Posted: February 21 2005

Athletics: Millrose Will Continue, Says Meet Director

From David Monti

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

NEW YORK (21-Feb) -- Millrose Games director David Katz told the handful of reporters who assembled for today's New York Track Writers Luncheon that the 2005 edition of the meet was a success, and that the future of the 98 year-old competition looked bright.

"I have full confidence the meet will go on for many years to come," said Katz, who is also an IAAF Technical Delegate and road race timer. "I guess I have blind faith."

Katz went on to describe the meet as "the best night of my life."

The 98th edition of the Millrose Games was staged at Madison Square Garden on 04-Feb despite the absence of a title sponsor. Meet operator, Professional Sports & Entertainment, had said that discussions were held with potential sponsors, and they even hinted a few weeks before the meet that a title sponsor would be landed for 2005. None was. It is still a bit of a mystery how the meet was paid for. Speculation ranges from USATF to a wealthy donor. One writer even suggested that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire, may have paid for the meet out of his own pocket. With the city bidding for the 2012 Olympic Games, a failure to stage the Millrose Games would have looked bad.

But Katz would only speak to the operation of the meet, and not its finances, saying that he was only responsible for what happened on the floor of the Garden. "I'll let some other people do that right now," he said of the business and sponsorship side of the meet.

According to Katz, and meet director emeritus Howard Schmertz, some 15,000 people attended the competition when attendance in corporate boxes plus complimentary tickets were added to the total of regular tickets sold. Those attendees were not counted in figures published the night of the meet.

"There were well over 15,000 people watching that meet," Katz emphasized.

The 2005 meet saw a big break with tradition in how the shotput was contested, and a resurgance in the meet's mainstay, the Wanamaker Mile. The meet was stopped in the middle for the shot, and four all-star throwers --Adam Nelson, John Godina, Reese Hoffa and Christian Cantwell-- had the floor of the Garden to themselves for about 15 minutes, unprecedented for the Millrose Games. Each thrower got four attempts, and Hoffa won on his final toss, a personal best 21.62m, as a heavy metal and rap soundtrack pulsated in the background.

Later, Bernard Lagat broke Eamonn Coghlan's 1981 meet record in the Wanamaker Mile, and the Garden roared as he circled the 11 lap-to-the-mile track. The Mile had grown stale in the last few years.

"He brought back the excitement that Eamonn brought to the Garden," said Katz harkening back to the heyday of the Irish Milers: Eamonn Coghlan, Frank O'Mara, Ray Flynn and Marcus O'Sullivan.