Eugene RG exclusive: Phil Knight walked away from paying for Hayward Field renovations last year, Worlds weren't coming to US

Lose the Worlds. Keep Hayward as is. The ambience there is truly exceptional as everyone who competes and spectates at HHF knows well. Even Katherine Merry's strangely Tolkeinesque announcing can't dull the thrill of the sight of the sun sparking on the stands and track and the top-class competitors lining up to the roar of the crowd. Even the swirling wind adds to the intrigue...were the sprints and 110H windy, or not??!

Too bad Alan Webb wasn't permitted to call the Bowerman Mile while young J. Ingebrigtsen began his final backstretch drive. He came past the stands and threw T-shirts to the crowd but he could have been used to hype everyone - incluing himself - up a little more.

HHF is awesome. The example of welcome, sportsmanship and appreciation of athletic excellence is bettered by no crowd in the entire world. Even for less high-profile events like the shot, the spectators know what's good, what's not, and what's great, even before the shot lands and they clearly signal their appreciation of these performances.

I have attended GP and DL meets in Europe including at the iconic Crystal Palace on a number of occasions including when JE set his UK ACR of 17.88 and can tell you all, the atmosphere was nowhere near as engaged, positive and knowlegeable as it as at PRE. The athletes all mean it sincerely when they acknowledge the HHF crowd. EMPHASIS ON the FIRST H!!

HHF the only T&F venue in the Americas that rivals or surpasses most European DL stadia. Everyone around me at Hayward @ PRE was bitching about the same problem, the new stadium. We all know that grandiose construction projects are growth coalition politics at work using public land grant facilities as a football. Sooo.... tell them all (Knight, IAAF cronies) to F off and keep Hayward the way it is.

NAHF NewAnodyneHaywardField - can F OFF.

Get rid of that dump stadium and build new dorms, a shopping mall, and a parking structure.

1 Almost zero of the athletes are the yearly PreClassic want to fly across the ocean to the US but Nike makes them waste their time or else Nike threatens to cancel their contract.

2 I wouldn't use taxpayers money to pay for a niche sport such as T&F that no-body cares about in the US.

3 The Olympics are 3 years from now in 2024. Wake me up then. I'll be interested in T&F if the Olympics are on TV.

I still can't understand for the life of me why Nike hasn't build a world class indoor and outdoor track facility in Portland. The World Championships would have been granted to Portland long ago if that were the case. Eugene really doesn't have the infrastructure to support a meet of this caliber, although they're working on it. Not enough hotels and the airport is tiny, expensive to get to and pretty inconvenient.

Why not just build Knight Stadium in Portland?

nikeman wrote:

I still can't understand for the life of me why Nike hasn't build a world class indoor and outdoor track facility in Portland. The World Championships would have been granted to Portland long ago if that were the case. Eugene really doesn't have the infrastructure to support a meet of this caliber, although they're working on it. Not enough hotels and the airport is tiny, expensive to get to and pretty inconvenient.

Why not just build Knight Stadium in Portland?

Answer:

"As with other projects financed by Knight, Oregon plans to lease the property to a private LLC for the purposes of construction. Rather than use the entity originally established for that purpose, Hayward Enhancement LLC, the property will be leased to Phit LLC, a company registered to the UO Foundation and backed by Knight."

This kind of arrangement would not be possible in Portland. Knight is footing a substantial portion of the building cost, sure, but the land is given to him and, when his monument is done, the property entire is given back to the University, which has the continuing responsibility to maintain it.

In Portland, Knight would have to acquire or devote valuable property for the purpose. And, having built and paid for it, he would have a structure that could not possibly pay for itself on a continuing basis: an immediate white elephant that would be his and his heirs' continuing financial responsibility.

The place is about the fans in the stands. Not the stands.

Move on.

You come across as a bunch of whiny old goats.