World Athetics Championships | Oregon, USA

2022 WORLD ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

Oregon, USA

Images: The Parker Company, Rei Yamazaki

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he 2022 World Athletics Championships took place from July 15-24 at Hayward Field, Oregon, with the eighteenth edition of the event having been postponed for as year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Televised in 200 countries, with some of the best athletes from across the world competing, the venue had to be ready for what promised to be a monumental few days of sport. To ensure Hayward Field was equipped to host the World Athletics Championships, The Parker Company – having worked on numerous stadiums and sporting events in the USA and Europe – was enlisted to offer its expertise. The husband-and-wife CEO and COO team of the 2022 World Athletics Championships, Sarah Massey (CEO) and James Tolputt (CEO) reached out to Parker’s Sports & Events division Managing Director, Don Lockerbie, in May 2021 to serve as the Overlay & Procurement Lead for the Championships. The three had first worked well together on the ICC Cricket World Cup West Indies 2007, where Lockerbie was COO, as well as on several Olympic Games – for which Massey and Tolputt were previously long-time executives at the IOC. “We were honoured to get the call and ready to take our big stadium procurement and project management model to the world of mega events,” explained Lockerbie. “The old saying that ‘you don’t build a church for Easter Sunday’ could not be truer in the big events world and the sparkling new cathedral for Athletics that is Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon in Eugene is front and centre - the poster child for that old quote.” The new Hayward Field is a $250m fit-for-purpose, track and field monument to the history of the sport at Oregon. Boldly visioned and sponsored by Nike founder, Phil Knight, there is no athletics stadium in the world it - and World Athletics were keen to see it built and bring their world championships to the USA for the first time. That said, this cathedral to the sport was in no way ready to host the world championships without a tremendous amount of event overlay – temporary upgrades were needed to meet the full requirements. Lockerbie added: “We took on the role to lead the planning and execution process to take Hayward Field from a university facility to a world championships venue – needing a great deal of space and buildings on the campus of the University of Oregon to make it all work.

“Of prime importance was to make sure the athletes themselves had the proper training, warm-up, medical treatment, and final preparation areas before they took the stadium bowl for competitions. To cover that, two football fields adjacent to the stadium were filled to the brim with marquee tents and equipment. The host broadcasters and international broadcast centre used another football field to build 20,000 sq ft of modular structures to produce the television and digital feeds across the world – adding an additional 30,000 sq ft of space to host the international rights holders who carried on their own added productions.” The broadcasters required 54 commentator boxes at the finish line in the venue and over three-dozen camera positions – whilst the media required an additional 450 press table top positions just past the finish line to cover the competitions. The media were also housed in an indoor tennis venue transitioned into the MPC. A good $10-15m of overlay and equipment procurement was required to set the stadium to World Athletics standards. Additionally, a massive new videoboard was added to the stadium, 3,500 temporary grandstand seats, a hospitality village for patrons and sponsors, temporary power to generate all the overlay build and operations – all planned for over two years and executed in 60 days of construction in time for the championships to shine. Parker was charged by the LOC leadership to develop a worldwide tender to bid and award the overlay works to highly experienced experts and supplier/contractors in the industry. GL Events (France) and Eventstar Structures (USA) collaborated on and won the worldwide tender to become the Overlay General Contractor for the Oregon22 LOC. Kyle Parker, Director, Sports & Events at The Parker Company, takes up the story: “Our focus was to first develop a strategic plan on best practices in planning and executing a robust overlay programme where a significant amount of modular construction was required, along with thousands of pieces of equipment and FF&E. Miles of cabling, over 100,000 sq ft of tents and buildings all had to come together on a college campus fully operational and integrated with its student body and university operations. The University of Oregon was a tremendous partner and became an advantage for the world championship organising committee. “From May 2021 to May 2022, the planning, design, scheduling, budgeting, and supplier/contractor award operations took place. Then, from 1 May to 15 July 2022, the construction and FF&E delivery was executed in time for all permitting and safety approvals and the Games went on without a hitch. “From there, 1 August to 15 September 2022 saw the overlay programme ‘disappear’, so that Hayward Field and surrounding football fields and University of Oregon buildings used were returned to their rightful university programmes and without damages as well.” As mentioned, seating was an area that needed to be addressed by The Parker Company. Hayward Field’s construction team selected the up-and-coming Colombia and Miami-based Series Seating. Each of the 12,650 seats in the stadium are considered premium or even VIP quality, with the feedback from the visitors being very positive. However, the venue’s capacity is 12,650 – much lower than the World Athletics requirements for seating, which proved a challenge for the Parker Overlay team. Over 1,700 seats in the premium finish line area were required to be removed to build in the broadcast commentator positions, media tribune desks, athletes mixed zone, finish line broadcast camera platforms and finish line timing and results operations. Series Seating provided both the removal/storage and post championships re-install of the 1,700 seats and in record time. To cover for the 1,700-seat loss, the overlay team contracted InProduction to provide 3,500 temporary grandstand seats to bring the Championships venue total for saleable seats to 14,450 World Athletics Productions (WAP) is a master class organisation, developed with the World Athletics governing body to manage the worldwide broadcast for all championship events around the world. Led by long time sports television executives, producers, directors, and technical managers – the assignment for Parker was to work closely with WAP to make sure all the technical requirements and standards were met, if not exceeded for flawless broadcasting of the championships by 54 international rights holders to over 200 countries. Led by senior broadcast professionals, James Lord, Alastair Waddington, and Catherine Simpson, whom have international experience on Olympic Games, FIFA World Cups, and other

THE FULL PITCH

sports such as cricket, rugby, golf and more – WAP came to the table ready to make the stadium ready for international broadcasting. Lockerbie added: “In many respects and following the alwayschanging requirements and protocols caused by the Covid-19 pandemic – the event truly became a made-for-television experience and the new technologies added were also extraordinary and perfectly introduced and implemented. “Broadcasting the World Athletics Championships is truly a herculean production effort, requiring nearly 1000 people on site, 19 Aggreko generators and over 20 miles of NEP cabling just to direct and produce the event with all the required technical equipment. WAP’s Mark Fulton, a former international 400m hurdler for Great Britain, directed the coverage and sent them around the world, leading to recordsetting television audiences in the USA and across the world. “From the LOC side, long-time Olympic broadcaster, Jim Carr of Carr-Hughes Productions led the planning and guided Parker with all the Overlay programme requirements, schedules and navigated the challenges throughout.” The LOC also worked closely with the World Athletics partner for sponsorship and hospitality, Dentsu Sports. The Overlay programme, managed by Parker, required build out and outfitting food and beverage operations for over 10,000 accredited personnel and staff, for which a robust catering programme was developed in an on-campus basketball arena. Areas for World Athletics family and partners, as well as VIP patrons were planned and executed by the LOC, with international hospitality provider, Swiss-based Daimani. World Athletics selecting the USA and Eugene, Oregon was a tip of the hat to the history of the sport’s success in this college town of 170,000 residents. However, the city – well known as Track Town USA – really stepped up to the occasion and produced a memorable experience for all those involved. All the production challenges aside, the athletes came first, and the record performances prove the overall atmosphere and conditions built for them motivated the excellence that the spectators witnessed. LOC Executive Director, Niels de Vos, along with Sarah and James, led a local team, with national and international experts added in, to create the perfect combination of passion and focus for the event. Longtime British event planner for World Athletics, Kenny Underwood, made sure all event stakeholders and functional areas were programmed to ensure excellence was provided for and executed. The Overlay program required this input to fully understand what needed to be built, where and when. In the end, however, while it took everything Lockerbie’s 40-plus years in international sport had taught him and the implementation of Parker’s bespoke procurement model – the overall Overlay programme was a major success thanks in large part to the GL/E team led by Issa Moret (GL events) and Cedric Fournier (Eventstar), as well as Overlay Managers at Parker, Jordan Feldman and Kyle Parker, and Kevin Marschke of ME Engineers – who all contributed mightily to the Overlay programme. Parker added: “The LOC should be well congratulated for producing a spectacular World Athletics Championships and for their leadership in introducing major sustainability programmes to the sport. Under the LOC leadership – fresh drinking water was provided to spectators via a non-plastic bottle programme, recycling was a priority, and all generators were operated on bio-diesel fuel.” For Parker, the opportunity was a dream come true for Lockerbie, a former professional middle-distance champion athlete and university coach. “It can be said, with pride, that the Overlay programme for the World Athletics Championships was executed seamlessly and coordinated with such great partners – a total success in the end,” concluded Lockerbie.