I have an assignment today. Boss said to get a list of the top 10 paid attended professional/collegiate meets in the US. Wikipedia is of little help.
He did ask not to include NCAA/USATF/OlyTrials because they vary city to city.
Discus.
Penn Relays- 49,000
Texas Relays- 18,000
Drake Relays- 15,000
Prefontaine- 14,000
Can you add more. Indoors? Road races with paid seating?
Asker of questions wrote:
I have an assignment today. Boss said to get a list of the top 10 paid attended professional/collegiate meets in the US. Wikipedia is of little help.
He did ask not to include NCAA/USATF/OlyTrials because they vary city to city.
Discus.
Penn Relays- 49,000
Texas Relays- 18,000
Drake Relays- 15,000
Prefontaine- 14,000
Can you add more. Indoors? Road races with paid seating?
1. sounds like you must have the hardest job in the world.
2. I think attendance numbers will drop off quickly after that. NBIGP/Tyson Invite indoors both get good attendance, but are severely limited by the size of the indoor seating. Not sure what those numbers are, but I'd guess 5000 would be generous. Adidas GP in NYC has more potential, and with the strong line-up they have this year, we'll see how they do selling tickets, but in the past, only the home straight would really have anyone, so I'd guess at most that would have had 5000. BU Valentine/Terrier always had a packed house for multiple days, but very very few paid spectators.
Thanks for the reply. I am looking into Mt. SAC, too. Any ideas there?
I looked into the NY adidas meet and don't get why the NY area can't bring more than 4,000 people when there are 23.6 million people. I called my boss but he said the Prefontaine guy was smarter than the Boston guy. No help.
bump
Does Bolder Boulder count with the stadium full of people?
This year or ever? Don't understand why you wouldn't want to include nationals but for a non-Olympic or championship meet the highest attendance for a 2 day event is 153,500.
http://m.bleacherreport.com/articles/342578-usa-vs-ussr-1962-the-greatest-track-meet-of-all-time
I am curious... Why lie and say your boss wants to know?
You should add in the NCAA championship meet and the USATF championship meet (Including Olympic Trials). I would guess that the NCAA meet attracts around 40,000 when it is held in Eugene. The USATF (Olympic Trials) meet usually attracts around 50,000 when held in Eugene.
I have the numbers from 2010. Things have changed in NYC.
http://tracksuperfan.com/2010-attendance-report
Penn 54
Texas 21
Drake 14.5
Kansas 13
Pre 13
Adidas GP 13
Millrose 11.5
Oregon Relays 7
Oregon Twilight 6
Oregon Preview 6
Jesse Owens 5.7
HS meets? CA State Meet gets 16-18k annually.
173,153 was the paid attendance for the 8 day Oly Trials at Hayward Field in Eugene at the 2012 Trials. Every day averaged over 20,000.
Put this discus in your hand and throw it.
http://tracksuperfan.com/us-attendance-data
From 2013 and 2012.
Man that adidas meet really tanked. Is this the same promoter that drove Millrose out of MSG? Was he also the promoter of the Carson meet? Global Athletics my @ss.
Asker of questions wrote:
Thanks for the reply. I am looking into Mt. SAC, too. Any ideas there?
I looked into the NY adidas meet and don't get why the NY area can't bring more than 4,000 people when there are 23.6 million people. I called my boss but he said the Prefontaine guy was smarter than the Boston guy. No help.
The only reason anyone knows ICahn exists is there is because they pass it on the way to the airport.
No-one knows how to get there (there's one sweaty overcrowded bus from East Harlem).
The organization stinks.
The facilities stink. Last year the big screen blew around 180 degrees until it was facing away from the Stadium. The back straight has 2 porta-potties. The refreshment stand (about the size of a lemonade stand) managed to run out of change by 4pm last year. Then they ran out of drinks and buns for the stale looking hot dogs.
The only marketing I've seen is a few posters in Times Square station and as we know, New York commuters love to stand around looking at posters.
The stadium only holds 5,000 these days anyway. Nice track to run on though.
Asker of questions wrote:
I have an assignment today. Boss said to get a list of the top 10 paid attended professional/collegiate meets in the US. Wikipedia is of little help.
He did ask not to include NCAA/USATF/OlyTrials because they vary city to city.
Discus.
Penn Relays- 49,000
Texas Relays- 18,000
Drake Relays- 15,000
Prefontaine- 14,000
Can you add more. Indoors? Road races with paid seating?
I think your numbers are a little low for each of those meets; I think Penn averages 50k+ and I think Texas averages 20k+. I am surprised Pre is only 14k when states like NJ, Texas and Cali average 10K+ for their H.S. state champs.
Very, very few college or pro meets compile attendance data. FIFA : corruption :: track : incompetence. Also, you're lazy--most of this is relatively easy to track down--and I expect part of your paycheck.
For 2015...
Penn Relays:
Thursday: 22,537
Friday: 39,130
Saturday: 48,920
Total: 110,587
Source: Track Newsletter
Drake Relays:
Thursday: 5,791
Friday Morning/Afternoon: 9,672
Friday Night: 10,770
Saturday: 14,504
Total Attendance: 40,737
Source:
http://www.godrakebulldogs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?&ATCLID=210037098&DB_OEM_ID=15700
Texas Relays:
"Attendance for the four-day meet was 41,253, which included a crowd of 20,299 Saturday and 15,529 Friday".
Source:
http://www.texassports.com/news/2015/3/26/relays_0326155711.aspx?path=relays
Prefontaine Classic:
yet to take place, usually between 14,000 and 15,000
After those, the best-attended meets are state high school championships. As for college or pro meets, it's slim pickings. Global Athletics doesn't release attendance figures because they obviously don't care whether anyone shows up to their meets or not. Millrose doesn't release figures but is usually a sellout or darn close, figure 5,000+, maybe something similar for the Armory Invitational. And besides that, what pro meets are there in this country?
As far as college meets go, the only place that regularly releases outdoor attendance data is Oregon. Arkansas, Texas A&M and occasionally Notre Dame release indoor attendance figures. Mt. SAC probably has decent attendance but they've never announced a number. Even a few years ago, the USC-UCLA dual would bring in thousands but no numbers have been released from that meet for a while.
"I don't doubt the Saturday attendance figure of of 7,322 for the Oregon Relays at Hayward Field -- assuming the school counted all the participants as part of the total."
Source: Ken Goe, The Oregonian
http://www.oregonlive.com/trackandfield/index.ssf/2014/04/the_oregon_relays_was_a_good_m.html
Oregon Twilight: 5,717
Source:
http://www.oregonlive.com/trackandfield/index.ssf/2015/05/matthew_maton_delights_the_ore.html
Oregon vs Washington vs Kentucky: 3,428
Source:
http://www.oregonlive.com/trackandfield/index.ssf/2015/04/monday_morning_news_notes_link_15.html