Has anyone ever tried to ask permission to use a private college's track?

mid D guy wrote:

I think raising liability issues is kind of BS because the college does not want to be bothered.

I completely agree with this. It's more of a way to deflect. If the institution raises it as an issue, perhaps becoming a USATF sanctioned club could help your cause? USATF provides group liability insurance coverage to sanctioned clubs. You could always provide the policy to the institution and sign a liability waiver.

They're not legally liable for squat that happens to you when using their track.

"In order to win a premises liability case against the owner of a stadium or sports facility, you must be able to prove that the stadium owner was negligent (i.e., that the owner did something wrong).

Simply because you slipped and fell does not mean that the owner was negligent. Further, simply because the floor was slippery does not mean that the owner was negligent. The floor had to have been unreasonably slippery. Then, in order to prove that the stadium owner was negligent, you must prove that the owner knew or should reasonably have known that the floor was unreasonably slippery, and failed to take steps to fix the problem."

So, while it is absolutely correct that legal liability and vandalism (as well as control) are the reasons that they lock up the track (not school shootings! What a dumb thing to claim! There's no one at a track anyway) and that they won't say yes if you ask administration for formal permission, you couldn't possibly win a case against them and probably no one has ever done so unless, say, they knew that there was a sinkhole developing around the track that was about to swallow it up into the earth and did nothing to warn anyone. They'd actually make money from opening up the tracks, because then their students and friends of the university would be healthier and live longer and donate more to the college (or high school fund).

Some coaches will still let you do it. Where they don't have control over the track outside of practice, they sometimes say that you can run with the team. But we should really organize to promote public access rules for publicly funded tracks so that this isn't such a hindrance to track in this country.

We asked permission from our local track/CC coach and he said he could approve it if we were a club.....so we called ourselves the PC running club. We got a few questions from maintenance and security but they just said "okay" when we said we were part of the PC running club and coach gave us permission to use during this time. We were also over the top respectful....if there was any trash around the track we'd pick it up and discard it. The maintenance guys never bothered us after they saw us do that once. Oh, and never made a formal club out of it....just called ourselves that when asked.

Luckily everywhere I've ever lived has had a track open to the public within a 15 minute drive of my house. I think mostly because I've lived pretty far outside major city areas. Portland is the only city I've lived right in the middle of but that was easy with Duniway, Wilson, and Lincoln all right there.

Ask forgiveness and not permission. If they question you be polite, play dumb. In most cases they'll leave you alone or let you finish the session. Rinse and repeat

In Canada you can usually get on most tracks - but they're asphault, and like 367m. They fuuucking suck. Oh and tons of dog walkers - off leash in lane one etc despite explicit "no dogs allowed".

But you can pretty much use any one while school is not on.

However the nice fancy tracks are locked up. Most of them are city tracks not even affiliated with any school. Lol I pay as a taxpayer but it's only for school competitions. Fuuucking twads. I guess they want to keep the dog walkers off.

The only one thats city owned, synthetic, and not locked up some bullshiit guard came up and give me the business about covid while I was there last at 6-7am alone...

The answer to all your questions is MONEY.

I’m a retired D3 coach. I set up a club for neighborhood runners who wanted to use the track. They contributed a small yearly fee which went to my program. My conditions were they stayed out while university teams were using it and I knew them or they came from a referral. When the school found out they put a stop to it but I continued it on the sly. They wanted the money for their general fund. So the answer to your question and to all questions is MONEY!

zcxvxczv wrote:

(not school shootings! What a dumb thing to claim! There's no one at a track anyway).

My theory is correct.

Brek wrote:

Ask forgiveness and not permission. If they question you be polite, play dumb. In most cases they'll leave you alone or let you finish the session. Rinse and repeat

We got a ladies man over here. Youre on thin ice, pal. The wokesters catch wind of what youre saying here and youre done.

Does the card reader open the gate or are you just supposed to scan when using it? If you don't need a card to unlock something, I imagine it's probably not too hard to get access. Athletics director, facilities management, or campus security could probably point you in the right direction. I really think the school would let you use it, maybe if you just signed some waiver saying you won't hold them liable for any injury.

Asking the track/xc coach is the right move. I myself go to a college out of my state and when I get home over break I go and use another college's track, some of my friends go there and I usually go along with at least one friend and never had any problem using the track.

I assume every college has a Development office that is responsible for fund-raising. Call them, tell them you are considering making a donation, and ask them if they can arrange access to the track. If you are willing to pay enough, they will make it happen.

The whole state? No public tracks?

Private HS in Flint MI with nice track. Open to public year round. Public even uses outside lanes during track practice. Can’t we all just get along.

tycobb wrote:

OozmaKappa wrote:

Pretty much every school is built and guarded like a prison now, you cant just walk in like you could before.

I blame the democrat fearmongering of school shootings as a boogeyman.

This response is just pure ignorance. Despite the fact that school shootings happen about weekly that is never given as a reason. It is an insurance issue but also a maintaince issue. There was a track open at one of our local schools and someone carved a swastika into the track surface. You open it up to one and it is open to everyone.

Insurance is BS. Otherwise the city and any publicly accessible area owned by any person or entity would be quoting the same thing.

The swastika is equally BS. Graffiti and vandalism are policing issues. Again, just like they would be in any publicly accessible place.

It's the same in the area I'm from and gun violence has never been an issue in my country or city. It's not that I get afraid of being bounced, it's the fact that my workout can be completely sabotaged if I'm asked to leave halfway through. Or even being slightly aware of the possibility doesn't let your mind be free and focus on the workout. There needs to be more open tracks, would probably police itself

I have no problem walking on to my local universities track, but it’s a 40 min drive away.

The local city owned track a warm up jog from my house on the other hand, is only open 7:30 to 2:30 Monday to Friday, provided no events are going on. Ie, any normal person with a job, can’t use it.

Wrote to the city and they claimed they didn’t have the staff to keep it open… it’s a track, just open the gate.

3 points (at least) come to mind reading this thread:

- The liability explanation...isn't someone WAY more/most likely going to hurt themselves (and sue) breaking into a locked track (like climbing the fence for example, or squeezing through an opening) than they are easily walking into a wide open track and running/walking on it?

- If someone really wants to do damage at a track, wouldn't that person who has the means to damage it, also have the means to break in? So you aren't going to keep that type of person out anyway.

- Where is the connection between school shootings and having access to an open/unused track when no official school events (i.e. crowds) are going on? Is locking a track during non-event hours going to prevent a shooting? (See above...a person of that mentality to shoot people will have no problem breaking into a track, so you aren't keeping someone like that out anyway.)