It's now an elite gathering
Indoor track has changed dramatically in recent years, and Boston is at the forefront of a resurgence
For decades, indoor track was like vaudeville. There was an established circuit -- Washington, Philadelphia, Cleveland, New York, Boston -- with an event nearly every winter weekend and competitors and officials traveling by train.
When the tour came to Causeway Street for the Boston Athletic Association and Knights of Columbus meets, the action was nonstop for nearly 12 hours, with everything from "midget relays" (for short schoolboys) to the elite mile, with officials wearing tuxedos in the evening. "It was like a circus, it was beautiful," recalls George King, who competed at the Garden for Boston English, NYU, and the New York AC.
And then, like vaudeville, the indoor circuit gradually disappeared, with both Boston meets expiring a year apart in the early 1970s. Only the Millrose Games, the Madison Square Garden fixture that celebrated its 100th anniversary this month, still survives.
The domestic loop consists of just four meets these days and two are in Boston -- the Reebok Boston Indoor Games and the US Championships, which begin tomorrow at the Reggie Lewis Center in Roxbury. Yet the scaled-down circuit is remarkably robust.
The Reebok meet, which has been held since 1996 and features top international athletes, is a perennial sellout. The Millrose, which had been wobbly for years, is enjoying a renaissance, with nearly 15,000 spectators turning out this year. Television ratings for the Visa Championship Series (which includes the Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark.) are up nearly 40 percent this season and the Reebok meet posted record numbers for an indoor meet on cable.
What's behind the resurgence? Well-packaged and promoted meets held during a monthlong window in compact buildings, featuring top names in marquee events and points-based bonus cash at the end. "Indoor track has completely changed over the last 12 years," says Mark Wetmore , president of Global Athletics & Marketing, which created the Reebok meet and now organizes the Millrose Games.
The trend now is "boutique" meets such as the Boston Indoor Games, which offer a fast-paced program built around several events designed to produce world records. "It's bright-lights-big-city-in-your-face entertainment for three hours," says Rich Kenah , the former 800-meter world medalist who handles Global's marketing.
The old circus-style meets may have had a big-tent allure, but they were bewildering and bum-numbing for spectators, many of whom were squirming in their seats from noon until midnight. "There's no place for 10-hour meets anymore," says Wetmore. "There's barely a place for four-hour meets."
Not in the Land of 1,000 Diversions. "We want to make meets exciting, but short enough that people can come and enjoy them without losing an entire day," says Kenah. "We see a track meet the same way you would see a basketball game or a movie."
Meaning three hours, tops. That's still a challenge on the indoor circuit, though, where formats are difficult to change. The US Championships, which cover two days and determine teams for the biennial world meet, require heats in several events.
And the Millrose Games, which offer nearly 40 events ranging from "fastest kid" dashes to masters relays, are steeped in tradition. "It's a challenge to eliminate some events," acknowledges Kenah, "without alienating people."
Showcase events aren't new. The Wanamaker Mile has been the centerpiece of the Millrose Games for decades. But in an era when assembling top-shelf fields for multiple events is a) expensive and b) unlikely, the showcase is the way to go.
"With the advent of major shoe contracts, athletes don't make a living going from track meet to track meet like they did 20 years ago," says Wetmore, whose firm represents more than 60 competitors, most of them international Olympians. "The premium is performance in the big meets. That's how athletes make a living now."
Which means many of them can afford to take the winter off and save themselves for the big European meets, which prepare them for the world outdoor championships and the Olympics.
"What has happened is, people are making personal choices," says USA Track & Field chief executive Craig Masback , a former international miler. "They'll say, I'm going to run indoors every year because it prepares me for outdoors. Or, I'm going to run selectively. Or, I'm not going to run at all."
When Masback was competing, indoors was where the money was. Ireland's Eamonn Coghlan, the legendary "Chairman of the Boards" who won the Wanamaker Mile a record seven times, made a handsome living negotiating banked corners under a roof.
"When John Walker set the outdoor world record in the mile in Gothenburg in 1975, he got $1,500 and a case of beer," says Masback, who remembers getting $500 for finishing second to Olympic champion Sebastian Coe in one race. "I guarantee you that Eamonn got a significant multiple of that."
These days, the indoor meets feature primarily up-and-comers looking to make a name for themselves, as Justin Gatlin did in 2003, established veterans wanting to keep sharp, and high-visibility aces brought in to supercharge an event. The Wanamaker, which had lost its luster over the years, sparkled this month when Bernard Lagat , Alan Webb, and Australia's Craig Mottram knocked heads for 11 laps.
"Priority 1 was to make sure we had a good mile," says Kenah. Priority 2 was the pole vault, which featured Russian world record-holder Yelena Isinbayeva in her American debut. In Boston, where the established road running culture has given fans an appreciation of longer events, the distance races have been the glamour draws.
"It's a pretty knowledgeable crowd around here," says Marblehead's Shalane Flanagan, who set the US record in the 3,000 meters here last month while chasing Meseret Defar to the finish and will compete this weekend. "Bostonians appreciate good performances."
"That meet is the highlight of the indoor season," says Tom Meagher , the former Boston College athlete and coach who is chief starter at both the Indoor Games and the US Championships. "If I don't see a world record, I'm disappointed."
When the "moving parts" -- as Wetmore calls the traditional chockablock indoor cavalcade -- are reduced, the remaining events stand out. In the sport's Barnum & Bailey days, with several events going simultaneously, spectators were always missing highlights. "If you have too many things going on at the same time, they don't understand any of them," muses Kenah.
So when the shot-putters lumbered in for their showdown at the Reebok meet, all of the running events were halted. The customer, after all, has only one set of eyes. The modern approach to indoor track is Marketing 101. Don't confuse the consumers and don't bore them. "Our approach to a track meet is entertainment," says Kenah. "We understand that in the 21st century, people have tons of choices."
Even in the 19th century, it wasn't merely about times and distances. At the nation's inaugural indoor meet in 1868, held at New York's Empire City Skating Rink, "Dodworth's Band was present and rendered choice music at intervals during the evening," according to an account of the day. And at the old Garden meets, a dance band played college fight songs.
If nothing else, the music kept spectators from dozing off. Now, the meet tempo is crisp and brisk by design. "You're in, it's two to 2 1/2 hours, and you're out," says Meagher. "The new format seems to have great appeal."
Especially at The Reggie, whose intimate confines (3,500 seats) and Mondo Super-X surface make for fast times and high decibels. "It looks great on TV," says Masback. "Almost like an Olympic venue."
The Reggie won't ever be the old Garden, with its twin balconies and splintery boards and hardcore viewing audience that legendary pole vaulter Bob Richards called "the greatest track crowd in the history of man." It was a building made for all-day circuses with multiple rings and spectators with iron pants.
The Reggie is a 200-meter speedway, built for a crowd that expects out-of-your-seat entertainment that doesn't have them scrambling to catch the last subway home. The midget relays went out with vaudeville. These days, indoor track is a bright-lights boutique.
John Powers can be reached at jpowers@globe.com. 
