CentralPARunner

Championship Host Sites and the NCAA D1 Outdoor Track and Field Championships

The University of Oregon and Hayward Field have become synonymous with the NCAA Track and Field Championships, and with good reason. Eugene hosted the NCAA T&F Championships in 2010, 2013-2018, 2021-2022, and is the host site for the 2024-2027 championships. Due to construction in 2019-2020, Hayward Field was unavailable and the University of Texas was awarded host site responsibilities for those years. Since COVID wiped out the 2020 championships, Austin gets to play host to the 2023 NCAA meet. Simply put, from 2013 to 2027, 12 of the 14 events have or will take place in Eugene.

Is this good or bad for the sport?

If given the opportunity, here is how I would go about selecting future host sites for this tremendous championship event.

As a fan of the sport and as someone willing to travel to watch NCAAs, I would want a host site to have most of the following characteristics:

1. Great venue with ample seating (capacity to hold at least 10k spectators)

2. Great location with good housing, food, and entertainment infrastructure

3. Easy to get to (low travel costs)

4. Good weather (not too hot, not too cold)

From a competition standpoint, I would want a venue to:

1. Not be at altitude

2. Be at a location that attracts a lot of spectators

The NCAA conducted a small fan poll for the greatest track and field venues in the United States. You can see the article here. Recency and/or familiarity bias likely played into some of the results.

Not surprisingly, Hayward Field received the most votes.

– Eugene, Oregon

– 25,000 capacity

– Average June temps (H/L) and rain days: 74/48, 7 days

– 9 lane track

Others high on this list included:

Mike A. Myers Stadium at the University of Texas

– Austin, Texas

– 20,000 capacity

– Average June temps (H/L) and rain days: 92/72, 5 days

– 9 lane track

Franklin Field at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA

– Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

– 70,000 capacity

– Average June temps (H/L) and rain days: 84/67, 9days

– 9 lane track

Drake Stadium at Drake University

– Des Moines, Iowa

– 14,557 capacity

– Average June temps (H/L) and rain days: 82/62, 10 days

– 8 lane track

None of these 4 surprised me. We’ve already mentioned the exposure Hayward Field has received over the years. The University of Texas hosted the 2019 NCAA Championships and will host again in 2023. The Texas Relays are another big event held at Mike A. Myers Stadium each year. Franklin Field is famous for the Penn Relays and recently has been named home to the New Balance Outdoor HS Nationals. Drake Stadium is famous for the Drake Relays. Drake also hosted the 2011 and 2012 NCAA Championships.

So, over what will be a 17 year span (2010-2027), there have been only three host sites for the NCAA Track and Field Championships – Heyward Field (13 total, hosted in 2010 as well), Drake Stadium (2), and Mike A. Myers Stadium (2).

Some other venues that received votes in the NCAA fan poll were:

Bernie Moore Stadium at LSU

– Baton Rouge, Louisiana

– 5,680 capacity (too few seats to be awarded the championships)

– Average June temps (H/L) and rain days: 90/70, 9 days

– 9 lane track

John McDonell Field at the University of Arkansas

– Fayetteville, Arkansas

– 10,000 capacity

– Average June temps (H/L) and rain days: 84/64, 7 days

– 9 lane track

Hilmer Lodge Stadium at the Mt. San Antonio College (Mt. SAC)

– Walnut, California

– 10,739 capacity

– Average June temps (H/L) and rain days: 80/55, 0 days

– 9 lane track

Let’s look at where the athletes competing at the 2022 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships originate. In reviewing the 2022 NCAA Championship entries, here are the number of entries by competing college by state:

Here is the region by region comparison of total entries:

The largest contingent of athletes had the furthest distance to travel to get to Eugene. The Southeast region represented 37% of the total number of entries.

Using number of entries by region as a guide I have included a few more stadiums that could/should be considered as future host sites for the NCAA Championships:

Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium at Ohio State University

– Columbus, Ohio

– 10,000 capacity

– Average June temps (H/L) and rain days: 82/60, 7 days

– 9 lanes

Robert C. Haugh Complex at the University of Indiana

– Bloomington, Indiana

– 12,000 capacity

– Average June temps (H/L) and rain days: 82/62, 8 days

– 9 lanes

Marcus T. Johnson Track at North Carolina A&T

– Greensboro, North Carolina

– 23,000 capacity

– Average June temps (H/L) and rain days: 85/64, 8 days

– 8 lanes

Hodges Stadium at the University of N. Florida

– Jacksonville, Florida

– 12,000 capacity

– Average June temps (H/L) and rain days: 90/73, 10 days

– 9 lanes

Tom Black Track at the University of Tennessee

– Knoxville, Tennessee

– 10,000 capacity

– Average June temps (H/L) and rain days: 84/64, 8 days

– 8 lanes

Walter J. Zable Stadium at Cary Field ar William and Mary College

– Williamsburg, Virginia

– 11,646 capacity

– Average June temps (H/L) and rain days: 85/64, 7 days

– 8 lanes

Rock Chalk Park at the University of Kansas

– Lawrence, Kansas

– 7,543 capacity

– Average June temps (H/L) and rain days: 86/66, 7 days

– 9 lanes

Hornet Stadium at Sacramento State University

– Sacramento, California

– 21,195 capacity

– Average June temps (H/L) and rain days: 89/59, 0 days

– 9 lanes

Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium at Bucknell University

– Lewisburg, Pennsylvania

– 13,100 capacity

– Average June temps (H/L) and rain days: 80/58, 9 days

– 8 lanes

From the above mentioned stadiums/locations, here are the 10 I advanced to the next round of consideration for future host sites for the NCAA Track and Field Championships:

Hayward Field, University of Oregon – Eugene, OR

Franklin Field, University of Pennsylvania – Philadelphia, PA

Hilmer Lodge Stadium, Mt. SAC – Walnut, CA

Marcus T. Johnson Track, North Carolina A&T – Greensboro, NC

Mike A. Myers Stadium, University of Texas – Austin, TX

Walter J. Zable Stadium, College of William and Mary – Williamsburg, VA

Tom Black Track, University of Tennessee – Knoxville, TN

Hornet Stadium, Sacramento State University – Sacramento, CA

Hodges Stadium, University of North Florida – Jacksonville, FL

Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium, Ohio State University – Columbus, OH

The most difficult stadium for me to remove was Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium at Bucknell University. This is a gorgeous facility, but not being close to major airports, lacking adequate hotels, restaurants, and entertainment options, makes it a near impossible sell as a future championship host site. I also removed any stadium that did not have seating capacity for at least 10,000 spectators.

Next, I used Orbitz.com and selected dates in the future 1 month from now and nearly 1 year from now. With the championships occurring each year Thursday through Sunday I made an assumption many spectators would travel to the host site on Wednesday and leave on Monday. Those were the travel days used in the assessment. Averaging airfare prices from some of the busiest airports in the US to each of the 10 potential destinations you derive average national airfare prices from various access points across the country. Airports used for this assessment included Philadelphia (PHL) and Baltimore (BWI) for those of us in Central PA (whichever was cheapest was used in the calculation). Additionally, Atlanta (ATL), Dallas Fort-Worth (DFW), Denver (DEN), Chicago (ORD), and Los Angeles (LAX) were included as the 5 busiest airports in the US.

Using these data points, this was the average cost of airfare to each of the 10 potential host sites:

Then I looked at city rankings for things like “night life” and “most fun.” If I am going to a new city for a 4 day championship event, I am going to want to enjoy myself and explore the area. Here is what I found:

Austin, Texas was the clear winner. Having visited before, I can attest that Austin is a very cool city!

To add further scrutiny to the selections, I weighted the 5 key indicators. Having a 9-lane track was the lowest weighted category. Seating capacity was weighted less because I already eliminated any stadium that holds less than 10,000 spectators. Airline costs (overall travel costs) was weighted the most.

So, how do the final scores add up?

These are the 4 sites I would rotate through:

I would attend the NCAA Championships each year if they were rotated annually or biannually amongst these 4.

So, to answer my earlier question – Is this good or bad for the sport that Hayward Field has been awarded so many championships? I think this is bad for the sport.

So, which stadiums did I leave off the list that you think should be considered as future host sites? What other criteria should be used to determine host sites? Comment to the Twitter or Instagram post linked to this post!