A sellout crowd of 18,266 attended the Chase Millrose
Games at MSG on Friday night (Jere Longman, N.Y. TIMES,
2/8). USATF President Patricia Rico, on the sellout: "It
showed the sport is not dead" (USA TODAY, 2/10).
STATE-OF-THE-SPORT: USA TODAY's Dick Patrick wrote that
Nike Exec John Capriotti said that fellow Nike Exec Steve
Miller, mentioned "prominently" as a successor to USATF Exec
Dir Ollan Cassell, "could be losing interest" in the job.
Capriotti: "Steve has second thoughts because of the USATF
structure. [NBA Commissioner] David Stern doesn't run the
NBA by having to answer to a 92-member board of directors"
(USA TODAY, 2/10). The N.Y. TIMES' Jere Longman profiled
Cassell and the USATF. Longman, on Jackie Joyner-Kersee and
Gail Devers bowing out of the games due to the USATF's
inability to pay appearance fees: "A more thorough shaking
of the money tree by Millrose officials could have raised
the $35,000 total appearance fee for both Joyner-Kersee and
Devers." He noted that both the Mobil Corp. and Conde Nast
offered to put up the money the day after the two dropped
out. Longman: "The sport's problems are not without
solutions. The first necessity is to buy out Cassell's
contract before it expires next March" (N.Y. TIMES, 2/10).
The next event in the '97 indoor series, telecast through a
time buy by TWI on NBC, will be February 22, at the Mobil
One Invitational. Cassell told MEDIAWEEK's James Dunaway
that four days before the Millrose Games, four of the 19
available commercial units were unsold (MEDIAWEEK, 2/10).
