Carson As Nationals Site

[Guest]

Now that a bunch of you have been to the Home Despot meet and maybe been twice what do you think of it as a site for the nationals next year?

I have not been but in cruising results the first thing that comes to my mind is the wind. Everything was wind-blown yesterday and there were some significant windy races last year too. Nothing like trying to sell a site for teh nationals to say nothing of the World Cup where you can tell the customers going in, Oh by the way you won't be seeing any record action because the wind is over the limit.

[Randy]

Re: Carson As Nationals Site

When trying to sell as an international championship location (such as a World Cup) there probably isn't as much a concern about wind as there is in the U.S., for 2 reasons:
1. Their thinking is not as much "sprint-centric". Other than horizontal jumps, wind doesn't void records in field events, for instance. In fact, if at the right angle, wind can certainly add distance in such events as the discus, and it's legal. Same for the pole vault.
2. In much of the world excessive wind is not nearly as frequent an occurance as in the comparitively wind-swept U.S. So it's not a top item of concern for them.

That said, given the stadium configuration it might be possible to engineer the wind- i.e. erect flagpoles around the ends of the stadium and hang large canvas barriers between them with movable sections kind of like verticle blinds, which if properly engineered would not block the wind, but could 'channel' it. And it might not be an incredibly high price tag.
"Call those Martian Rover kids up at Cal Tech!"

Channeling might be allowable, as long as the 'settings' weren't changed during the heats of a specific round of an event.

For instance, I would think that for the 200m, the perfect wind would be at a 90 degree angle to the finish straight, but at the sprinters' backs as they run the curve. So if the straightaway runs north to south, the perfect wind would be coming from the east toward the west. Since the wind gauge only reads wind down the straightaway, the perfect wind at that point would read 0.0.

The worst winds that you can't do anything about are in large totally enclosed (but without a roof) stadiums, where the winds are often described as 'swirling'- kind of like mini-tornados. Flags can fly one direction and seconds later change to the opposite direction and seconds later change a different way.
Talk about screwing up people like pole vaulters and discus throwers! And there's nothing that can be done about it in that case.

[Realist]

Re: Carson As Nationals Site

>When trying to sell as an international championship location (such as a World
>Cup) there probably isn't as much a concern about wind as there is in the U.S.,
>for 2 reasons:
1. Their thinking is not as much "sprint-centric". >>

We're not trying to sell the meets to the rest of the world. We're trying to sell them to the people of greater LA who are prospective ticket buyers. And if you don't think they're sprint-centric....

[gh]

Re: Carson As Nationals Site

What's worse than telling the payig customers going i that what they see can't be a WR is actually seeing a "WR" and having to tell the crowd that it won't count because of the wind. I had to do that at the '96 Olympic Trials in Michael Johnson's 200 and I was glad I was hiding in a booth where the general public couldn't see me and throw stuff.

As I wrote in my column at the time, maybe a couple of hunded people out of the 25,000+ who were in the stadium at the time knew how to read a wind gauge and they were making so much noise of the 19.70 that they couldn't hear my announcement that the wind was illegal. It was several mintues before the audience quieted enough that I could make the no-WR announcement again and the reaction (all negative) was even louder. The lead that column became GET RID OF WIND GAUGES.

[tm71]

Re: Carson As Nationals Site

Now that a bunch of you have been to the Home Despot meet and maybe been twice what do you think of it as a site for the nationals next year?
>>>

i liked the stadium and atmosphere a lot, it would great for a usatf meet. if only they could do something about the wind !

[Kurt Francis]

Re: Carson As Nationals Site

Gary:

When the crowd comes after you (the announcer) for letting them know that what they just witnessed really wasn't what they witnessed and paid good money for, it may be time to leave the premises! Sorta "kill the messenger" syndrome. You never know about crowd psychology, sometimes.

Kurt

[marknhj]

Re: Carson As Nationals Site

It was unusually windy all last week in LA. A worse scenario would be if the Santa Ana's blew during a meet. That's when the wind blows off the desert instead of the Ocean. It results in temps over 100F and gale force winds; the worse part however, is that it blows the smog in from the surrounding valleys and also weird pollens from the desert and mountains, nightmare for anyone with allergies who spend days sneezing and eyes watering non-stop. The stadium is very basic but nice, warm up area is good, concessions with decent quality food, easy access from freeway and loads of parking. I've been 3 times now; HD meet, soccer match and rugby tournament. Only serious complaint was they ran out of decent draught beer at the rugby (only left with Bud-shite which should only be drunk in emergencies).

[MJR]

Re: Carson As Nationals Site

They can always bring it temporary seating, if the facility will physically permit it, just like the 98 Goodwill Games did on Long Island. The Mitchel Athletic Complex is about the windiest place on earth and it got handled pretty well there.

[Pego]

Re: Carson As Nationals Site

<(only left with Bud-shite which should only be drunk in emergencies).>

Their horses are diabetic.