Save the whale of an event that is the Millrose Games, Dr. Norb Sander advocated. Rare and old in a Galapagos Islands sort of way - a national treasure among track and field zealots - the Millrose, Sander argued, still has a place in the rip-snorting world or modern sports and must be preserved in its natural environment.

And that is why Sander, the point man in reviving the 168th Street Armory as a track and field mecca for school meets 14 years ago, gathered the sport's hardcore shakers and movers on Thursday to announce that his organization will assume prominent leadership in running the 103-year-old meet.

A Bronx-based physician and former New York City Marathon champion, Sander, 68, promised to work with local and national officials to "insure the future of the Millrose Games at Madison Square Garden. This is the flagship event of indoor track and field and its presence at the Garden is crucial."

Doug Logan, Indianapolis-based CEO of the sport's national governing body, was on hand to "pledge...not only are we not going to lose this great, iconic event, but we are going to find a way to make it better."

This, like fighting global warming or settling on universal health care, is no simple matter. Though it pre-dates both of the "world's most famous arena's" high-profile teams, the Knicks and the Rangers, the Millrose Games has been on the endangered species list for some time. Steadily declining attendance, a loss of prestige among the sport's elite and a lesser buy in the minds of major sponsors have made Millrose's tuxedo-clad officials appear, for more than a decade, to be overdressed.

By 2005, Millrose had begun working without a title sponsor - a dire necessity in the 21st Century's sports-and-entertainment world - and heads into the 2010 renewal, four months hence, still searching for such financial backing. Just at a time, Logan noted, that is "the most toxic for fighting for sponsorships. We're beating the bushes now."

Sander estimated that the meet will require a budget of "$400,000, maybe" just to fill the fields with top professionals. Given that track's biggest star, Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, demands a reported $250,000 per meet since his multiple gold-medal Olympic performance in 2008, a different Millrose Rx appears in order.

"My opinion," Sander said, "is we don't want Usain Bolt. It's too expensive; it consumers all the oxygen" to market a single superstar. "We want to get back to a track meet. Several years ago, they changed the whole meet around for Marion Jones, and they ended up with egg on their faces. To put everything on one athlete in one event doesn't have legs.

"People want to see races."

Recognizable pros still will be a significant part of the...