NCAA D1 track and Dempsey indoor - good enough?

The fan experience and, frankly, the athlete experience are not great, but don’t expect any changes. An oversized track on the west coast near a major airport (and affordable hotels) checks the necessary boxes for west coast coaches. The wealth of distance talent in the Pac12, Mountain West, WCC and other random west coast schools have no other options and teams from the Midwest and South will continue to follow to hop on the gravy train.

It’s a lot easier to travel to Seattle in February than Ann Arbor, South Bend, Northwest Arkansas, Spire, or even Boston.

Adghjitc wrote:

The fan experience and, frankly, the athlete experience are not great, but don’t expect any changes. An oversized track on the west coast near a major airport (and affordable hotels) checks the necessary boxes for west coast coaches. The wealth of distance talent in the Pac12, Mountain West, WCC and other random west coast schools have no other options and teams from the Midwest and South will continue to follow to hop on the gravy train.

It’s a lot easier to travel to Seattle in February than Ann Arbor, South Bend, Northwest Arkansas, Spire, or even Boston.

Agree with this.

They could probably do Nampa instead, but nobody wants to run on a 200m banked track when an oversized track is available. Nampa probably has too small of stands, too.

Anyway, I actually like watching meets at Dempsey in a way. But that is at the normal meets, when they are less crowded.

More sub-4:00 miles than any other facility in the world.

Looks Iowa State had 25 guys break 14 this past weekend. I don’t think people would want to travel there a second time though.

Bottom Line wrote:

More sub-4:00 miles than any other facility in the world.

It's clearly fast but that's not the question, although a big reason why it exists. When will coaches consider moving forward with how the sport is operated at the highest levels of the sport? UW is such a great example of how we all think of the sport: times times times. What about fan experience? What about the athletes who literally are piled into a corral in the middle of the turf for hours, sitting on the ground?? What other D1 sport throws the competitors in a pile on the ground for hours at a time?! It's so embarrassing that the Dempsey is the best we have.

At what point do we collectively decide that we don't want to support a PAC12 university who won't dedicate the resources for an actual competition venue? Why don't they throw a banked 200m on that turf and bring in stands to put around the oval? It would raise it to an acceptable level at least.

If only Oregon/UCLA/Stanford/Cal/etc would build a proper indoor facility then I feel UW would completely die out.

Only 9 under 14, which is ~ 4:05-6 mile; nobody broke 4:00.

Most interesting results were Fisher getting outkicked by Trouard in the 3K and a guy from Kansas named Hoppel outkicking Harris in 1:47

Predictor wrote:

Looks Iowa State had 25 guys break 14 this past weekend. I don’t think people would want to travel there a second time though.

Only 9 under 14, which is ~ 4:05-6 mile; nobody broke 4:00.

Most interesting results were Fisher getting outkicked by Trouard in the 3K and a guy from Kansas named Hoppel outkicking Harris in 1:47

You obviously didn’t watch the meet. You were looking at results of the slow heat. Knight ran 13:39 and 15 other guys broke 14 in the fast heat. Look further down in pttiming to find the results. This may have been the best group of college runners ever to race at the same meet. Think about this, not all of those guys will make it to nationals so the field was actually deeper here. Boycott Dempsey.

Nampa actually has too many lol. they play football games in there.

boise state is better than dempsey viewing wise. it really sucks how there's no top tier indoor facilities in the US that can fit like 5000 on chairs with backs.

oh wait I mixed up nampa with idaho state

The Dempsey sucks for viewing. I don't totally blame them because they never anticipated it becoming a popular spot for PNW-based elite distance runners to race, which brings in a lot of spectators (really). Indoor track and field is not big on the West Coast so there are no other options.

BTW I have no problem with 300m tracks with practice football fields in the middle. The problem is it is built to be a practice facility with no room for seating anywhere and it probably sucks for running too because everyone's crowded on the turf infield.

bottom line wrote:

Predictor wrote:

Looks Iowa State had 25 guys break 14 this past weekend. I don’t think people would want to travel there a second time though.

Only 9 under 14, which is ~ 4:05-6 mile; nobody broke 4:00.

Most interesting results were Fisher getting outkicked by Trouard in the 3K and a guy from Kansas named Hoppel outkicking Harris in 1:47

Hoppel didn't outkick Harris. Hoppel was in the second fastest heat and pulled away in the last 200. Harris was in the fast heat and outkicked Mau.

The only reason there is a track in the Dempsey track exists is that Neal Dempsey stipulated that there be a track in the training facility before it was built. I don't think anyone would have thought that there would have been approximately 180 sub four minute miles run there by now, or the pressure on the facility would become so great. It is terrible to watch in but is a huge improvement from the old days in Hec Ed on a slow, flat 200m track. It's great the the UW is willing to host so many meets in a short season. Before Dempsey, the thought of having an indoor season for many of the schools in the area was nothing but a novelty. I bet if they had it to do over they might have put a set of stands on the west(?) wall since there is really nothing outside to get in the way

Whoever posted the photo of Idaho State’s track has the answer. Rubberize that thing and you’ve got a massive indoor track arena with plenty of seats.

I approve this message! It is a miserable place to compete and the track is not a producer of quality performances. The turns are not nice to sprinters, and the meets are always over crowded, sight lines are miserable for the coaches, the fans and TV. One, two, three strikes you are out!

dee one wrote:

Bottom Line wrote:

More sub-4:00 miles than any other facility in the world.

What about the athletes who literally are piled into a corral in the middle of the turf for hours, sitting on the ground?? What other D1 sport throws the competitors in a pile on the ground for hours at a time?!

The athletes are not piled inside for hours. They have the freedom to leave and warm-up, or go do whatever outside.

Answer to OP: NEVER, unless the NCAA Championships quit accepting qualifying marks made on oversized tracks.

I agree that it's the worst place in the world to watch T&F. The weird lap length of 307.4m is because the oval was originally planned to have 6 lanes with a 300m lap length, but the football program didn't want their end zones rounded off on the corners, so, goodbye to Lane 1, except on the straight. 307.4m is the length of the measure line in Lane 2, which became the inside lane on the turns. Track is purple Mondo.

I am sure that plenty of folks are very glad to have this indoor facility at all. Even the football program is lucky to have it as a practice facility--the ONLY reason it got built is . . . because Oregon built an indoor football practice facility, and the Huskies couldn't stomach getting left behind by the Ducks.

Fast track, direct flights from everywhere, lots of hotels, easy to get to, great place to run qualifying times. Who cares about the stands.

It's a terrific facility.