Boston lands another masters nationals — 2007 indoors
Arrivederci, Albuquerque. Buh-bye, Boise. Never mind, New Jersey. Boston’s Reggie Lewis Center will host the 2007 USATF National Masters Indoor Championships. Also the 2006 host, Boston has been the site of indoor nationals for all but one of the past eight or so years. More than a half-dozen other host cities had been mentioned as fill-ins for the 2007 meet in the wake of the NYC Armory’s decision to drop 2007. An official announcement from USA Track & Field has yet to be made, but the local organizers of the Boston nationals — the New England Association of USATF — have confirmed that USATF Masters and Boston have reached an agreement to host the meet.
Yesterday, association Prez Gary Snyder wrote me: “My board voted to host 2007 and I relayed that to (USATF Masters T&F Chairman) George (Mathews) last Tuesday.”
This, of course, means that the meet was Boston’s to refuse. According to my sources in USATF Masters, other potential venues weren’t being considered. Instead, USATF Masters contacted the New England Association and basically said, “You guys were second in the voting to the Armory in 2004, when delegates to the Portland convention chose the 2007 indoor nationals host. Ya wanna have the meet?”
Boston has now officially replied: yes.
Bully for Beantown that it could step into the lurch. But USATF’s letting other cities and arenas think they had a chance at the 2007 indoor nationals is a bit cheeky (as the Beatles would say). Hope we learn from this baton-dropping.
3 Responses
I’m absolutely thrilled to be going to Boston next week for the Indoor Nationals. And I loved the last two National Cross-Country meets: Club Championships in Rochester, NY, and USA Championships in the Bronx, NY. And I had a plane ticket to the masters X-Country Championship before those two, the 5K in Saratoga Springs, NY, but illness forced me to sit that one out.
And I consider myself a good sport and a willing participant in these nationals.
But what the hell is going on? That’s well over $1000 in plane fares to fly to the Northeast time and time again (for the last four masters championships) – not to mention about that much again for hotels. What’s more, I’ll have to fly to Saratoga Springs again next fall to compete in the 5K X-Country, because it’s ALWAYS in Saratoga Springs. No offense to my Northeastern masters compadres – and some of the most talented, most fun, and most gregarious guys in masters come from the Northeast! – but I object to incurring these kind of expenses over and over to fly to one geographic region. I shouldn’t have to become a frequent flyer to the Northeast in order to have a chance at masters National Championships. Nor, in all fairness, should runners from the Northeast have such an obvious competitive and financial edge when it comes to x-country and indoor track.
The exact same thing could be said, in reverse, about the Masters Road 10K Championships, held in Paso Robles, CA for the last few years – and being held there again next year. Why should masters runners from all over the country have to shoulder the financial/time burden of flying to Central California every year for the chance at the title. Personally, I just drove up last year (it’s only a couple hundred miles away from my home in So Cal), ran the race completely out-of-shape, took 3rd place in a completely pedestrian time (a minute slower than I normally run), and pocketed $1250 for my trouble. Outrageous? … Yes.
Masters USATF needs to spread around these meets. Masters runners are responsible for their own travel and expenses. We don’t have Nike or Adidas sending us around the country to compete in these meets. Either everyone should face the same financial challenges, or meets like the 5K X-country and the Pasa Robles 10K and the Indoor Championships should be acknowledged (and officially labeled) what they are: regional championships with a few visitors from around the country.
The meet can go elsewhere, and we in Boston encourage and want a rotation. But the fact is that only three times in 10 years was there even another bidder.
The meet first came here a year earlier than the first bid we won (1997) because the U of Missouri couldn’t host it (director left town, the U wouldn’t close their facility to an outside organization’s event for 3 days).
A bid from Illinois one time didn’t win because they didn’t have a guarantee of the use of the track. Boise won, and good for them. NY won and good for them. But no one else has put in a bid.
Several sites were bantered about on the list server, but did anyone really put a plan in place to see if those sites could put a package together in 12 months? Starting with facility availability, which might have longer lead times?
I hope all of those sites mentioned bid for 2009.
Steve Vaitones
USATF New England
Managing Director
Thank goodness we have Boston and the New England USTAF to step aforward and host the meet. The facility in Boston is first class and the meet management in the past has been excellent. Indoor track is mainly an east coast/midwest activity anyway so the indoor version of the championships should be in the afore mentioned regions.
The outdoor championship meet should rotate between all regions of the US.
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