The framework of the World Athletics Championships has been built mainly with Nike’s money, but the sports equipment manufacturer has disappeared from the competition environment due to the sponsorship agreement of the International Association of Athletics Federations.
EUGENE. The Oregon World Cup will be held at the Hayward Field stadium, the old version of which was demolished in 2018. The new stadium was completed in 2020. The total cost of the renovation was about 270 million dollars.
The amount does not include a single dollar of public money, but the pot was raised by a group of investors led by the founder of the sports equipment giant Nike and the main financier of the stadium Phil Knight.
The athletic world can now enjoy a setting that would not exist without Knight. However, the billionaire’s favorite child will remain invisible during the World Cup, as there is no need to look for Nike ads in the competition area.
One of the main partners of the international athletics federation World Athletics is Nike’s competitor Asics, which takes pleasure in being able to promote its enemy in the heartlands. Nike’s headquarters are located in the same state of Oregon, less than a two-hour drive from Hayward Field.
The new stadium has 12,650 seats, but the audience capacity has been increased to 20,000 with temporary stands built for the Games. One of the stands covered with steel pipes covers below by Bill Bowermana statue of the legendary track and field coach and co-founder of Nike.
Bowerman’s coaches included, among others, the 400-meter Olympic champion Otis DavisOregon running back great Steve Prefontaine and the Olympic champion, who threw the longest discus result of all time in Finland, 70.98 Mac Wilkins.
Bowerman passed away at the age of 88 on Christmas Eve in 1999. He is a highly respected figure in US track and field, with his own title club. The Bowerman Track Club, founded in 2003, runs on Nike’s money.
However, Bowerman’s merites do not weigh much in this World Cup, as the statue is buried in the structures of stand number one hundred.
– When applying for the Games, there must be a so-called clean stadium. The stadium must therefore be free of commercial advertising other than what has been agreed, International Association of Athletics Federations Board Member Antti Pihlakoski says on the outskirts of Hayward Field and examines the pictures taken by Urheilu of the statue of the Nike icon buried in the stands.
Bowerman is therefore the man of the wrong brand in these World Cups. The status of the monument is underlined by the fact that there is not even a mention of Bowerman’s statue in the grandstand structures. If the race tourist does not have a ticket for stands 100–102, Bowerman’s statue will definitely not be seen.
– This is getting a little too far, Pihlakoski says about the fate of the statue.