IAAF Bid Athletics

TrackTown USA President Vin Lananna (center) and IAAF Vice President Sebastian Coe (right) are pictured during the site inspection in Eugene for the city's bid for the 2019 World Outdoor Championships.

(Andy Nelson/Register-Guard)

In a stunning move, the International Association of Athletics Federations awarded Eugene the 2021 World Outdoor Track & Field Championships on Thursday in Beijing.

The decision by the IAAF Council comes five months after Eugene finished second to Doha, Qatar, in a formal bid presented in Monaco for the 2019 World Outdoor Championships.

There was no formal bid process for 2021.

The World Outdoor Championships began in 1983, and have been held every two years since 1991. They never have been staged in the U.S.

The IAAF decision to go to Eugene resulted in a backlash from the European Athletics Federation, which was caught unaware. It will require a substantial renovation of Hayward Field, the Eugene venue.

Eugene's stealth campaign for 2021 began in a Monaco restaurant immediately after the 2019 bid came up short.

Vin Lananna, president of the TrackTown USA organizing committee, said the mood over dinner was dejected until USA Track & Field CEO Max Siegel said the presenters should channel the disappointment into planning for 2021.

The biggest question, Lananna said was "could we keep everyone excited and partners engaged? All the answers to those questions were, 'Yes.' "

Lananna met with outgoing IAAF president Lamine Diack in Monaco in February to gauge how receptive the council might be to an approach by Eugene for 2021.

"He knew all the pluses," Lananna said of Diack. "He's a smart guy. He saw the strategy behind it. He got the rest of the council on board."

Lananna and consultant Robert Fasulo traveled to Beijing this week to push Eugene's case. Nobody else went, in an attempt to keep things as quiet as possible.

The point they hammered home is that for track & field to grow in international popularity, it needs to engage the U.S.

"You have to have the world's No. 1 team host the World Championships," Lananna said. "It's like having the best baseball or the best football team and never having a home game. It's just logical. We felt if we stayed after it and if we were tenacious, we would have a good outcome."

The IAAF Council's decision to give the 2021 meet to Eugene without a formal bid process does not come without controversy.

Svein Arne Hansen, president of the European Federation, said in a statement, he was disappointed by the "complete lack of process in the decision the IAAF has taken.

Gothenburg, Sweden, had expressed interest in the 2021 championships. Hansen said the IAAF Council should have allowed Gothenburg to bid.

"This type of decision would just not happen within European Athletics as we have a comprehensive bidding process that all candidates must follow," Hansen said.

Eugene and the aging Hayward Field, located on the University of Oregon campus. don't fit the profile of other locales that have hosted or will host the World Championships.

The 2013 meet was held in Moscow. This year's meet will be in Beijing. The 2017 meet will be in London.

Hayward Field has a listed capacity of 10,500, far short of the 30,000-seat IAAF requirement for a World Championships venue.

World Junior track wraps up in Eugene with a day of exciting finals 29 Gallery: World Junior track wraps up in Eugene with a day of exciting finals

But Eugene had some things going for it, too, beginning with TrackTown USA's successful staging of the 2014 World Junior Championships at Hayward Field last summer.

Lananna said all 27 members of the IAAF Council were in Eugene for the World Juniors, and liked what they saw.

"President Diack said he was so impressed," Lananna said. "He said athletics is more like a religion in Oregon."

TrackTown USA also successfully bid for the 2016 World Indoor Championships, which will take place at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, March 18-20.

Lananna credited USA Track & Field, the U.S. Olympic Committee, NBC, the University of Oregon, the state of Oregon and the cities of Eugene and Springfield for being full partners in the push for the World Championships.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, then secretary of state, was part of the presenting team in Monaco for the 2019 World Championships bid.

Eugene organizers now have six years to address infrastructure deficiencies that apparently were the deciding factor in awarding the 2019 meet to Doha.

Lananna has compared Hayward Field to iconic baseball stadiums Wrigley Field and Fenway Park.

Hayward Field has played host to the U.S. Olympic trials five times, including in 2008 and 2012, and will again in 2016. By 2021 it will have staged the NCAA Division I Championships for nine successive seasons.

But it clearly is inadequate in its current configuration in many ways for the World Championships.

Lananna said he expects the Hayward renovations to begin immediately after the 2016 Olympic trials, and bring the stadium capacity to between 30,000 and 32,000 seats.

"Some of this will be temporary seating, but it will be high-end temporary seating," Lananna said.

The renovations will have to be made around Hayward's busy springtime schedule.

Whatever Lananna and Fasulo said, and whatever was in the written documentation they provided the IAAF, must have been enough for council members who clearly want to crack the U.S. market.

Lananna said he stressed that the right time to do that is now.

"We told them we can't guarantee everybody still will be excited about it in two years," he said. "We have the momentum now. The people have bought in. The state is interested. The university is interested. We have to keep it rolling.

"In the end, this was a business decision."

-- Ken Goe

kgoe@oregonian.com

503-221-8040 | @KenGoe