Closing Shot: Keeping Pace With History

The Mecca of track and field sits in Manhattan’s Washington Heights neighborhood, a three-story neoclassical building known as The Armory. As unassuming as it is, The Armory hosts 300,000 track and field visitors a year, with roughly a million miles run annually on its Mondo track surface. It’s home to the National Track and Field Hall of Fame and the famed Wanamaker Mile, and no track and field setting has seen more world records broken than The Armory’s third-floor Nike Track and Field Center.

On Feb. 11, The Armory will host the 116th Millrose Games, a one-day track and field competition/celebration that embodies its host venue’s democratic support of track and field. Divided by age groups, the Millrose Games will host high schoolers, college athletes, professionals (who get a two-hour broadcast window on NBC), and masters.

“What an amazing opportunity it is, if you’re a high school student or visitor, to run and jump on the exact same hallowed grounds as the Bob Beamons and the Sydney McLaughlins,” said Jonathan Schindel, co-president of the Armory Foundation, citing Beamon, the former long-jump world record holder who grew up running at The Armory, and recent gold medalist and world record holder McLaughlin. “When do I have that opportunity? That is an opportunity here that’s not only unique to track and field, but on Earth.”

Built in 1911, The Armory sat across 68th Street from Hilltop Park, the first home of the New York Yankees. The building is owned by the city and was once a homeless shelter. It’s also served as a mass vaccination site and the three-decade home of the Armory Foundation, which uses track and field to expose kids to college opportunities. They just hosted the HBCU Showcase sponsored by KPMG, which had hundreds of New York City high school students in the building, in part to highlight college opportunities and featuring recruiters from the various HBCUs. Nike began its partnership at the building last year.

“We have kept a very clear eye on the reason we’re here — track and field,” said Armory Foundation Co-President Rita Finkel, “but we do have a responsibility with this very beautiful building of making sure it’s used.”

The Millrose Games are the apex of the venue’s track and field season. Norbert Sander, an advocate of the Armory, bought the Millrose Games for $1 and moved the event from Madison Square Garden, where crowds and energy had dwindled, to the Armory in 2012.

The event has thrived since then in the crowded, charged atmosphere of the Armory’s 65,000-square-foot, 4,000-seat venue. Track enthusiasts are squished together, right on top of the athletes, never more than 45 feet from the action. Throughout the Millrose Games, Finkel’s watch chirps, signaling excessive crowd noise levels, though air conditioning and humidifiers have been added in recent years to improve the conditions.

“The noise and electricity provide an atmosphere where the adrenaline for the athletes is unlike anywhere else they’ve been,” said Schindel.

Organizers offer 303 trackside seats, which go for $400 a pop, or $800 for those willing to include a donation to the Armory Foundation’s college program. But the cheapest ticket goes for just $25 to ensure everyone gets a chance to see track and field’s best.

“If you’re an Olympic athlete, particularly one from the United States, and you’ve run indoor track or jumped and thrown, you’ve been here,” said Schindel. “From that recreational, ‘Hey, I’m just the slowest person on my high school team,’ to the Olympian, they all pass through our doors.”