The news cycle advances so quickly it is hard to keep up.
On August 17, 2026, USATF announced Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon will serve as the host site for the 2028 Olympic Trials, just as it did in 2024, 2021 (2020), 2016, 2012, and 2008. Originally, the LA coliseum was set to host the 2028 trials in a much shorter format, with the event just taking place over four days, whereas the typical Olympic Trials schedule is over 10 days with 8 of those days being competition. Just like the Mayflower took the Colts under the guise of night, seemingly another deal went down under the guise of night in this scenario. This is a similar situation to 2021 (2020) as Mt. Sac won the bid to host the Olympic Trials; then magically the bid was transferred to Oregon.
The original idea behind this was to defend Eugene and the Under 20 World Championships. Most commentators online lamented the attendance in Eugene for the Under 20 World Championships. They are correct to do so, but the fact is only 14,000 people attended USATF championships in New York. So it doesn’t matter. We always come back to the same circular argument and discussion: Track meets should not be hosted in a tiny, goofy town far away from everyone; instead we should host it in major population centers to get spectators out to grow the sport. Well, guess how it works out every single time.
For one thing, track has way too many championships: Under 20s, Under 23s, Commonwealth Games, this decathlon, that decathlon, this road race championship. What is the point of a million championships. So the sport becomes diluted because of that.
Secondly, there was almost no promotion for the World Under 20 championships, which is TrackTown’s fault for the non existent promotion. This is not to defend TrackTown by saying that if they did promote, there would be people. We know there wouldn’t be many people no matter how hard they promoted.
While Eugene has gotten the monopoly on the Olympic Trials, USATF Championships and NCAAs have been hosted in numerous locations including Indianapolis, Des Moines, Sacramento, and Austin. And the crowd is predictably low.
Think on a smaller scale-think of the Penn Relays-the only people in the stands for that meet are the people competing, a handful of parents, and several coaches hunched over sleeping in an endless format of 4x100s. There are no actual spectators for the meet.
The problem isn’t Hayward Field. It’s the fanbase or lack thereof. Track is the only sport where people don’t actually know anything about the sport and they don’t follow it in any meaningful way or care to follow it in a meaningful way. Those in the sport are primarily focused on their own thing. I can guarantee that if the Olympic Trials were hosted at M and T Bank stadium you wouldn’t go because you’d be busy making an AI graphic of the six year old kid on your team getting a medal at the regional AAU meet.
Oregon has arguably the nicest track stadium in the world. Hayward hosts 5-10 meets per year aside from the Olympic Trials. They maintain the stadium, and they are currently replacing all the seats in the stadium. The atmosphere is better than anywhere else in the U.S. for hosting a meet. At the very least, Oregon has invested in Hayward and Track and Field.