R.I.P. Stuttgart track

[croflash]

David Oliver's 13.23 ended the 75 year old track and field history of the stadium, the track will be removed in May 2009. During the little closing ceremony the mayor was booed loudly and a chorus of whistles began. It's sad to see another big stadium disappear, actually be transformed into a football (soccer) only one.

That leaves Berlin and Nürnberg (and the semi-retired Olympic stadium in Munich) as the two big stadiums in Germany, who knows when those are going to disappear too. Hopefully they will regret the decision one day, not just because of Stuttgart. You can't put all the emphasis on one sport, it's not going to work for forever.

[eldrick]

Re: R.I.P. Stuttgart track

You can't put all the emphasis on one sport, it's not going to work for forever.

it will

soccer isn't going anywhere & incredibly, seems to be getting MORE popular

anyhows, what happened to all your ole tracks from '70s/'80s - cologne, koblenz, hamburg, karl-marx stadt, potsdam, erfurt, jena, etc, virtually all of which had wrs set there ?

[Powell]

Re: R.I.P. Stuttgart track

David Oliver's 13.23 ended the 75 year old track and field history of the stadium, the track will be removed in May 2009. During the little closing ceremony the mayor was booed loudly and a chorus of whistles began. It's sad to see another big stadium disappear, actually be transformed into a football (soccer) only one.

Sadly, the number of spectators during the weekend actually suggests they made the right decision :?

[croflash]

Re: R.I.P. Stuttgart track

You can't put all the emphasis on one sport, it's not going to work for forever.

it will

soccer isn't going anywhere & incredibly, seems to be getting MORE popular

anyhows, what happened to all your ole tracks from '70s/'80s - cologne, koblenz, hamburg, karl-marx stadt, potsdam, erfurt, jena, etc, virtually all of which had wrs set there ?

It is more popular now than ever, but at some point the popularity has to suffer, it can't go up for forever. Most of those stadiums were demolished in the last 10 years and replaced by modern stadiums - without a track. The reason being mentioned is usually that the atmosphere is not as good in a stadium with a track because the crowd is not as close to the pitch, but that's just not true.

David Oliver's 13.23 ended the 75 year old track and field history of the stadium, the track will be removed in May 2009. During the little closing ceremony the mayor was booed loudly and a chorus of whistles began. It's sad to see another big stadium disappear, actually be transformed into a football (soccer) only one.

Sadly, the number of spectators during the weekend actually suggests they made the right decision :?

The number of spectators has indeed been disappointing, can't deny that. I think the promotion for the event hasn't been good in recent years and the image of the sport might be suffering from the coverage in the German media (many taking PEDs). It's even more baffling when you see that there have been spectators from age 1-80 and a lot of kids.

[Double R Bar]

It's very sad to see the last of the Stuttgart track or any track for that matter. I couldn't believe it when the track was removed from the Los Angeles Coliseum, but it seems everything relates to money. Money doesn't talk, it screams. Just yesterday (Saturday) there were over 93,000 people in the Los Angeles Coliseum to see USC play Ohio State in American football.

[kuha]

Re: R.I.P. Stuttgart track

David Oliver's 13.23 ended the 75 year old track and field history of the stadium, the track will be removed in May 2009. During the little closing ceremony the mayor was booed loudly and a chorus of whistles began. It's sad to see another big stadium disappear, actually be transformed into a football (soccer) only one.

Sadly, the number of spectators during the weekend actually suggests they made the right decision :?

Is that really all that indicative, I wonder? We're talking about a "fake championship" meet that few really care about, in the middle of September, way after fan interest has come and gone...

[Rob]

Eldrick is right that (fortunately) most of the tracks in the former GDR are still alive and well - certainly those in East Berlin, Erfurt, Jena, Potsdam, Dresden, Neubrandenburg and Chemnitz (Karl-Marx-Stadt), although the largest and most impressive arena in Germany - potentially in the whole of Europe - was regrettably turned into a football-only stadium for the 2006 World Cup. I refer, of course, to the Zentralstadion In Leipzig (capacity 110,000), site of the legendary Spartakiade and massive Sports Festivals in the "good old days".

The primary reason is that the football teams in the eastern part of the country do not enjoy the same level of success as those in the west, and therefore there is not the same amount of money to be invested. However, it has to be said that the former GDR citizens still prefer the 'traditional' Olympic sports, and therefore T&F in the east still has a higher status than football. Moreover, the former GDR residents seem prepared to defend their stadia more robustly than the 'West Germans', where €€€ and capitalism has more influence.

[gh]

Re: R.I.P. Stuttgart track

David Oliver's 13.23 ended the 75 year old track and field history of the stadium, the track will be removed in May 2009. During the little closing ceremony the mayor was booed loudly and a chorus of whistles began. It's sad to see another big stadium disappear, actually be transformed into a football (soccer) only one.

That leaves Berlin and Nürnberg (and the semi-retired Olympic stadium in Munich) as the two big stadiums in Germany, who knows when those are going to disappear too. Hopefully they will regret the decision one day, not just because of Stuttgart. You can't put all the emphasis on one sport, it's not going to work for forever.

Is Rommel still the mayor?

[tandfman]

Re: R.I.P. Stuttgart track

David Oliver's 13.23 ended the 75 year old track and field history of the stadium. . . .

Actually, that history was ended by Joel Brown's 13.81. He was the last finisher in that last race.

[observer2]

And Rommel (Manfred) is not the Mayor (Oberbürgmeister) any more as he was during the European and and World Championships (1986 and 1993).
He was Mayor 1974-1996 and is probably not responsible for this "event"...

[croflash]

Wolfgang Schuster is the mayor (since 1997).

David Oliver's 13.23 ended the 75 year old track and field history of the stadium. . . .

Actually, that history was ended by Joel Brown's 13.81. He was the last finisher in that last race.

Technically yes, but Oliver will go down in the books as the last winner which matters a lot more.

[Guest]

It kind of like American Football & Baseball stadiums of the 70s. Neither football nor baseball liked them.

I think a lot of 20,000 seat track and field stadiums will pop-up that will be used exclusively for that. That means the hammer can be on the infield. The lighting, the seating, the lay-out will be made with track in mind and not an afterthought. So, I would look at it from a positive light.

As for the LA Coliseum, it would have been best that in Southern California a big new football stadium got built and the LA Coliseum left as is. That would have meant the Raiders would have stayed in LA. And, the Home Depot stadium woudn't have needed to be built for track.

In Atlanta, it worked out for the best doing what they did for the Braves.

I would like to see Hayward expanded to 30,000 and have a true warm-up facility--maybe a retractible roof (if Phoenix can have two stadiums with retractibel roofs, why can't America's premier track facility have one?)

[tandfman]

I believe the plan for the London Olympic stadium is that it will be downsized after the Games and it will continue as an athletics-only venue. I think the number they're talking about is something in the 20's.

[mike renfro]

Hey, I loved Stuttgart, both the city and the meet ('93 WC), but like here in the US, football (whatever the form) rules. Bye and large, we don't understand there version, nor they ours, but the game puts fannies in the seats. Joe Sixpack (Klaus literpilsner) love the action, gore and hitting in the major league football games. I guess the hope for future WCs will probably be in Asia (both far and near). Anyone up for the Doha OG? I will go to Berlin, and have a great time. I'm not so sure about Degu (I'm not horribly fond of Korean food, but that is proably mostly not going to anyplace but the BBQ joints). Moskva scares me. It would be like wandering the streets of Chicago, circa 1925. You don't have to do anything wrong to get killed, just wrong place, wrong time. And like Chicago back then, the cops are the bad guys too.

[eldrick]

Re: R.I.P. Stuttgart track

It is more popular now than ever, but at some point the popularity has to suffer, it can't go up for forever

it won't go up forever, but it will reach a plateau & likely stay just around that level for forseeable future

it's not going to go away

only glitch i can see is if ticket prices keeping going up so much, but even that's not such a big deal - most of the revenue is from tv rights & 1/2 empty stadiums won't matter much for soccer

britain is absolutely crazy for it & i doubt euro countries are less so