U.S. Agency Acts to Ensure Pay for Millrose Games

USA Track and Field has agreed to act as an escrow agent to ensure that elite athletes who compete in the venerable but financially troubled Millrose Games will get their money, Craig Masback, USATF’s chief executive, said Monday.

The 98th edition of the Millrose Games is scheduled for Feb. 4 at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The track and field event, in its second year under the ownership and management of Pro Sports & Entertainment, Inc., has scrambled to find financial support since it lost its title sponsor.

Losing the Millrose Games “would have been a big blow for those of us who have been involved and wanting the right outcome,” Masback, who twice finished last in the famed Wanamaker Mile, said during a conference call. “There was a great understanding of what it takes to put on a major sporting event. It’s very complicated. ...

“I’m highly confident there is more than adequate financing to hold the meet, as far as I know.”

PSEI, which has offices in Los Angeles and New York, bought the Millrose Games in September 2003 and is putting up the money that will be held by and then dispersed by USA Track and Field. The Millrose Games, with its elite and high school competitions, was once a premier date on the track and field calendar but had lost prestige in the last decade as athletes went to Europe for big paydays.

Last year’s crowd of 14,154 was the largest in many years, a rise attributed to the presence of Marion Jones and to heavy marketing to high school track enthusiasts. Jones is not entered this year.

Paul Feller, PSEI’s president and chief executive, said his company was in “promising” talks with another possible title sponsor to back what he called “a challenging event, a very expensive event to run.” Feller said PSEI lost money on the Millrose Games last year and projected it to finish in the red again despite ticket sales that he said were 10% ahead of the same time last year.

Some agents reportedly expressed concern about whether their athletes would be paid and were reluctant to commit to the event. Karen Locke, a representative for three pole vaulters who will compete in New York -- Toby Stevenson, Derek Miles and Tye Harvey -- said her clients spurned European and Australian meets to compete in New York.

“Our objective is to support Millrose in whatever capacity necessary,” Locke said.

The Los Angeles Invitational indoor track meet vanished last year after more than 40 years, also unable to attract sponsors.