Posted: January 10, 2005

Athletics: Despite Difficulties, Millrose Games Soldier On

From David Monti

(c) 2004 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com

NEW YORK (10-Jan) -- Their new title sponsor hasn't yet been signed, and neither has a single professional athlete, but the organizers of the Millrose Games said today that they were committed to presenting the 98th edition of the track meet at Madison Square Garden in 25 days as scheduled.

"The Millrose is on," said an emphatic Andy Roundtree, chief operating officer of Pro Sports & Entertainment, Inc., the licensee which has the rights to operate the meet. He and Pro Sports president and CEO, Paul Feller, spoke to the New York Track Writers at their weekly luncheon here today via telephone. He added that his organization was "100% committed" to staging the Games, despite the withdrawal of title sponsor, Verizon, late last year.

The meet, which Feller said costs between $1.5 and $2 million to stage, was rumored to be canceled due to a lack of sponsorship. Today, the organizers flatly refuted this, even though the 04-Feb meet they hadn't yet signed up a title sponsor, which would be the main source of operating funds for the event.

"We're in negotiations with a title sponsor," explained Roundtree, who then added, "the operation of this event is not contingent on a title sponsor." He also said, "It's a very expensive one day event to run, no doubt."

Athlete managers have shied away from the meet after payment of last year's appearance and prize money was severely delayed for some athletes. To boost confidence in the organizers intentions, Pro Sports is setting up an escrow account in cooperation with USA Track & Field, the athletics governing body in the United States, which will hold all athlete monies so that payments can be made swiftly after the completion of the meet's drug testing. Feller estimated that approximately one third of the meet's cost went to athletes, including appearance fees, prize money, air travel, lodging and ground transportation.

The organizers have not yet released the meet's schedule of events, and they would not offer the names of any athletes with whom they are negotiating. "We have been in contact with all agents," said Feller, who identified meet director David Katz as having that responsibility. "We have a number of athletes ready to sign." Seventeen professional tier events have tentatively been scheduled; there will be more events for high school and collegiate athletes.

Most of the cost of the meet goes towards paying a rental fee to Madison Square Garden, and paying Garden staff to prepare the arena for the competition, which includes removal of some of the regular seating and the installation of the track and special athletics surfaces, like the pole vault runway.

The Feller and Roundtree said that ticket sales were running 10% ahead of last year's pace, and they said that they were working off of a long term marketing plan. "We had a very strong response by our subscribers," said Feller of patrons who regularly buy Millrose tickets each year.

Once one of the most prestigious track meetings in the world, the Millrose Games has been sliding in quality for several years, experts agree. Roundtree said his firm was in it for the long haul, and planned to "bring it back to the crown jewel that it was."