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Fans’ Perspective: (Day 1) The Stadium, The Crowd

Posted June 28th, 2008 at 1:00 PM by Jesse Squire

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics

hayward field olympic trials 2008 Hayward Field is a beautiful old wooden structure. The look and feel is fantastic, but the thing that really gets me is the rumbling sound that only comes from lumber. It brings to mind various elements of a lodge deep in the woods, Fenway Park, and Cedar Point’s Blue Streak. The large roof and its support beams bring up memories of watching the state championships in the mezzanine deck at Ohio Stadium. The whole package most closely resembles my favorite baseball park, the old Tiger Stadium, but really it’s a unique place.

The grandstands have been supplemented by modern steel bleacher-type seating around the curves, and the section at the top of the backstretch is the closest thing to a luxury box you’re going to get in a track stadium in the USA, resembling an 18th-green VIP area at a PGA event.

Eugene has a reputation as having a knowledgeable and committed fan base. No surprise, then, that the house was basically full for the evening session, even though it was three hours of heats and semis and just one final.

I was surprised to see far fewer people in the stands for the afternoon heptathlon competition, which to me is far more compelling than first-round heats and field event qualifying. This gave me the impression some people came to the meet just because it’s the place to be. On the other hand, the heptathlon was during standard work hours and it’s hard for a slacker to afford these tickets (face value on mine was $55).

The crowd cheers loud for the home team. Oregon and Oregon Track Club runners got a nearly NFL-volume cheer when they moved to the front. The last few laps of the women’s 10k were very loud as well; I question whether Amy Begley would have made her Olympic A-standard without their support. The fans knew the difference between 31:44 and 31:46 was literally the thousands of miles between staying at home and flying to Beijing.