Is New York big enough for two world-class track meets every winter? Or will a feud between the city’s top track venue and the sport’s governing body end up killing the venerable Millrose Games, or Madison Square Garden’s new U.S. Open, or both? For better or worse, we’ll find out over the next two weeks.
An area that once played host to three meets has struggled lately to support one, Millrose being propped up by USA Track & Field. After the Garden’s longest-running event left after 98 years and moved to the Armory over the protestations of USA Track & Field, the latter created tonight’s U.S. Open and made eight-time Wanamaker Mile champ Bernard Lagat the headliner.
Getting the face of the Millrose Games to run tonight’s mile was a clear shot across the bow of the departed meet. And even the classy Lagat, who makes Derek Jeter look controversial, admitted questions about seeing the meet leave.
“Oh, yes, I’d be wrong if I said I didn’t. I voiced my concerns,’’ said Lagat. “To me, the Millrose Games and Madison Square Garden, one was not existing without the other. … I felt like it’s been separated.’’
Now Lagat will run the mile tonight against Kenyan Silas Kiplagat, and return for the Feb. 11 Millrose Games, trying to reclaim the U.S. 5,000-meter record he lost to Galen Rupp. It won’t be the Wanamaker, but to Lagat it’s making the best of an ugly athletic divorce that did not have to happen.
“I tell myself it’s an opportunity to go back and do the mile with the same field, only the name is not here,’’ Lagat said . “I had my own feelings. [But] I supported everything. If this is going to enhance the sport in our country, let it be. I hope it’s for the best for our sport, which I believe it will be.’’
The jury’s out. The sport is better on national TV and in the Garden — as tonight is, 7 p.m. on ESPN2 — than non-televised in a 4,000-seat recreation center. That’s not to say Millrose won’t succeed — meet director Ray Flynn is one of the sport’s top agents, and Armory executive director Dr. Norb Sander is experienced. But the Armory’s business plan needs high schools, while USATF insisted on a pro-heavy meet.
The pinnacle of theatre is Broadway, the cathedral of baseball is Yankee Stadium, and that top-flight meet has resided at The World’s Most Famous Arena — until the Armory was given the rights to the Millrose name back in 2009 by the Millrose Foundation.
Glass half-full celebrates two top-flight meets within a couple of weeks; glass half-empty wonders if there is enough room — and support — for them to survive, separate but equal.