The NYC Armory isn’t the only one to blame for the 2007 indoor nationals debacle — winning the meet in 2004 and dumping it in 2006. Masters officials screwed up as well. Today I received a long note from a source within the Metropolitan Association (formerly the MAC), which “signed off” on the Armory’s bid back in 2004. But according to my source, members of the Met board didn’t even know about the bid until the December 2004 Portland meeting where the meet was awarded!

I promised the source anonymity. But here’s the poop:
The source wrote:
“Before I give you the answers to your questions, I have to say that I do not think that you should spend a lot of time nor space on this story. It is basically a story of someone reneging on an awarded bid — a bid which never should have been made in the first place….
“A bit of background and why I say that the bid should never have been made in the first place…. The proposed bid for the national championships was never discussed at a board meeting nor even by e-mail nor by telephone.
“I found out about the Armory bid for the national masters indoor championships at the convention. Basically, (two Armory officials) had the Association’s Executive Director sign off on the bid application at the last minute; the Executive Director did not think to inform me and she did not come to the convention herself that year, so there was no opportunity for her to informally tell us over breakfast or during other encounters….
“I thought then that it was an ominous sign that the bid was not discussed with the Association and I was not in favor of it. Furthermore, once awarded, there was no communication in any way with the Association on this championship.
“I did probably mention to (the two Armory officials) at some point that the Association was not going to take any financial responsibility because the Association seemed to be out-of-the-loop, since nothing was being discussed. And when I say ‘nothing,’ I mean ‘nothing.’
“The matter was never brought up for discussion with the Association board and as far as I know was never mentioned to the Association Executive Director.
“I mentioned these facts to George Mathews, who said that he would make a trip to the Armory after the open indoor championships….
“I first found out about the bid cancellation in a March 1 e-mail from an unnamed person and, to be honest, to date I have not received any formal notice from any other source.
“When I sent an e-mail to the association board informing them of the meet cancellation, the Executive Director told me that everyone on the board knew….This above-mentioned e-mail was the only notice which I had. I saw nothing else anywhere, not even on the USATF website, and none of my board members sent me a notice, so I do not know how widely known it was nor is.
“When I reconstruct the timeline, it appears that George Mathews went with Jim Flanik to the Armory on Thursday, February 23. You will need to confirm that. When they departed New York, everything appeared to be in order, but George subsequently received a telephone call from Dr. Norbert Sander, President of the Armory, informing him that the Armory was canceling the bid, citing forecast losses on the meet, the fact that no hotel rooms had been blocked and that (the two Armory officials)l who had made the original bid presentation were no longer with the Armory.
“George sent an e-mail February 27 to the masters executive committee and some relevant people at USATF headquarters in Indianapolis informing them of the bid cancellation and asking executive committee approval for Boston to assume responsibility for the meet. Boston had apparently already indicated their willingness to do so.
“What was my reaction (to the Armory’s cancellation)?
“I am pleased, because I do not think that the meet should have been in New York in the first place. The Association was not actively involved in the bid nor in the meet subsequent to the bid award and hotel room rates are high.
“What is my take on Sander’s contention that the Armory couldn’t afford the meet?
“No comment. I’d have to see his paperwork and his numbers to comment on that. But these numbers should have been covered in the bid presentation and should have come as no surprise to him….
“There is a great deal of hostility here between the association and the Armory, but I do not hold that position. I have always found Dr. Sander to be a pleasant person, I like him personally and I look at these disagreements as business matters only.
“While I was not particularly expecting a bid cancellation, given the stealth manner in which the bid presentation was made to the masters committee in by-passing the association, the cancellation comes as no surprise.
“As for responsibility, I personally fault the masters committee for not listening to me when I privately told various committee members that this bid had not been discussed with the association prior to presentation.”
Me again:
I’ve written to several people — including USATF Masters T&F Chairman George Mathews — asking for a copy of the bid documents. So far, no reply. My original interest in the paperwork was to see how the Armory would pay for the meet. It had to make some revenue and expense projections.
The bid process is spelled out by USATF, and includes this step:
“The application form solicits information relevant to the necessary requirements for conducting a National Championships event, such as: the prior experience of the proposed Championships management team; the fiscal ability of the bidder to fund the Championships; whether the local community is providing support and assistance for the Championships.”
Now, however, I’m even more interested in seeing how the Armory made the bid without deep involvement from Metropolitan.
This is looney-tunes, folks. The USATF Web site has a section devoted to bidding for national championships. It explicitly states:
“Contact your local Association of USA Track & Field… We encourage you to work closely with your local USATF Association.”
That apparently wasn’t done in the Armory’s case.
George has some ‘splainin’ to do. So does the Mets’ exec: Dorothy Clinton. (March 16 update: My bad. Dorothy wasn’t the head honcho in 2004. It was Jude Masillon. I’m trying to reach him.)
Stay tuned.