Last week it was revealed that New Zealand wishes to host the 2028 World Indoor Championships outdoors. Remember, “indoor track” is now “short track” in the eyes of World Athletics, so at least from that perspective, the Kiwi bid to host would hold up. New Zealand is a country that really loves athletics. And given its location in the southern hemisphere, early March means pretty ideal indoor outdoor short track conditions – for distance runners at least, with highs in the upper 60s and lows in the 50s for a city like Christchurch.

The World Athletics push to rebrand indoor track stems primarily out of a desire to make it more accessible to countries and athletes outside of the global indoor track belt – primarily the east coast of North America and a handful of European cities. Suddenly you don’t need a fancy, hydraulic-banked track inside of a 200-year-old armory to participate. You only need a 200m surface – it can even be a temporary one – and a dream.

We can definitely get behind expanding the scope of winter track for that reason alone, but there’s a lot more we can capitalize on with this short track blank slate we’ve been awarded as athletics fans.

First off, let’s reestablish what indoor short track’s focus ought to be: competition, rather than chasing times or marks. We have a real chance here to shift away from our obsession with time trialing, and return to the original spirit of indoor short track – a time of year when not-quite-sharp athletes can hone tactics and take some competitive risks. Racing – not time trialing, but racing – on a 200m track is an inherently different beast. Surges are shorter, passes are more aggressive, and everything in between is more physical. There’s already a different calculus to race strategy.

But a temporarily constructed 200m oval out in the elements (presumably plopped down in some meadow featured prominently in a Lord of the Rings movie) adds in even more variables, forcing athletes to totally ignore marks and zero in on their competitors.

Editor’s note: World Athletics, if you really wanna take the focus on racing to next, extreme level, consider hosting the 2030 championship in March, in Anchorage, Alaska, on the 84.7m unbanked outdoor track located in the parking lot of a local running store.

Now a bit more about the venue. Whatever facility is pitched as part of New Zealand’s bid to host doesn’t currently exist. That committee has total carte blanche to redefine what sort of stadium creates the most optimized spectating experience for fans, both in-person and tuning in around the globe. Unconfined by existing infrastructure, put the stands as close to the 200m track as possible. Even in a roofless setting, the athletes ought to be occasionally startled by how loud the crowd gets during big moments.

And why not fashion an additional stadium on the same grounds, designed specifically to host field events? If you were designing a track and field facility from scratch, and wanted to shine as bright a light as possible on the long jump, would you really toss it off to the side of the track? Would you relegate the shot put cage to a musky corner of the building where no ticketed fan can possibly follow the happenings? Remember: without the jav, discus, or hammer, you don’t need as much space to pull this off as you would outdoors. And a field-specific arena that changes how present those events would be way more innovative than the current WA proposals to change how they are measured.

Doesn’t this all sound like a spectacle? It should! And that should be the goal! Spectacle is good, so long as it draws attention to the sport, rather than distracts from it. Consider this the unofficial Lap Count endorsement of New Zealand’s bid to host a global championship.

For more of the top stories and analysis from the biggest stories in track and field from the past week, subscribe to The Lap Count newsletter for free. New edition every Wednesday morning at 6:00 a.m. ET.