To all of you who were a part of the World Junior Championship Crew, I wanted to let you know how much I appreciate your efforts during this event. However, to fully understand the significance of your achievements, I need to let you in on a little history.
I have been working with the event management team for this project for almost 2 years. Now that the dust has settled, I can tell you that what we created during this 10-day event was far better than we ever imagined. The production plan was very complicated, with daily setup changes for the equipment and crew. And as an international audience tuned in to our coverage, the world witnessed one of the largest events ever to come to Eugene.
This was an unprecedented event at Historic Hayward Field. Not only because the extensive technical requirements of the IAAF, but also because the sheer size of the event. Over 1,700 athletes from 167 different countries travelled to Eugene to compete in the event.
I’ve been covering events at Hayward Field for over 20 years, and there has never been a television production with so many resources dedicated to coverage of the meet. All totaled, our 4 production teams produced over 110 hours of television coverage during the 6 days event.
Before the last day of competition, the IAAF Competition Director told me that he has never witnessed a Host Broadcast crew that were as courteous and easy to work with as our crew at Hayward Field. And for that, we should all feel a sense of pride.
The final numbers of all of the broadcasts are truly impressive.
The IAAF World Junior Championships Oregon 2014 was broadcast in 160 territories (42 more than Barcelona 2012) for 861 hours of broadcast coverage, approximately 250 more than Barce- lona 2012, to an audience of 28 million viewers.
Tracktown USA will be hosting another Championship Event when the IAAF World Indoor Championships comes to Portland in March of 2016. And because of the success of WJC14, they are putting together a bid to bring the 2019 Outdoor World Championships to Hayward as well.
So, on behalf of TrackTown Productions, the Tracktown USA Management Team, and the staff at USA Track & Field, I want to congratulate each and every one of you on a job VERY well done. And if we are successful in bringing another IAAF championship event to Eugene, you should feel a sense of pride in having contributed to those efforts.
Tim Lay
Executive Producer
Tracktown Productions