Track and field athletes stop in the infield during the USATF National Junior Olympics opening ceremony on Tuesday, July 25, 2017. More than 8,000 athletes attended the Junior Olympics at Rock Chalk Park.

The success of last week’s USA Track and Field National Junior Olympics Championships should help Lawrence attract other big events to Rock Chalk Park, local organizers say.

Before the games started, Bob Sanner, the executive director of Lawrence Sports Corporation, said the event would be a test of Rock Chalk Park and the community’s capacity to host such a large-scale event.

By all accounts, Lawrence delivered, Sanner said Monday. The Rock Chalk Park games were a success as an athletic competition, and competitors and the families and coaches enjoyed their time in Lawrence, he said.

“We were definitely auditioning for the future,” he said. “We should be very proud of what we put out there last week.”

There were a few challenges in adapting facilities at Rock Chalk Park for some of the needs of younger competitors, but those challenges were worked through, Sanner said.

“The comments from coaches and families were very, very favorable,” he said.

Michael Davidson, executive director of eXplore Lawrence, and Sally Zogry, executive director of Downtown Lawrence Inc., said the most frequent comment from visitors, other than that the local terrain was surprisingly hilly, was the gracious welcome they received in Lawrence.

“They were over the top about how welcoming Lawrence was,” Davidson said. “It was a perception of ‘Midwest nice’ our community wanted to embrace, and I think we did very well with that.”

The success has organizers looking for future opportunities to host large events at Rock Chalk Park and boost the local economy. Zogry said Downtown Lawrence could be counted on to once again provide volunteers to staff satellite information sites and work the bus routes.

“We want to do whatever we can to be supportive of a bid process,” she said. “We can do all this again. It was a very special week for Lawrence.”

Sanner said multiple opportunities were available through USA Track and Field. The federation’s top brass was in Lawrence for the Junior Olympics, he said.

The federation sanctions championships in individual events like the marathon, decathlon, heptathlon and race walking, as well as its annual national championships, which become Olympic trials during Olympic years, Sanner said.

The return in a few years of the Big 12 track and field championships, those of other conferences, community college championships or AAU competitions were among the events Davidson said could be candidates for Rock Chalk Park.

One thing that had to be considered before bidding on any event was whether it was a good fit for Lawrence, Sanner said. It would be a disservice to the community and the event to host something that wasn’t right for the community, he said.

“I’ve already had a couple of conversations with other groups and events,” he said. “We just need some time to process and determine if these are things we want to take.”

The host sites of most large events were selected about 18 months before the event, Sanner said. That gives the sanctioning body and the local organizers the time needed to plan for a successful event. It would be “very doable” for Lawrence to get on an 18-month rotation schedule of large events at Rock Chalk Park, he said.

One or two large events at Rock Chalk Park would be manageable once community organizers got on a cycle, Davidson said. But he said sporting events require a lot of financial support from host communities, such as the use of cars for visiting officials and meals for volunteers.

As Lawrence looks to future opportunities, it should also request added upfront investment from the other communities benefiting from large events.

“This time, Lawrence took the financial burden,” he said. “It was a regional event. Our expectation is that next time our regional partners help with some of the heavy lifting.”

A pre-event analysis estimated the Junior Olympics would have a $22 million economic impact on northeast Kansas. Post-event evaluation will provide evidence of how much Johnson County cities, Topeka and Kansas City benefited from the Junior Olympics, Davidson said. That would provide more incentive for their officials to invest in big Rock Chalk Park events, he said.

“I think there will be a willingness to do that,” he said. “I think people realize how good this was and how well it went off. Filling hotel rooms for seven days in a row is a good thing for any city.”