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Two Texas legislators have filed bills that would ban Texas' HS governing body from holding the various sports championships in the same place on consecutive years. That could mean that Meyers Stadium at U. of Texas would no longer be the annual site of the t&f champs. Blog posting here.
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"Run fast and keep turning left." -
Re: Bill Would Force Texas HS Championships Away From Austin
Lee,The identical bills – House Bill 68 and Senate Bill 101 – do contain provisions that would allow consecutive hosting if suitable alternate locations for the events cannot be found.
What are the other sites that you can think of that could accomodate the state meet? I can think of the following possibilities (not saying they are as good as Myers, as few in the nation are):
UTA
UTSA
Odessa? -
Being as that I haven't watched too many meets in other cities, I couldn't say off the top of my head. Baylor and A&M have both hosted the Big 12 Championships, but the UIL meet (the official name of the Texas HS championship) draws much, much more spectators than that. Both of those stadiums would need to expand their seating by about 15,000 to accomodate, not to mention expanding their media facilities.
I've never actually been inside UTEP's stadium, but from the outside and in satellite photos, it looks like it's comparable to Meyers."Run fast and keep turning left."Comment
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UTEP creates substantial travel problems for competitors and fans/family since it is so far from Houston/San Antonio/Dallas-FtW.
In Wisconsin, many of the state championships are in Madison, as playing at the UW stadium is quite a thrill and the Fieldhouse (and now the Kohl Center) is also a big deal, with other sports also accomodated. unfortunately for me, the two championships that I would most like to see are a long ways away - XC and T&F. UW has a brand new dedicated-purpose, fan friendly XC course abutting their golf course (which is supposed to be the best collegiate course and one of the top public courses and is the site of the state golf tournament since it was opened a decade or so ago).Comment
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DING-DING-DING!Originally posted by 26mi235
Yes, you just hit on one of the biggest problems with this bill generally. People in far-flung corners of our very large state may be justifiably annoyed by the annual trip to Austin, but at least it is centrally located. I think the rep is thinking only of the occasional convenience of having a competition in his home city of Brownsville every so many years, but not considering those years when his kids have to travel to Dallas, Lubbock, or El Paso – trips of 543, 664, and 828 miles, respectively. Compare that to an annual trip to Austin of 349."Run fast and keep turning left."Comment
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UTEP & Tx State could both get 15K in their stadiums. UTEP is is a horrible idea since Phoenix is closer to ELP than anything east of I-35. If you hold it at Tx State you might as well be in Austin since it's only 20 miles away.
The one item no track in the state outside of UT has is the number of PV runways. The only reason they can pull off all 10 divisions of the vault in two days is that UT can set up at least 3 runways all in the same direction while running events are going on.Comment
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Yeah, but 15K won't cut it. I know not every seat of Meyers' 20K gets filled, but I think there are usually 17K-18K.Originally posted by Cooter Brown
UPDATE: A spokesman for the UIL just told me that total attendance for the two days is usually 45,000-52,000. Since the UIL meet is essentially three meets (classes 2A & 4A on Friday night, 3A & 1A on Saturday afternoon, and 5A on Saturday night) that averages out to 15,000-17,333 per session."Run fast and keep turning left."Comment
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To take that even further, it would be as easy for folks in El Paso to get to San Diego or for those east of Houston to get to Jacksonville, FL as it would for those two areas of TX to get to each other.Originally posted by Cooter Brown
I understand throwing the occasional bone to the far-flung population centers, but as with northern CA, the population balance in TX is so one-sided as to make trips far west laughable.Comment
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Yep. And if you want to look at it that way, I doubt Austin is even at the geographic population center of Texas, being that it's right on I-35. If you wanted to balance it according to where people actually live, you'd probably have to move the meet to College Station.Originally posted by KevinM"Run fast and keep turning left."Comment
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No way they move the state track meet. All the others, maybe, but there is not a single facility in the state that can adequately house the meet.Comment
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A sportswriter friend says U. of North Texas stadium can accommodate the crowds, but there isn't enough hotel capacity nearby (Denton is farther out from DFW than one might think). Other than that, you're probably right.Originally posted by gm"Run fast and keep turning left."Comment
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I can see them moving the golf, no big deal since every major city has a multitude of courses, and tennis, since any major university is likely to have plenty of courts, but the track meet? Nuh-uh.
Basketball could go anywhere that has a coliseum of size, baseball, well that's a no-brainer...Comment
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The size of the state does make for problems. I live in Amarillo. Amarillo, which has two 5A schools and two 4A schools, is closer to Boulder and Fayetteville than Austin, and it's only a stone throw further to Topeka, driving according to Google Maps. Still, I would have the meet stay in Austin.Comment
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I had a friend in college from a tiny town north of Amarillo. I asked him once if they went to Dallas when they went to "the big city". He said, no, Denver since it is closer.Originally posted by HedgehogComment
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Good idea for politicians to get involved in this meet, because it is way too successful, so somebody's got to break it up. Nice going guys!"Who's Kidding Who?"Comment
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