There is nothing quite like fall in Gainesville. We enjoy an embarrassment of riches here, what with Gator Football, festival season and great weather (soon with the weather, anyway). It is great to be in Greater Gainesville this time of year.
I know football will reign supreme for the next few months, but we have another athletic competition to look forward to in the new year, one that truly amplifies the capabilities of our great community. The World Masters Athletics Indoor Championships (WMACi) has been awarded to Alachua County and will take place March 23-30, 2025. It seems incredible, but this will mark the first time the event has ever been held in the United States, positioning our county and our state to make athletics history.
Established in 2004, the WMACi is held every odd-numbered year. Last year, it was held in Torun, Poland, with 24 events offered, more than 4,100 athletes competing and 10,000 total visitors representing 89 nations enjoying the championships.​
World Masters Athletics is the international governing body for track and field, race walking, cross county, road running and throwing, with Masters defined as men and women age 35+, with most participants in the 50+ age divisions. Though we are perhaps best known for our college-aged demographic, I think we are home to those who are young at heart, regardless of their age, and so hosting an international competition dedicated to redefining the image of aging and solidifying athletics as a lifetime sport is particularly gratifying to me.
And, the news gets even better. USA Track and Field, the national governing body for track and field in the United States, has awarded the USATF Masters Indoor Championships to our county as well, all part of the effort in securing WMACi2025.
The four-day USATF competition, scheduled for February 20-23, will feature more than 1,200 athletes, many of whom will return weeks later to compete in WMACi25, providing another opportunity to celebrate this active 50+ demographic. ​
Of course, none of this would have been possible without our outstanding venue, the Alachua County Sports and Events Center at Celebration Pointe. The competition to host this international event was fierce and our successful bid was due to the collaborative effort between the State of Florida, Alachua County, Viking Companies, Celebration Pointe, RADDSports, Visit Gainesville/Alachua County and the Gainesville Sports Commission, with hard work dating back to May 2023.
An added bonus to this project is the progress made at the former West End Golf Club on Newberry Road. Closed and increasingly desolate since 2019, many proposals for developing the property were made, but the WMACi commitment gave Alachua County the perfect opportunity to move forward with a proposal to renovate the property using Wild Spaces, Public Places funds, keeping it for recreational use.
If all goes according to plan, West End will host cross country and the discus, javelin and hammer throw events. The excitement and economic impact this event will bring to our region is the stuff of dreams for many communities around the country, and we are thrilled at the opportunity.
Editor’s note: This is the latest in a series of business columns sponsored by Pavlov Media.
Mr. Godot. Please quit telling lies and trying to rewrite history. It is beneath you.
The WMA will be one of the biggest boondoggles in county history. Poorly attended, poorly run, money losing subsidized by tax money, and a gaggle of disappointed Europeans damn sorry they paid their own travel money to attend. It is 100% funded by tax money, with insider backroom deals, for the purpose of profit of one entity, which is in Federal bankruptcy court as I write this. Hotels have doubled their rates to gouge the European seniors. The only benefit of the WMA is profit for a few high price hotels. Everyone else loses.
Check back in April 2025 and let me know how accurate my predictions are.
Your statement “The competition to host this international event was fierce” is a total bald faced LIE. There was no “fierce competition.” NO ONE bid to host this WMA because it is a money losing boondoggle requiring massive tax money subsidies. NO city in America was foolish enough to submit a bid when they calculated the financials and saw what a money losing pig this WMA would be. Alachua County was the ONLY applicant to submit a bid, and the WMA org was faced with the choice of selecting a second rate not really desirable bid, or cancelling the 2025 WMAs. With no other choice and the bid process years behind schedule, time was running out and they held their nose picked Alachua County because they were promised the BOCC is foolish enough to keep throwing millions of tax dollars at this project. The BOCC delivers.
Quit trying to revise history, Thank you.
Suggestion for a MSDN reporter. Please contact Mr. Godet and have him provide a list of every city on Earth that submitted an actual bid for the 2025 WMACi, and the date of the bid. It should be easy for Mr. Godet to provide this list of the “fierce competition” to Alachua County. Actual bids only. A city that “looked at it and did not bid” is not a bid. A city that looked at it, analyzed the financials, and ran away from it as fast as their track shoes could carry them does not qualify as “competition.” I am so sure Mr. Godet will promptly provide this complete list, and the MSDN will publish it, to educate the local readership.