Why is the stadium at Pre Classic so empty?

Because Marcel Jacobs pulled out of the 100m, and people want their money back.

Is track deaf?

I know a ton of people will use the location or weather excuse. The Winter classic for NHL was packed in lake Tahoe. Freezing weather and difficult to get to

I would of paid $13 to watch Keely and Athing duke it out but someone got a cold and dropped out. People refusing to race if they aren’t 100% is very bad for the sport. Michael Jordan’s flu game is a thing of the past sadly

Mu dropped out of a mile race earlier this year when she knew she wasn't going to win, just to preserve her perfect racing sheet for the year. So making excuses to not show up comes as no surprise sadly.

really dumb that last night was on runnerspace only. they dont even have replays on peacock/nbc sports. cant even find a youtube vid of the races. just lol at people that "own" running content thinking its a profitable business. just make it free to grow the sport.

... because the event is in a cow town with 3 hotels.

And:

Nobody cares about track&field because you need 35 different paid accounts to watch any of that.

The savvy T&F fans of Eugene knew that there wasn't going to be a WR set.

I was there. Lack of fans in Eugene for Pre was shocking. Cooper Teare sat behind my 11 year old boy for the mens 10k.

The weather was great. Seeing Joe Klecker beating Fisher was great.

“Galen Rupp in his prime would never lose to Joe Klecker”

Heard from a guy in Teares group behind us……..

Nobody is at the Vlassic coz everyone’s doing Classic.

I don't think it's down to the weather as this event is one where people plan in advance to attend, due to the distances. I wonder if it wasn't marketed well?

Tickets to Pre have skyrocket over last 5-6 years. Same ticket area by finish is 3x more at $125 than in 2016. Upper level tix last night were $40 including fees. Throw in gas costs, meal costs, hotel costs, etc and track fans have to pick and choose. NCAA meet will have a very light attendance this year. USA’s could be as well with the high cost of Worlds. Hotels charging $385 (Motel 6) to $800 (Graduate, formerly Hilton). Air BnB’s are $500 to $5000 a night per house from 2 bedroom dump to 5 bedroom nice place. Many from within 2-3 hours are not spending the night but also limiting days they attend.

From my limited experience in the new stadium it seems there is a big attendance problem. I attended 3 days at US championships and never once saw even close to a packed stadium. Granted the weather was not great and the covid restrictions were strange at the time but still. Was able to sit way closer to the track than the tickets I purchased got me.

Saudi Cornhole league had 1st Major on tv last night .

Agree with the cost of tickets going up. The cost of hotels for Pre weekend were actually not too crazy. I’m staying at one of the nicest hotels downtown and my rate is around $230 a night. I did book back in November though. No excuse for the stadium to be so empty. It was embarrassing. I go to a lot of track meets. This is the first one my 12 year old wanted to go to. I was hoping to hook her with the excitement of the meet last night. Didn’t happen.
Eugene definitely isn’t living up to its Track Town USA billing.

It seems pretty obvious that it’s a spectacular stadium but it is in a small hard to get to to city and people really aren’t interested in traveling a long ways to watch expensive track meets.

Mu didn't catch a cold. Mu caught Covid. Again.

Longtime meet director (1984-2021) Tom Jordan retired last year but I never saw an announcement of who the new meet director is. Is the abrupt increase in ticket prices, including a first-ever charge for Distance Night due to the new meet director? Is the poor promotion and lack of a sellout after a long string of them also due to the change in management?

Who IS the Prefontaine Classic meet director?

Would of? Is English your first language?

Agreed. This is quite a pickle.