Hoping to goose a bidder, Boston may forgo 2010 meet
Steve Vaitones, a USATF New England Association honcho who helps direct the Beantown masters nationals, says Boston “likely” will not seek the 2010 indoor meet. This contradicts what USATF Masters Chair Gary Snyder, a fellow New Englander, told me a couple weeks back — that Boston is bidding to host the 2010 indoor nationals. In a comment on the “George Mathews relents” entry, Steve writes: “We did not bid for 2009 in the hope of another site working into a rotation, and it looks like D.C. will fill the need. We’ll likely not bid for 2010 either to try to get another site — hopefully central or west — and managing group into the mix. Let’s see if any group can rally and deliver. After that, a nice 3-way rotation would benefit all.”
Here’s what Steve posted yesterday:
George has brought up a key point that everyone is either glossing over or wants to avoid – there are not facilities lining up to serve as host to masters events, particularly the indoor championship. Having been involved in the indoor nationals since 1997, let me present some perspective. Note: When I use “we” I am indicating USATF-New England.
And while this current discussion is about the outdoor pent, the same was discussed earlier about the indoor pent and is so applicable.
The meet came to Boston a year early (1997 vs first winning bid of 1998) because the Missouri site said they could no longer close their college facility to the college community for three full days. That one was directed by TRACS, Inc., as was 1999 and 2001. USATF Associations can barely get four or five hours to host an association indoor championship at a college. I doubt one will ever find a college to close a track for 3 days during time when school is in session and the student body has the expectation of use of their own facilites.
Reggie is one of only a small number of public facilites that has the amenities that masters need and are looking for — particularly a 6 lane 200 meter track that is ‘record quality’ and can handle multiple field events at one time. After the second week of March, there’s minimal track activity beyond clinics — but the facility is filled 6 or 7 days a week with meets from December 1 onward, and no new events could ever get in earlier; even adding in March would be problematic.
The reason it’s been here most years since is because there isn’t much of anywhere else to go for needs and within cost parameters. Most of our bids since 2000 have been uncontested. Folks want to go elsewhere but it’s not that simple. No other organization (senior games, a “new” masters TF group) could do any better in getting sites that can handle the US masters national indoor meet.
We did not bid for 2009 in the hope of another site working into a rotation, and it looks like D.C. will fill the need. We’ll likely not bid for 2010 either to try to get another site — hopefully central or west — and managing group into the mix. Let’s see if any group can rally and deliver. After that, a nice 3-way rotation would benefit all.
To rent the Reggie Lewis Center for the 3 days – and we get it a la carte just paying the reasonable standard rental fees for the track and several other rooms, not closing the entire facility, either – is in excess of $15,000. That doesn’t include other basic event costs that may be facility related, such as timing system/operator costs, security, medicalm, need I go on? Get a New Yorker to tell us the real cost of trying to rent the Armory for 3 days.
Despite the (increasingly higher) cost of the pentathlon compared to individual events, it hardly pays for the all the cost of extra hours needed to accommodate the 50 or 60 competitors.
The number one complaint the indoor national meet has had from the games committee and some athletes is that there need to be more officials, and the meet is well understaffed for volunteers. This is a major issue on Friday for the pentathlon. Sure, this is a national championship, but the reality is that despite age group performances, this isn’t the same as an open national meet (which, by the way, we have trouble getting all necessary volunteers).
With the many events held in the Boston area each season, the pool of reliable volunteers is at a premium, and even getting pit rakers is no mean task. Rare is the individual (even on our board) who is taking Friday off to work the meet. People use their vacation days for personal use and dare I say bigger events, and some having done so for 10 years, it’s become somewhat routine. Our dedicated officials and volunteers are passionate about the meet. There are just too few of them.
Another complaint about Boston is the cost related to high hotel costs. Being in the middle of the schoolyear spring semester, there’s no way to obtain dormitory space. The higher hotel cost is somewhat offset by Boston’s being a major airline hub and flights being reasonable, and the public transit system that eliminates ground transportation rental.
But that still means 3 full nights for some participants.
There are always _locations_ that have interest in national meets – usually from the convention & visitors bureau end. The hard part is getting quality facilities and a cadre of knowledgeable and hard working individuals to run the meet. Ask the Boise crew about this aspect.
Expand the indoor meet? In a single Boston word, fuggeddaboutit. It would never be bid for from this end. And while it’s still fun to a point, I’m all in favor of deleting the pent from the indoor nationals. I’ll continue that crusade.
Maybe the greater question — is there really a need for so many masters “championships” — beginning with both pentathlon and heptathlon indoors? Is there an emphasis on quantity over quality?
2 Responses
I can’t disagree with many of the points raised by Mr. Vaitones in his posting. Certainly the key issue regarding the National Indoor meet is the lack of available facilities to host it. The Reggie Lewis center is a rare exception-a public indoor facility that was built mainly for track and field. The NEUSATF has developed an excellent relationship with the authority running the facility, in order to get the track for 3 days at a very reasonable rate. They have also done a great job hosting the meet for so many years when no one else would or could. They also run one of the best master’s meet during the summer at Springfield College.
If the intent of shortening the Indoor National event to two days instead of three is to hopefully get additional sites into the mix, then I’d gladly sacrifice the indoor pentathlon. While I’ve argued that the outdoor pentathlon is a legitimate multi event and deserves to be part of the overall outdoor program, I can’t make the same argument to keep it indoors. At the same time, if you do eliminate the pentathlon, please also eliminate other events that are forced fed into the indoor championship like the 3K racewalk, the triple jump, and the super weight throw. With the above reductions you could easliy hold the meet over two days instead of three.
Indoor track is mainly an East Coast activity. I doubt there are many indoor track facilities in the west or the southern part of the country. There are some in the mid west, but the concentration of facilities is in the mid atlantic states and north east. I hope the Prince George’s meet in 2009 comes to fruition. I doubt we’ll ever see the NYC Armory in the mix due to its management. Maybe the new Jersey City Armory facility will be finished and ready to hold the meet in the near future.
I also hope the suggestion to move the meet to two days instead of three is sincere, and not an attempt to increase profit at the expense of the athletes. Mr. Vaitones states that they rent the RLC for about $15K. If the meet is shortened to two days, the rent is probably 10K. The meet now generates about 35K plus in entry fees (1,485 event entries in 2007 at the average fee of about $25 each). Certainly the NEUSATF profits on hosting the meet, and they should. I’m certain that profit goes back into other programs such as the outdoor meet they hold. I’d just be disappointed if my event is sacrificed in the name of higher profits. If you remove just the pent, the meet will still generate $32K plus in entry fees, with lower expenses for rental costs.
Because I believe that the NEUSATF is probably the best association in the country with regard to the programs that they offer and host, and also with their involvement with the track and field community, I’ll be willing to make that sacrifice indoors if it helps.
There’s no way the meet can be compressed into 2 days – Friday still has several hours worth of 3000 meter races on the track. Even with two circles, the popularity of the three throwing events already has 9 hours of tosses on Saturday and five more on Sunday; some weight throws have to be held on Saturday. And the increased participation in the women’s vault will require that to remain on Friday – unless we eliminate a lot of doubling/tripling options out by moving it to Sunday where the women’s TJ and HJ are already scheduled. So, at Reggie, a 3pm start would be needed (but the facility would need to be closed and ready to go by noon, just as we now have prep costs on Thursday eve.)
Other sites, in fact, might still need 3 full days if their field event facilities (single horizontal and high jump pits, single throws circle, sprint straight on the oval and not on the infield) can’t handle the entries.
Costs for any facility and meet are not linear. Cutting time by exactly 1/3 doesn’t mean costs go down exactly that amount. If a room is used for set up, or set up requires facility staff on a non-competition day, those costs exist.
The cost I gave was for the facility and building staff only. That doesn’t include additional required security, timing system rental, timing crew, official stipend, club honoraria for volunteers, shuttle buses, trainers, ambulances, and a variety of other related expenses that are required. We run it as lean as we can.
While we have come out on the plus side of the ledger each year that the meet has been held in Boston, it wouldn’t have been if the cost per hour for time put in by the USATF-NE staff, i.e., me (currently solo), were charged back. It takes a lot of work to run this event.
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