I agree with you, but was pointing out how our sport shoots itself in the foot. The larger tracks and the NCAA qualifying methods have forced a large group of quality athletes to look elsewhere for competition. I saw it first hand when we had one of the few 200 meter banked tracks in the country and had teams from all over come to our track in Boston to get qualifying times. As more and more large tracks appeared and indexing changed to help oversized tracks, other locations became hotbeds for teams to go and compete.
The Garden lost out. They also lost out when the pros took over and college athletes no longer were the primary source of outstanding performances. Millrose drew 18,000 plus when I ran there and the vast majority of fans were connected to the college athletes competing there, sprinkled in with a few foreign athletes to make for good competition. We used to sell over 200 tickets to our alumni within a week and I am sure other local colleges such as Villanova, Manhattan, St Johns, etc. did a lot better. There was more interest in high school competition back then, as well, that also drew lots of local fans.
None of that is there anymore, in my opinion. Having only half the arena filled is awful. I remember when that started happening at the New York K of C meet when it moved to Long Island and when the Boston Garden Meets started to drop in attendance. The same happened to the Baltimore meet.
It was not fun running in front of an empty house.
Howard Schmertz did an amazing job of keeping the Millrose Games going while all the others disappeared from the landscape. Unfortunately, our sport no longer attracts enough fans to support such a great venue as the Garden.
It is sad that today's young athletes can't experience competing in front of a "home crowd" of 18,000 fans screaming their name as they fight for a win.
Indoor track has grown as more colleges build huge indoor facilities, but the magic of competing in Madison Square Garden seems to be coming to an end.