If you went to Millrose, Post What You Liked and Did Not Like

I actually ran at Millrose and thought it was great. There was some confussion getting us up on the track with the officials bickering about who led us up there, kicking us off and then bring us out again. Added a little extra stress that I could have done with out.

As a spectator, I think the program needs some variation. After a while all the 4x400s seemed the same. It would be nice to consolitate some of the high school heats in favor of a couple of 4x200s.

I'm guessing the race walk is part of the tradition, but it was deadly boring. Perhaps this is heresy, but it could be dropped from the program.

I thought the music was fine, perhaps could have used some more of it. But please, no smoke machine. That suggestion is ridiculous. If you've ever been around one of those things you'd realize it makes breathing difficult and would hurt the racers.

exactly. More hard bodied fems, less noise. That works for me.

Some additional thoughts;

* Agree with most, have a few more local college 4x400s, would also like to see a m/w masters mile, with top local athletes competing. These can be scheduled before the 'main' events start. I would also get rid of the little kids dash, or move it up to earlier in the day.

* I would have liked to see a few articles/bios/pics in the program. Thought it was a bit thin.

* Were they selling Millrose souvenirs anywhere? Would have bought a tee-shirt for my son.

* Is Millrose being pushed at NYRRC events? With the thousands of particpants, seems like a good place to sell a few tickets.

* Again, 2 crews should have been rebuilding the turns simultaneously.

This was my second Millrose Games and I had a great time. I'm in my mid-twenties and managed to talk some friends who know very little about track and field (I think the only name they recognized was Gail Devers) into coming and they had a lot of fun. There are some things that others have mentioned that drag the meet down a bit: the 4x400's seemed endless after a while, not enough teams in general and especially not enough quality teams in the collegiate events, the rabbit was completely unnecessary in the professional men's mile and finally, i agree that the announcer should have called more attention to what was going on in the field events when multiple events were taking place. As for my friends who don't usually follow track, here are the things they enjoyed (some of which surprised me): the trivia on the big screens, the relays, the pole vault, and the ethiopian and jamaican fans. I think it's important for the announcers to inform the crowd about the competitors. My friends were usually pretty excited when they realized that an Olympic medalist or World Champion was about to run. All in all, a great meet.

The souvenir thing is a good suggestion. I assumed there were souvenirs but if not this is an easy way to please the fans and bring in a little extra cash. The track team at Cornell sells tshirts at the highschool meets and the kids buy them like candy.

As for (male) vaulters not getting the opportunities to compete, I stick by that statement. I've had agents email me asking me about vaulting opportunities when I lived in Flagstaff saying their clients wanted a chance to compete before heading to Europe.

Things are a little better this year for the men as there is a vault in Arkansas as well as Milrose. But when Dragila could set a world record just about every time out, promoters were having a women's vault at nearly every meet and almost never a men's vault. Last year Millrose was the only indoor meet on the circuit with a men's vault outside of the USATF champs.

Hey Wejo nice to see you at the Gardens and good post so far. I liked the atmostphere of this historic venue and I was also thrilled at the chance to run on the track in the womens 4x400 exhibition relay.....however its easier said than done on a surface that resembles a saucer basically wow. It was amazing to see the big guns up close and personal and I definately enjoyed that and watching the races at fairly close quarters.

Basically the whole event is handled in a very professional manner but I did not like seeing the younger autograph hunters getting shooed away by the trackside workers when they were not in the way.

All in all a great experience I would travel down again for a chance to soak up that amazing atmostphere once more!

Agree about getting local colleges involved in a "Big Apple" championship 4x4, or 4x8. Obviously you would have to navigate around the scheduling problems of competing with Collegiate Invite & the Mets Champs. Nevertheless, the inclusion of Richard Kiplagat, alone brought a very loud cheering contigent to the Garden from Iona. Even throwing just Seton Hall and Rutgers 4x4s (teams who could go sub-3:10 in a given year) up against a professional 4x4 relay could draw fans from those schools.

Also, have huge, easily readable split markers placed appropriately next to the track for each race. I appreciate the announcer reading off split times. But I want to be able to look at the track and be like, oh, they are approaching the quarter... oh look, it looks like so-and-so wants to take the lead there, b/c he is making a move.

Finally, as for the shot put Fan "contest." Yes, it was pretty dumb. If you want to get the crowd involved, why not divide MSG into 5 sections... each shot putter throws for one section. Whichever guy wins, his section wins a free Coke, or hot pretzel, or t-shirt, or poster, or ANYTHING. If I stood to win a free anything, you can bet I would stand up and scream for Hoffa, or Cantwell, or whoever was representing me.

Oh yeah, what did I like... Bekele being there, whether he was competitive or not.

Hokey, but the crowd would get into it. Maybe the ghost of Bert Convy could announce the Banana section. Always my favorite.

A thought regarding the security and autographers. Maybe these are the same security guards that work the Knick games and Billy Joel concerts. They're not used to being nice to people.

I did see LaShawn Merritt insist on sticking around and giving autographs even through the Garden personnel were discouraging it. He was quietly determined to satisfy the young fans. Good for him.

Quote: * Is Millrose being pushed at NYRRC events? With the thousands of particpants, seems like a good place to sell a few tickets.

NYRR members had a special discount opportunity. Not sure how NYRR got the word out to their members.

Sat in the 200 level. 5th time in seven years - best crowd yet! Loved the shot put. Announcers need to cover the vault and HJ better. Liked the in-field announcer and the HS announcer, the other guys are average or below average. The kids (high school) in the upper deck were great - I saw three HS mascots in costume. The Jamaicans and Ethipians/Kenyans were also cool. Music is fine. No louder than it was - but some is needed. The delay killed, but the miles were worth it (even if "boring" I love the distance events).

Finally got to see the TV coverage. Some final, random thoughts;

When I heard that Lauryn Williams would give $1000 each time she attained a certain performance, I compared it to the Visa $100 challenge. Again, what a joke. Thankfully, the 'challenge' wasn't mentioned on TV.

Liked the footage of old Millrose games, they should try to sell replicas of old clubs uniforms. You see it all the time with cycling gear.

Lewis Johnson must be at least 6'7". He towers over some of the women. Why can't they put a little milk-create or something similar so the shorter people can stand on, just to even out the picture frame?

Was Gail Devers wearing some home-knitted uniform? Maybe that is how she spent the time while pregnant.

For the 100th edition, I hope they put out a commemerative program for the ages. Maybe a 2 page spread of every cover, a gallery of b&w photos from early games, the best performances and performers, etc.

Again, enjoyed the meet, and the coverage wasn't too bad either.

quote: Track and field has a ton of dead time. We need music during it for sure. unquote.

Eliminate the dead time...think Penn Relays. The solution is not easy, but it is simple. Set the schedule, stick to the schedule and be done with it. This ain't rocket science folks. Meet organizers could eliminate the dead time if they wanted to. Sometimes the solution is so obvious that it gets completely overlooked. T&F has wallowed in mediocrity for so long it has become part of the culture of the sport. WAKE THE HELL UP !!!!! damn.

Was Track and Field News there ? The one and only BIBLE OF THE SPORT. I LUV T&FN. The best.

Were you there? In most cases, there was less than 5 minutes between races (usually 3-4 minutes). That is needed to collect the finishers, maybe do an interview with the winner, get the next group on the track and let them stride out.

Some seem to miss the point on music - the music was between events and often less than 60/30 seconds. Sure, track reconstruction probelms happen and there are some larger delays in the scheudle (I agree with you on thise few times - elimiate the planned 10 minute gap, if any). The PA guy was calling some field event attempts (no real standings) and making announcements, promos, advertisements - there wasn't a large block of silence, ever.

The question: assume short snippets of music between events is okay, so what about toons during the field events or distance races? I loved the shot put music. I know some meets (Armory for one) run music throughut the distance races - is this the way to go??

I couldn't find a discount code on the NYRR website, and I did look for it. Thankfully, I'm also a USATF member and they promoted it. I don't think NYRR made enough noise about it.

AS for what I liked about it -- the relays were fun. Lagat was fun to watch, even if the poor guy can't find anyone to compete with. I didn't get why the rabbit fell -- it looked awfully fake. He pulls into lane 2 for a while, then does a dramatic tumble. Cmmmmmmm on!

The pole vaulters and shot putters are always fun to watch.

The ethiopian and jamaican fans helped bring the place to life, especially that concentrated pack of maybe 50 or so ethiopian fans who seemed to light up the whole stadium.

1st time I went. It is much better live than watching the rushed coveage on T.V. If you missed it here's a mass of pictures I found

http://www.trackandfieldphoto.net/MeetMatrix.php?Meet=99th%20Millrose%20Games

You can't blame the NYRR for everything. It's not their event. They do enough things.

Mr. Katz:

I've been going to Millrose since Mary Decker's WR in 1980, and have enjoyed every one. I think things have been getting better of late. The music is great and as you said, is a staple of meets worldwide these days. The announcers are superb and the coordination with the Armory Collegiate meet is a great addition.

Regarding the track reconstruction complaint, I recall that last year (2005) all oval events ended before the sprints/hurdles, thus necessitating only dropping the turns once. Seemed sensible as those delays have always plagued the meet.

Regarding ticket sales, I think promotion should focus on the venue-MSG. HS kids have for the most part only been fans of their sport for less than 3 years and loyalty is still with the sports they've known since infancy. But they all know the Garden. We have 130 kids on the team I coach. All attend Millrose, along with family, faculty, alums etc., and I sell the meet as a chance to see their sport contested in the same place where they see all the Knick, Ranger and college bball games. It's the Garden. I think many lifelong track fans and maybe regular Millrose attendees are born when they see their team and their sport's elite on the same stage as their Basketball/Hockey/Music heroes.

While it may sound self-serving given our success the last few years, my only complaint was that the record of past winners was omitted from the program for the HS and college events. This is a key way to enjoy the meet and since HS and college associations may not keep these records as they are not league championships, these historical records could be lost forever if they are not restored to the program. Doesn't the PSAL 4x400m go back to 1908 or so?

Overall, great experience and we'll be back with a ton of fans next year.

Sincerely,

George Febles

Fordham Prep HS