Arkansas needs to be outdoor NCAA site (article)

[rainbowgirl28]

Anywhere but Sac State.

http://www.arkansasnews.com/archive/200 ... 36070.html

Outdoor track needs to be NCAA site
Sunday, May 14, 2006

By Harry King

LITTLE ROCK - Sweet-talking the NCAA into holding its Outdoor Track championship in Fayetteville is likely only a give-and-take from happening.

Fayetteville is a nice place to visit, but twice in 90 days for many of the same athletes is once too often, so the NCAA will not allow Arkansas to be the site for the Indoor and Outdoor championships in the same year.

Since 2000, the NCAA Indoor has been held in the splendid on-campus facility behind the baseball park and it's scheduled for the same site in March 2007. If Arkansas agrees to give up that meet in 2008, it is likely the NCAA would be eager to honor the legacy of John McDonnell by holding the Outdoor championship at the field named after the supremely successful Arkansas track coach.

Already, Arkansas is in line for an NCAA Regional in 2008 and has submitted a bid to host the Outdoor meet that year and in 2009.

The Outdoor meet will be in Sacramento, Calif., in June and 2007 will be the third straight year for that site.

Sacramento is so many time zones from the East Coast that the NCAA meet often gets short shrift in the media. Plus, Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport is easy access from anywhere.

The outdoor track, with its Olympic-quality surface and extra touches, was initiated this week by Southeastern Conference schools. Closing the sale of Fayetteville should be easy considering the rave reviews from athletes and coaches and clockwork-like operation of the Indoor meet.

The Indoor meet has been a sellout, but indoor track is more of a niche sport than the outdoor variety. The fans are so knowledgeable that they appreciate and applaud an excellent performance even if the competitor is from Florida or LSU or Stanford, and the athletes have gone out of their way to mention such enthusiasm.

Intimacy is part of the reason and that will be retained as much as possible outdoors with the outside lane barely more than five feet from the front row of steeply pitched grandstands.

Indoors, 60 meters is the limit for a sprint on a straightaway and the 200 is a full lap around a banked track, with the slingshot turns. Casual fans feel more comfortable with outdoor track. For some, the Olympics are their only reference point and there the glamour events include the 100 and the all-out one-lap 400 meters.

Originally, there was talk of resurfacing the original track and making other improvements. Some people told McDonnell that opposing coaches would lobby against the site, arguing that Arkansas would have an advantage with the tight radius and narrow lanes and that fast times would be hard to come by.

With the long range in mind, everything was redone. Knowing that McDonnell was involved means it is first class and that all bases were covered.

John McDonnell Field will be one of two outdoor tracks in the nation that meet the high standards of the International Association of Athletics Federations. With that designation, Fayetteville would be eligible and equipped to hold the prestigious Olympic Trials.

There are pits at each end of the runways for the long jump, triple jump and pole vault so athletes will never have to leap into the wind. The track surface is the best in the world and the pitch is the maximum, which means fast times. The pitch also accommodates a drainage system that is so good that the surface was dry on Tuesday just minutes after a downpour. A drain handles the slightly recessed shot put and hammer throw circles, a commode-like float assures a constant supply of water for the jump on the steeplechase, and the landing pits are designed to catch sand that is sent flying.

To reach the threshold for the NCAA Outdoor, seating will be expanded to more than 10,000. There is no way the NCAA can say no.

[TreyDECA]

Fayetteville is a nice place to visit,

HAHAHAHAHAHA

is that a joke?