The track and field world championships begin in 10 days at the new Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.
Track nerds are all worked up over whether Hayward will be full, or not, as if that’s the marker for success for these worlds, first-ever in the United States.
As usual, they’re wrong.
The stands will be full. As Rich Perelman points out in his Sports Examiner (note: highly recommended reading), dismal attendance at Hayward at the NCAAs and the USA nationals means little to nothing, because worlds ticket sales portend a sellout.
Not close to anywhere! Your 2022 world track and field championships: Eugene, Oregon
At any rate, so what? Sports in the 21st century is all about television, not who’s there. Did anyone notice that mid-July in the United States marks the start of NFL training camps? On TV, it’s gonna be wall-to-wall Brady this, Mahomes that. But I digress.
There are three major problems confronting these world championships. Two are obvious. The other is probably not.
—
One, this meet is in Eugene.
Eugene is without question the smallest city, anywhere, to stage these championships. It’s not, say, Rome or Helsinki or Tokyo. Not hardly.
As Seb Coe, president of World Athletics, told the Wall Street Journal in a story published in late June about the state of track and field in the United States, “If I’m being blunt, we’ve got to get into the LAs, the Chicagos, the Miamis.”
It’s no secret behind the scenes that the organizing committee is being overseen by a cadre of Brits imported from the 2017 championships in London and the meet is — well, American. This has not proven an optimal fit, culturally and otherwise.
It’s also no secret that hotels are scarce; conditions for the media last year at the Trials were stupid bad, and gaining entry — in many cases, getting a visa — into the United States has been so off-putting that significant people, including some of the sport’s most notable writers, have said, screw it, we’ll go to the Commonwealth Games or European Championships instead.
Also, for a world championship meet, this stadium is small. Translation: way too small.
—
Two:
The optimist in me would love to believe that these championships will do what was — is, now with a twist on the repackaging — the central aim for some of these 2022 worlds: grow the sport in the United States.
When Eugene was surprisingly awarded this meet, in April 2015, here was USA Track & Field president Vin Lananna in the New York Times: “The entire, entire basis of our bid was to grow the sport. We believe hosting the world championships in the United States has the potential of reigniting Americans’ passion for track and field.”
It’s seven years later, and there’s no indication that anything since has been sparky. Not even the advent of stars such as 400-meter hurdler and world record-breaker Sydney McLaughlin, a once-in-a-generation talent.
The twist on the “growing the sport” packaging in recent months — see that same June 25 Wall Street Journal article — is that the championships are now being presented as a springboard to the LA28 Olympics.
Oh.
Because in April 2015, LA was nowhere near getting the 2028 Olympics. That month, Boston was the 2024 candidate for the Games. It wasn’t until July 2015 that Boston withdrew; Los Angeles stepped in as the 2024 candidate on September 1, 2015. Two years later, in September 2017, the IOC agreed on a two-fer by which Paris got 2024 and LA 2028.
At any rate, the challenge with this presentation is fundamental, and again it goes back to — to be precise, through — the local organizing committee.
Let’s assume that the springboard-to-’28 makes sense, that it deserves reasonable consideration. On one side you’ve got Coe and Max Siegel, the chief executive of USATF, who genuinely are in trying to move the right levers, thinking long-term, aiming now for 2028. On the other, you’ve got the Oregon people, and what is their motivation?
To promote Oregon.
Not to grow track and field.
To promote Oregon.
The state of Oregon’s contribution to this project was roughly $40 million. That represents roughly half the funding Oregon22 said it needed. Breaking that $40 million down:
— Travel Oregon, the state tourism agency, provided $20 million
— The Oregon Lottery ponied up another $10 million
— The federal government said in February it would be contributing a $9 million grant
In support of her grant request, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said promoting the state’s travel and hospitality sector was a “keystone” of her post-pandemic economic recovery plan. The $9 million comes from $750 million in federal monies allocated to travel, tourism and outdoor recreation funds.
When the state and feds are giving you half your money, are you in a position to say no to what they want their messaging to be? This question answers itself.
Go to the World Athletics website for these championships. What does it say? “Hello, World. Meet Oregon.”Further down: “Explore Oregon.” To the right: “Where is Oregon?” Good question! (Far away from everywhere.) Tip for those who don’t know: it’s pronounced Ohr-ee-gun. Not Or-uh-gone.
In case you really needed to be knocked over the head that the Oregon people are all about Oregon, and not growing track and field across the 50 states over the next six years, on June 21 they released a promo video in which former Portland Trail Blazer and noted Deadhead Bill Walton narrates a love video all about Oregon, urging you to come to the worlds. Here was Brent MacCluer, marketing director for the championships: “Fans love Bill, and Bill loves Oregon, so this was a perfect opportunity to bring the two together to help showcase what makes Oregon so special and to build even more anticipation for the World Athletics Championships.”
For years, I have been accused of being down on Eugene. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I first visited Eugene when I was 17, literally three days out of high school in rural Ohio, on my way to Reedsport to the west, to start a coast-to-coast bicycling trip, and immediately loved Eugene— as a sweet college town. A few years later, I had an internship in college at the Bulletin, the newspaper across the mountains in Bend. After graduation from Northwestern, I tried to get a newspaper job, any job, in Oregon. No one would hire me.
Has anyone in the Oregon media, seemingly smitten with these championships, reported what’s what? Unless I have missed it (possible), it’s up to me here to point out what’s what: the state of Oregon, through and with Oregon22, is working at cross-purposes with World Athletics and USATF.
—
Third:
We have a horrific, terrible problem in this country with gun culture.
I spent 10 days recently at the world swimming championships in Budapest and it is remarkable to hear how many people are openly expressing trepidation about coming to the United States because they are genuinely fearful.
I don’t blame them. Not one bit.
I was born in and grew up near Dayton, Ohio. On August 4, 2019, a 24-year-old man shot and killed nine people, including his brother, and wounded 17 others near the entrance of the Ned Peppers Bar in Dayton’s Oregon District (why is the district called Oregon? because it was originally so far from downtown that it might as well have been in, well, Oregon — that is, remote and far away). The gunman was killed by responding police officers all of 32 seconds after the first shots were fired. I know this bar. I know this street.
On Monday, a gunman shot and killed six people and wounded dozens more at an Independence Day parade in Highland Park, Illinois. This small Chicago suburb, a few miles north of Northwestern, is where my mother lived after she remarried. I have any number of friends who live or have lived there. I have walked the block where these shots rained down too many times to count.
We live in uncertain times. Let’s hope fervently that these Oregon22 world championships are, above everything else, one thing, because that will be one irrefutable marker for success:
Safe.