PoleVaultPower.com

Jan. 6, 2008 For Immediate Release

PROPOSED U.S. POLE VAULT TOUR CREATES QUITE A BUZZ AT THIS YEAR’S POLE VAULT SUMMIT

RENO, Nev. – There was a story behind the story at last weekend’s 19th annual UCS Spirit Pole Vault Summit, the world’s largest three-day event of its kind, which annually attracts about 1,000 jumpers and almost 2,000 spectators.

Even after Darren Niedermeyer captured the open men’s competition with a career-best jump of 18-4 and Chelsea Johnson bounced back from a rough 2008 campaign to win the open women’s class at 14-5, there was still a buzz in the air.

The concept of a U.S. Pole Vault Tour was proposed during a closed-door meeting with 25 of the nation’s elite pole-vaulters and embraced by the likes of 2008 Olympic gold medalist Stacy Dragila, 2004 Olympic silver medalist Toby Stevenson and 2007 World Outdoor champ Brad Walker.

Tour co-founder Tye Harvey, the 2001 World Indoor silver medallist, and Jeff Hartwig, a two-time Olympian and four-time USA Outdoor champ, delivered an in depth 60-minute tour proposal.

“I’ve been a proponent of this for a while now,” Walker said. “We’ve talked about doing something like this for years. So, the opportunity to hear the whole plan was very cool.”

The U.S. Pole Vault Tour – proposed as multi-sponsored, nationally televised two-day events – is scheduled to debut in May or June in Sacramento.

“I’ve always thought, why can’t pole vaulting do something like what the pro bull riders did when they broke off on their own from rodeo,” said Dragila, a two-time world champion. “This is a great opportunity to get ourselves out there and show people that our sport is cool and fun to watch. I’m all for it.”

Dragila, who was heavily involved in rodeo as a youngster growing up in Auburn, Calif., paralleled the proposed USPV Tour to a similar situation in pro rodeo when in 1994 a separate organization was formed for bull riding alone.

Since the inception of Professional Bull Riding, the sport’s popularity has grown to a lofty position as the seventh most watched televised sport in the nation.

“I’d love to be a part of the tour. I’m in 100 percent,” Stevenson said. “It’s about time for something like this for pole vaulting. Either you reinvent yourself for today’s audience or you don’t exist. And that’s what pole vaulting is doing with the tour.”

The proposed USPV seven-city tour will conclude with a Tour Championship.

Tim Menicutch
Director of Tour Media Relations
USPVTour 2009
1206 Reading Way
Rocklin, CA 95765
916-205-0247 cell
916-663-6242 fax

Have the cities been identified yet?

cdmilton wrote:Have the cities been identified yet?

Nope!

This is certainly one of the greatest ideas our sport's seen in a LONG time. You should post the additional information you posted over on the T&F News message board. I am sure the next few days will see a HUGE amount of attention towards the tour. Hopefully it all comes together and we'll be seeing it throughout the country this summer.

Btw, I think Chicago would be a great choice (and not just b/c I live there). The city would be completely behind it considering the 2016 Olympic bid, and there is a huge population of track and field fans in the area as well.

It's very outside the box. This wouldn't be a track and field thing, none of the marks would count because it wouldn't be a traditional PV format. The analogy I heard is that this is like the Ice Capades were to ice skating.

It's a team format. I might butcher this slightly, but I think there are 6 athletes to a team (maybe 4 men, 2 women), each athlete gets a certain number of jumps, they pick the height of the bar. The top however many jumps for each athlete count (say 4 of 6) and the top 4 athletes on each team count (maybe 3 men and 1 woman).

The teams are seeded evenly, so at each meet any team has a shot at winning it. There is one day for prelims and a day for finals (back to back days).

The whole setup is portable, there is a stage for the PV runway(s) and Pit(s) (I can't remember if they had more than one pit, I had to miss part of the presentation because I was coaching at the same time) and there are portable stands. It would setup in the parking lot of major retailers (like Target or Wal-Mart). They're talking about 4,000 spectators per event.

The money in it for the athletes is good. They would make a minimum amount per event and have their travel covered, plus they would get health care insurance and such. It's good enough money that they're all willing to stay home from the European circuit in the summer. The Tour would not conflict with USAs or other major US meets. The proposed start is in May and it would run through the summer.

I apologize in advance for any details I butchered. I am not officially affiliated with the Tour, but I got to hear a lot about it this weekend and I wanted to pass along the press release.

Now that they have the athletes on board (and all of the elite pole vaulters in the US are on board) they are in final talks with the major sponsor. So we should know within the next month or two if it's a go. To us, it's a lot of money, over a million dollars to pull the whole thing off, but to a giant corporation, it is not that much compared to other sports sponsorships.

rainbowgirl28 wrote:

cdmilton wrote:Have the cities been identified yet?

Nope!

I'd be interested in finding out what they are looking for in the host cities.

Are they wanting to setup more of a street vault or are they thinking it would be at a normal facility?

cdmilton wrote:

rainbowgirl28 wrote:

cdmilton wrote:Have the cities been identified yet?

Nope!

I'd be interested in finding out what they are looking for in the host cities.

Are they wanting to setup more of a street vault or are they thinking it would be at a normal facility?

Neither, read my latest post. It will be a portable setup in the parking lots of major retailers.

rainbowgirl28 wrote:

cdmilton wrote:

rainbowgirl28 wrote:

cdmilton wrote:Have the cities been identified yet?

Nope!

I'd be interested in finding out what they are looking for in the host cities.

Are they wanting to setup more of a street vault or are they thinking it would be at a normal facility?

Neither, read my latest post. It will be a portable setup in the parking lots of major retailers.

Thanks, looks like we posted at basically the same time!

It sounds awesome! Should be a great event for the pole vault!

I would guess that since a major retailer has their headquarters in MN, you guys have a better than average chance of getting a stop on the tour (but it's really up to the sponsors).

rainbowgirl28 wrote:I would guess that since a major retailer has their headquarters in MN, you guys have a better than average chance of getting a stop on the tour (but it's really up to the sponsors).

And I happen to work in the corporate office for one of those major retailers that you mentioned above. If someone needs a contact please let me know.

This is a really exciting idea. It really sounds like they are trying to do it RIGHT. You only really get one shot at trying to make this successful, so I really hope it takes off (no pun intended).

If it is in a parking lot, how can you charge admission? Would it just turn out like a "Big" sponsored street or beach vault.

Ive always thought teams "kinda" are what we need to promote track and field as a whole. This would give more people an oppertunity to turn pro, and would bring in more money for the sport with several "dule-tri" tyle meets where the same guys are not running against each other at every meet. Then just come together at he end of season... like college. I mean we have a hudred or so colleges with deciently good guys on the teams, that could be broken down to say 16-20 teams of pro caliber athleats.

If UFC can do it anybody can. Expecialy since there are so many high school track athleats that would go watch if it was close enough because they can relate because track is one of top participaed in sports.