Mt. San Antonio College Athletic Director of Special Events Doug Todd received a call from USA Track and Field officials Monday morning. Track and field’s national governing body wanted to talk to Mt. SAC about the 2020 Olympic Trials, which were awarded to the Walnut community college last June.
A conference call was scheduled for 11 a.m., then delayed an hour by USATF.
It was noon when Todd and other top staff sitting in an athletic department office finally got the bad news:
USATF was pulling the Olympic Trials from Mt. SAC and reopening bidding for the event.
In a move that stunned Mt. SAC and American track and field, USATF’s board of directors voted unanimously to take the Olympic Trials from Walnut, citing ongoing litigation involving the college’s $87 million renovation project that includes Hilmer Lodge Stadium.
“I think we were a little blindsided. We’re disappointed. The cases were going our way,” said Brian Yokoyama, Mt. SAC division information director.
Mt. SAC officials disputed USATF’s contention that two lawsuits had created “resulting delays on planning for a successful 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials.” In recent weeks, USATF officials and attorneys have attended a Mt. SAC board meeting, a town hall in Walnut and a Los Angeles Superior Court hearing on a lawsuit by a local taxpayers group that alleges Mt. SAC was illegally using bond money for the stadium project. The stadium project will proceed, school officials said Tuesday.
“Our stadium will be finished (by 2020),” Yokoyama said. “That’s a non-issue, although apparently not to USA Track.”
Eugene, the self-proclaimed Tracktown USA and host of six Olympic Trials including the last three Trials, is the frontrunner in a reopened bid process that USATF said it hopes to complete by June.
“We’re certainly excited by the possibility of submitting a bid to host the Olympic Trials at a new Hayward Field,” said Michael Reilly, Tracktown USA chief executive.
Sacramento, host of the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Trials, is another contender for the 2020 Trials.
“We are interested in bringing the Trials back to Sacramento and we look forward to seeing the details of the bid process,” said Mike Sophia, director of the Sacramento Sports Commission.
In addition to its long and rich history with the sport, Eugene’s bid will showcase plans for a $200 million rebuilding of Hayward Field, the most storied venue in American track. The project, which include the controversial tearing down of the stadium’s iconic East grandstand, is scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2020. The project is primarily being paid for by Nike co-founder Phil Knight, a former Oregon middle distance runner. Nike is USATF’s leading corporate sponsor. USATF and Nike agreed in 2014 to a 23-year extension of Nike’s sponsorship deal worth $400 million.
“This community has really done an unbelievable job of hosting the last three Olympic Trials,” Reilly said. “And that has given us a good set of experiences and an understanding of what it takes to deliver an event of the magnitude of the Olympic Games.”
While the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Trials in Eugene were hugely successful, the USATF board in voting 11-2 to award the 2020 Trials to Mt. SAC over Eugene and Sacramento said it needed to grow the sport beyond Tracktown especially in major media markets such as Los Angeles.
“USATF has been very deliberate and strategic about cultivating relationships with cities and local organizers who are capable of and interested in hosting our largest events,” USATF CEO Max Siegel said. last June. “The level of interest in the 2020 Olympic Trials is a reflection of that effort. With a strong base of world-class local organizers, our sport will continue to thrive.”
Siegel was not on the conference call with Mt. SAC officials Monday nor were any other top USATF officials or board member. USATF officials did not respond to requests for comment.
The centerpiece of the Mt. SAC bid was the renovation of Hilmer Lodge Stadium, the 70-year-old home of the Mt. SAC Relays, long billed as the world’s largest track meet.
“The board, and especially our active athletes, were clear in their desire to take the Olympic Trials back to Los Angeles. Mt. SAC has long been one of the top meets in the country, from an athlete performance perspective as well as from an organizational perspective. With the stadium upgrades currently planned, we are confident Mt. SAC will provide an extraordinary experience for athletes, fans, officials and volunteers,” USATF board chairman Steve Miller, a former Nike executive, said last June.
But the stadium project ran into two legal challenges.
The City of Walnut received a preliminary injunction prohibiting grading on the stadium site after filing a suit against Mt. SAC in Los Angeles County Superior Court alleging the college had not obtained the proper permits. Attorneys also allege in court filings that Mt. SAC officials ignored five stop work notices posted at the site and the school’s administration building in February.
United Walnut Taxpayers filed a separate suit in Los Angeles Superior Court alleging that Mt. SAC is misusing taxpayer funds by financing the stadium renovation project with money from 2008 bond measure. UWT maintains that the stadium project was not listed in Measure RR, a $353 million bond approved by Walnut voters.
USATF officials, however, as recently as late March, at least publicly, remained upbeat about the Trials staying at Mt. SAC.
“We have had ongoing discussions with Mt. SAC for several months about any and all legal matters or concerns pertaining to the 2020 Olympic Trials” Jill Geer, USA Track & Field’s chief marketing officer, wrote in a March 20 email to the Orange County Register. “Mt. SAC has continued to assure us that their ability to complete the stadium and host a successful Olympic Trials will not be impacted by current litigation. We are in regular contact with them about all matters pertaining to the Olympic Trials and their facility.”
Since Geer’s email, Mt. SAC cleared two major legal hurdles.
The judge in the UWT case last month said she is denying a recent request for an injunction from the taxpayers group, citing the unlikelihood the taxpayer group would prevail at trial. The trial is scheduled to start January 14.
That same week the city of Walnut and Mt. SAC also reached an agreement to settle their lawsuit, allowing construction to proceed on the stadium site.
Three weeks later Todd, Yokoyama and other Mt. SAC staffers found themselves in an office Monday morning, with Bob Seagren, the Olympic pole vault who was to play a leading role in the 2020 Trials, calling in from another location, as Adam Schmenk, USATF’s managing director of entertainment properties and events, and an attorney told them USATF was taking the Trials away.
“We will continue to host great track meets,” Yokoyama said. “Unfortunately, the Olympic Trials won’t be one of them.”
