Arkansas & Penn Relays

[sebastianc]

On anothere thread, I mentioned that I had read that Arkansas was not coming to the Penn Relays, this year. Nor are they going to Drake. Went over to their website and discovered that this is true. Furthermore they have established the Arkansas Invitational for that Saturday (4/27) and they will be at the Payton Jordan Invitational at Stanford the next day. Why? They have the horses
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When one doesn't understand something, my suggestion is follow the $.

They will save $ by not flying to Philadelphia and they will make $ by holding their own t&f meet. Guess that is important.

Weekend before, they are at Oregon for a sort of dual meet as part of the Oregon Relays. Believe there is a telecast of sorts.

What I always find fascinating about track & field in the U.S. is that it works overtime to prove that that it does not exist. If a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound. The Penn Relays probably draws more fans in its three days than all of these other meets combined. Even has a TV contract. It is a great weekend for track fans. Instead of supporting this event, those in track seem bent on diminishing it. Never understood why Drake Relays were the same weekend.

Note: the first Russian - American dual meet I believe was held at Franklin Field and it was a big deal.

Track meets use to be held at the Los Angeles Colesium, but now we hold the national trials and championships at Tracktown USA - Eugene - home of Nke $. It is quaint, but its like the NFL holding its Super Bowl in Canton, OH.

Great track on Randalls Island in NYC and the view of the city is great. Could use more stands though, but that can be fixed by simply building more. Philly has Frankin Field. LA and the Colesium. These are major metropolitan areas and people will come and track will have a platform. Right now it is a backwater sport that only has relevance during Olympic years. And it is a great sport ...

 

[novaclassof90]

Franklin Field can not really hold a big time meet. In its current configuration there are only 5 lanes that are regulation. Due to the stadium walls the inside 4 lanes are less than 400M. I don't see them knocking out 15 feet of the stadium to get a reg. track in that place.

 

[sebastianc]

Was over at the Penn Relays site. Texas was not listed. Checked. Texas - like Florida - is going to Arkansas Invitational. Why? Oh yes, $. Dollars are screwing up conferences in basketball and now track as well ...?

4x400 would have been really good and Arkansas would have been a player in DMR. Too bad.

So you kids out there with thoughts of running at Penn Relays in college , might want to rethink attending these schools. Notice Oregon comes every year and the kids head to Oregon every year.

 

[TheFoyeEffect]

Oregon doesn't come every year, but they have been coming fairly regularly in the last five years or so.

It's amazing how people in this sport are doing everything they can to kill it.

 

[Geronimo1907]

great, great sport but they do nothing to promote/enhance it.
Back in the day, there was NOTHING like the US/Soviet meets.