathon times during the year.

Given the proximity to Kenya/Ethiopia - it'll be like a home meet for them and as shown distance runners perform well here despite the heat. Westerners might avoid this place and it'll be much like when World XC was at Mombasa - giving all kinds of excuses from terrorism to disease to heat to avoid running.

White runners don't want to bother to run near the middle east or 3rd world countries. They are too scared to hurt their marketability. The White Kenyans (The NZ brothers) will be there though as they have lived in a 3rd world and aren't afraid.

FansRUs wrote:

White runners don't want to bother to run near the middle east or 3rd world countries. They are too scared to hurt their marketability. The White Kenyans (The NZ brothers) will be there though as they have lived in a 3rd world and aren't afraid.

How exactly would they fear it would hurt their marketability? What a silly thing to say.

'It'll be fine for fan support'

Are you a woman we know what fine means

... regarding the schedule implications. Yes, this will create issues and complications with the DL season and fall marathons. But there will also be potentially significant issues for the best US college athletes and foreign athletes on scholarship in US colleges.

Does this present some opportunities for people to do the NCAA outdoor season, take a short early summer break, and gear back up for late summer meets and WCs in the fall?

And perhaps even more significant, what about the conflict with cross country season, especially for foreign athletes?

I'd love to hear from anyone who watched the live stream to see if any financial details were revealed in the presentations. The IAAF has now made the video of the bid presentations and the announcement of the winner private.

Money clearly talks. Anytime anything goes to Doha you know that. It's hard to evaluate much of anything without knowing the financial details. Anytime anything goes to Doha I assume the highest bidder won (even if it is all above board). That had better be the case here as unless the IAAF got a ton of $ it wasn't going to get elsewhere I see no reason to select Doha. (But everything doesn't have to be done on totally objective criteria. 27 human beings vote on the winner. They may rather vacation in Doha in its 5 star hotels than Eugene.)

All else equal, Eugene would have won the right to host the Worlds. It makes sense to have the Worlds in the US. However, all else wasn't equal as Eugene is a much smaller city than any other that has hosted worlds. I know in the past with IAAF, there was the added cost of US bidders being asked to pick up the cost of the US taxes on prize money.

Eugene doesn't have Doha government money but it does have Nike.

My thinking was Nike would benefit more than anyone from Worlds being in Eugene. Thus, Nike would need to "buy" the games for Eugene, either through an increased sponsorship for the IAAF or being the financial muscle behind the bid somehow.

In 2010 I was in Monaco for the IAAF Annual Meeting. They flew me out to be on a panel involving the media and they wanted someone to represent internet media.

At the time as I posted in this thread

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=3794099#3795338

I was given the impression it cost roughly $80 million to host Worlds. Rule of thumb I was told was $20 million from tickets, $20 million from sponsorship and $40 million from elsewhere which often means the government.

In Doha the government could just pony up $80-$100 million of its own money if it wanted. Eugene didn't have this so I would like to know the financial details of their bid. That was kept quiet. Even though the University and state were involved Eugene2019 was able to keep stuff from coming out via open meetings. Nike or Phil Knight personally are two obvious candidates that could chip in in the US when the government could not.

Vin Lananna and Eugene2019 should be applauded for almost winning. I'm sure they don't want to hear that, but they were very bold. Eugene didn't fit the criteria for a Worlds city. That didn't stop them from nearly winning. Eugene only needed 2 people to vote differently to win. I thought for Eugene to win with the logistical drawbacks, the IAAF should make sure it gets a ton of $ from Nike. I realize now if $ were the criteria then there was no way Eugene could beat Doha.

However, now that Doha has won, Eugne2021 looks like a much better option. The adidas contract with the IAAF is up after 2019.Not very many cities are even bidding for Worlds.

Clearly the desire is there for the meet to be in the US. Coming at it from a very insider US track perspective I don't think a USA Worlds would move the needle as much as many think for track's popularity in the US or worldwide, but it definitely would help and would be much better than a Doha worlds. A Doha worlds has nothing intangible for it. Hopefully the IAAF will rake in a lot of money from Doha 2019, but it might be time to think about 2021.

There might be other bigger US cities with no logistical problems that could come up with a 30,000 seat stadium for track (SI's Tim Layden had a great piece saying Worlds should be in Eugene and he said the plan was to expand the stadium to 30,000:

http://www.si.com/edge/2014/11/13/tracktown-usa-bids-for-2019-track-and-field-worlds

) but other US cities wouldn't have Vin Lananna behind the bid with Nike's financial muscle and the Eugene mystique. Two more years lets another hotel or two get built in Eugene and better restaurants to come into town. Anything to get two more people to vote for Eugene.

Eugene came very close for 2019, they might cross the finishline first in 2021.

Thanks for the analysis Rojo. It would be interesting to hear the individual voters give their reasoning for choosing Qatar over the other two cities. Maybe as fans we should demand it. I wonder how much weight was given to the well-known human rights violations that are occurring during the Qatar World Cup construction projects, as well as the government's intolerance for gay and lesbian people and generally poor record on gender equality.

Camus wrote:

Why should stadium size be a factor? There won't be any spectators.

They'll squeeze in the surviving Nepalese and Indian world cup stadium slaves to make up the numbers (500 have died so far).

Doha twice tried to get the Olympics before. Grabbing the world championships in soccer is clearly the bigger deal so I thought they gave up on the Olympics.

So what do the world championships in T&F mean? Either

1. they want to test out logistics of a big event prior to the real world cup (soccer) or

2. they still want to grab the Olympics and want to demonstrate with a niche event like the T&F world championships that they're capable of doing so.

Or it could be the IAAF wants to grow the sport in that area, near Africa, which I believe has never hosted a major track championship.

Les wrote:

Or it could be the IAAF wants to grow the sport in that area, near Africa, which I believe has never hosted a major track championship.

Give me a break. Doha is 1,000 miles from Africa. Barcelona is 600 miles closer. And you really think they chose to forego putting the meet in the US (GDP $16 trillion) or the EU (GDP $18 trillion) to promote the sport in Africa (GDP $2.4 trillion).

There is a reason Africa and surrounding areas don't host these things. This will be a disaster.

Are they building a new stadium for this? The crowds will be great because they love distance there. The distance races in Doha are always exciting because the crowds get really fired up.

One thing that may factor into the bid for 2021 is the 2024 Olympics. Many think that the US will be primed to host the 2024 Olympics, and as long as they don't destroy the track too quickly, that winning city would be the perfect place to host a World Championship in 2025 or 2027. The decision of who will host the 2024 Olympics will be in September 2017. When will they bidding process for the 2021 World Championships be?

I watched the live stream. There was no outright discussion of the financials from any of the candidate cities. Eugene led off, however, with the President of the University of Oregon foundation indicating that it would be the financial guarantor of the event, similar as it did for the 2014 USA World Juniors. The President went on to say that they were in the midst of a $2B capital campaign (of which they are about 40% on the way towards, a fact which was not shared during the bidding presentation on the live stream).

Barcelona came after Eugene, then Doha brought it home.

A. Felix and Hicham El-G both spoke for the Eugene bid, which was interspersed with videos of Hayward, Oregon, and Ashton Eaton. Eugene's presentation focused on creating a legacy and bringing the event to the "mecca and heart and soul (not necessarily in that order)" of track and field.

Barcelona's presentation focused on technology; Doha's focused on "sport is a part of everything we are and do."

For an Oregonian, and a fan of the sport in the US, this is a loss. It's hard to say what it would have meant to the sport in the US, but I know it would have made a significant impact to both the economy and the sport in my state. Close one time does not guarantee another run in the future. This was a terrific shot, and the IAAF failed to see the USA as a viable player in the sport's future.

Homunculus wrote:

Les wrote:

Or it could be the IAAF wants to grow the sport in that area, near Africa, which I believe has never hosted a major track championship.

Give me a break. Doha is 1,000 miles from Africa. Barcelona is 600 miles closer. And you really think they chose to forego putting the meet in the US (GDP $16 trillion) or the EU (GDP $18 trillion) to promote the sport in Africa (GDP $2.4 trillion).

Yes, for the same reason FIFA chose to hold the 2010 World Cup in Africa, to promote the sport worldwide. The IAAF has held the World Championships in Europe, Asia and North America but never that part of the world.

Although I wasn't exactly sold on Eugene, but I was confident Vin would make it work somehow. My main issue wasn't Hayward field because adding the extra seating would have been more than big enough for the average WC attendance. My issue was Eugene, when people travel to a WC, you are looking to experience more than a track meet and Eugene simply isn't a travel destination. I am going to Rio in 2016, I will probably spend less than 20% of my time watching the Olympics. I am not traveling 2,000 miles and spending 5 grand to watch a track meet.

I understand the IAAF's reasoning for wanting to spread events around, but that effort has placed major events in locations that are unsuitable and undeserving and Doha is a perfect example. In addition to being very expensive, on the scale of Monaco. Doha has minimal nightlife, almost no nightlife unless you are fortunate enough to say at one of the large hotels. Qatar follows Shariah Law, which means something as simple as a public displays of affection or going for a run in shorts and a t-shirt can land you in jail, especially if done in an area not designated for expats. I have no doubt that Doha will have good attendance, but most of the people won't know what they are watching and as others have alluded to...it's hot as H. August temps average about 100 F and even in the mornings and evenings it's going to be in the mid-80s.

Why not have WC 3 of every 4 years? IAAF should have placed Eugene in for 2018 Worlds.

Thanks for the insight about the presentations warsawal.

warsawal wrote: This was a terrific shot, and the IAAF failed to see the USA as a viable player in the sport's future.

I disagree about this. It likely just felt Eugene was too small for Worlds logistically and we don't know the dollar figures involved. I don't doubt some people would rather go hang out in Doha than Eugene. There are a lot of factors involved.

And just because you do or do not host the Worlds doesn't mean you are the future of the sport. Is Canada track and field reaping the benefits of hosting Worlds in Edmonton now with a whole new generation of track stars? How is South Korean track doing?

The sport needs to still keep pushing forward in the US. If we won World's we would still need to do that. Yes more people in the US would have been exposed to a worlds in the US but what numbers are we talking about 20-50% more? Not that many people watch anyway.

Doha? Seriously? Demonstrates just how upside down the world is including the IAAF. Agree, this will be a disaster.