SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane's newest sport event center, The Podium, will now also be the home to the Indoor Track & Field Championships for The Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
The GNAC is the first NCAA conference to announce their conference championships will be held at The Podium. Western Oregon University announced the change for the 2022 to 2024 conference championships. Colleges and universities in the conference include:
- University of Alaska Anchorage
- University of Alaska Fairbanks
- Central Washington University
- Montana State University, Billings
- Northwest Nazarene University
- Saint Martin's University
- Seattle Pacific University
- Simon Fraser University
- Western Oregon University
- Western Washington University
"We are extremely excited to bring our indoor track and field championships to The Podium, surely one of the finest venues of its kind, anywhere," GNAC commissioner Dave Haglund said in a statement.
The GNAC needed to find a new venue for their championship after Boise State University and the Ford Idaho Center announced the event would no longer be able to be held at the venue.
The Podium is currently set to open in the summer of 2021. The GNAC championships would happen just days before the 2022 USATF Indoor Championships.
The Podium will be a multi-purpose sports complex with the ability to host local, national and international competitions. The venue will make Spokane more competitive as a host city, according to the venue’s FAQ page. When not used for national events the venue will also provide space for local sports programming and youth sports, as well as other community events and gatherings.
The site will feature a 200-meter six-lane indoor track. It will also have two throwing cages, two horizontal jump pits, high jump and pole vault pits and an eight-lane 60-meter sprint straightaway on the infield.
