Posted: December 16, 2005

Athletics: 99th Millrose Games Set For Feb. 3

From David Monti

© 2005 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com

The 99th Millrose Games are set for Friday, Feb. 3 at New York's Madison Square Garden, and the nation's oldest continuously contested track meet is under new management yet again.

USA Track & Field and Mark Wetmore's Global Athletics & Marketing, a Boston-based athlete and event management firm, are now in control of the meet. A Los Angeles-based company, Pro Sports & Entertainment, Inc., owned the meet last year and they had purchsed it from the giant sports marketing firm, Octagon, the year before. Last year's meet had no title sponsor and it is still not clear exactly how the meet was funded. One veteran journalist told RRW at last year's meet that New York's billionaire mayor, Michael Bloomberg, had funded the meet out of his own pocket because the city was in the midst of its campaign to woo the International Olympic Committee to award it the 2012 Olympic Games. Having the meet collapse would have been a huge embarassment for the Mayor. While conceivable, this has never been confirmed and must be considered speculation.

Part of the four-meet Visa Championship Series, the Millrose Games will feature miler Bernard Lagat, who set a meet record 3:52.87 on the tight 145.5m banked Mondo track at last year's meet, and sprinter Laryn Williams, the reigning world 100m champion.

"Millrose is the most historic indoor track meet in the world," said Craig Masback, CEO of USA Track & Field in a prepared statement. "There is nothing else like it, and we are proud to join with Global Athletics & Marketing in propelling Millrose toward its 100th anniversary in 2007 with a tremendous 99th edition, featuring the sport’s top athletes."

The event has a new website: www.millrose-games.com and tickets are available from ticketmaster at www.ticketmaster.com. RRW will be covering the meet from New York.