always nice to have new facilities come on board

[polevaultpower]

United flies nonstop Eugene-O'Hare

Yeah but not on a plane big enough to carry poles. To the best of my knowledge, pole vaulters always have to land in Portland and rent a car and drive down to Eugene. It has become pretty difficult to fly anywhere in the US with poles unless the airline is Southwest.

United also flies nonstop Chicago to Spokane, and looks to be cheaper than Eugene.

[Conor Dary]

Yeah but not on a plane big enough to carry poles. To the best of my knowledge, pole vaulters always have to land in Portland and rent a car and drive down to Eugene. It has become pretty difficult to fly anywhere in the US with poles unless the airline is Southwest.

United also flies nonstop Chicago to Spokane, and looks to be cheaper than Eugene.

So Southwest has the pole vault monopoly!

I really like Southwest.... practically the only airline I fly on....

[Halfmiler2]

Curious, as Ive never been to Spokane before, but is it more challenging to get to Spokane than it is Eugene? I would guess, west coast areas aside, many (most?) would connect through Seattle which would then be a similar flight distance as it would be to Eugene.

i usually fly to Portland and do an easy drive south on the Interstate (maybe 100 miles?) along the Willamette River Valley. Going from Seattle to Spokane, however, would require going over the mountains - not a good idea in the winter.

[ATK]

i usually fly to Portland and do an easy drive south on the Interstate (maybe 100 miles?) along the Willamette River Valley. Going from Seattle to Spokane, however, would require going over the mountains - not a good idea in the winter.

Thats an interesting point. I'm from NYC, so never had the need to fly locally (bus or train to Boston or DC is cheaper and faster) and any flight I took was either international or another region of the country. When I went to Eugene years ago, the connecting flight from Seattle was the first "small" plane I'd ever been on. This was a nice summer day going to the Olympic trials and it felt worrying so I could only imagine a winter flight over the mountains!

[polevaultpower]

Thats an interesting point. I'm from NYC, so never had the need to fly locally (bus or train to Boston or DC is cheaper and faster) and any flight I took was either international or another region of the country. When I went to Eugene years ago, the connecting flight from Seattle was the first "small" plane I'd ever been on. This was a nice summer day going to the Olympic trials and it felt worrying so I could only imagine a winter flight over the mountains!

Flying over the mountains is fine, it's the driving that is a problem. The passes close pretty regularly when conditions get rough, though usually for like half a day or overnight, long stretches are less common.

[ATK]

I think the key detail here is not just that this is a new facility, it is a new facility that actually wants to work with USATF to put on this meet. There don't seem to be many of those left.

I wonder if all these newer non-college venues will actually result in mixing up indoors every year, or if USATF will just lock in at the same place for consecutive years as they have (for the most part) with Albuquerque, Boston and Atlanta the past 30 years.

[Halfmiler2]

It hasn’t been in Atlanta since about Y2K, just Boston & Albuquerque except a couple times in NYC at the Armory and Ocean Breeze.

[ATK]

Yea I just meant they were at Atlanta for like 8 years straight, Boston for 7 years straight, Albuquerque for 8/11 past years. It would be good to seen a genuine rotation every few years. Similar to what the NCAA has been doing since 2009.

[DrJay]

Why can’t things like this happen without controversy? My sister just sent me this link about the new Louisville facility:

https://www.wave3.com/2021/02/20/urb...KepPW_GnUV6eH8

[polevaultpower]

I wonder if all these newer non-college venues will actually result in mixing up indoors every year, or if USATF will just lock in at the same place for consecutive years as they have (for the most part) with Albuquerque, Boston and Atlanta the past 30 years.

USATF would love to have multiple facilities bid on the meet. It isn't an issue of USATF not looking at other sites, it is that their bid terms are not appealing to most LOCs.

[Conor Dary]

Why can’t things like this happen without controversy? My sister just sent me this link about the new Louisville facility:

https://www.wave3.com/2021/02/20/urb...KepPW_GnUV6eH8

What a nut....he was the first to come up with the idea of an indoor track?


Coach Mozziz DeWalt has filed a lawsuit alleging Louisville Urban League President Sadiqa Reynolds, Mayor Greg Fischer’s office, and the Metro Sports Commission stole his idea for the Norton Healthcare Sports & Learning Center and the work he had done on it for decades.


Mozziz DeWalt alleges each party stole his vision and infringed on intellectual property in the development of the Norton Healthcare Sports & Learning Center. His legal complaint claims confidential renderings, data and research were used throughout the complex’s development and alleges Reynolds “took this idea, cut out the plaintiffs and chose to pass it off as her own.”