I’m sitting here watching the diamond league meet being held in Eugene Oregon and it hit me that this year the US national championships are being held there again. And it seemed to me that they have been held there for a few years now. So I looked online and this will be the fourth year in a row. Plus the worlds were help there in that time period. Looking over the chart of where they have been held no other city has held that many years in a row. And Eugene seems to hold them over half the time in the last twenty years.
I know they call Eugene track town USA. But it seems to me if you want to pick the team to represent the whole country you might want to let the whole country get a chance to see the best athletes in person. And I don’t mean just for those who can afford to travel to Oregon once a year.
And I don’t think they chose Eugene because of its moniker or because it was where one famous track star went to college. After all the US has been a dominate Track country on the World stage for a very long time with so many amazing athletes. Many with dramatic and even sad stories. I think it is because Eugene is located very close to the global headquarters of the main sponsor of team USA track and field Nike.
And I find it hard to believe in the last four years there wasn’t one other stadium they couldn’t find to host this event in the whole country. After all most colleges have track and field teams. Most large cities have stadiums for sports teams. But they aren’t home to Nikes headquarters. So why worry about building your sports fan base before the olympics. When you can please your sponsor instead.
ob the cuff 