Sanjay Ayre has lived his life daring to dream. That gutsy approach has paid off, as those dreams have often led to amateur, professional, and business successes.
His latest dream will become reality on Friday, Jan. 24, and Saturday, Jan. 25. That's when Ayre, a New York City Public Schools Athletic League track and field legend at DeWitt Clinton High School ― who won two high school national titles and went on to become a silver medalist for his native Jamaica as part of the 4 x 400-meter relay team during the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia ― will present the first New York International Showcase at Staten Island's Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex.
Planned as an annual event, this first effort by the always entrepreneurial Ayre, who is making a personal six-figure investment to get the Showcase off the ground, is expected to attract up to 2,500 participants from as far away as Australia, as well as more than 2,500 fans. It's also going to be streamed on MileSplit.
Inner vision
Of course, jumping into this fray with both of his still fleet feet means that Ayre is going large right out of the box.
"My vision for this event was that this is the first indoor international high school meet of this caliber in New York State," he said. "So at this first event, we'll feature participants from not only the U.S. like Quincy Wilson (the youngest U.S. Olympic Gold Medalist in history), but my native Jamaica, Haiti, Canada, Australia and many more countries as we work to build a world-class event."
To build the NYIS from a solid base called for booking a world-class facility, which was an easy find in this case along the East Coast. He not only spent his last two years of high school in The Bronx at DeWitt Clinton, but has lived for many years in Central Maryland while building his company, 2 Eagle Sports & Entertainment.
So the decision to return to his high school home was easy, as the 135,000-square-foot, World Athletics-certified OBAC "is still the closest world-class bank track available to 2 Eagle's business base."
Of course, having the event in the largest Metropolitan Statistical Area in the U.S. can only help.
Though Staten Island is home to only a handful of hotels compared to other areas of metropolitan New York, it's only a seven-mile drive from Manhattan via the Manhattan Bridge and a few more from Newark via the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. All told, the location "provides great East Coast access," said Ayre, "for travelers along the New Jersey Turnpike."
Real concern
Ayre is also investing heavily in the marketing of this initial event by buying ads on New York City's Irie Jam Radio, which is available via the iHeart app, to reach its many listeners who are often also interested in track and field. "I'm running constant ads on the radio station," said Ayre.
The event will be live-streamed on MileSplit (which is owned by FloSports, which is big in the world of track and field) which has more than 50 Million Pageviews per month.
Today, the preparations are all about the logistics. Ayre has employed more than 50 people to design, setup and execute an event that can certainly be called a labor of love; however, while his efforts are borne of commercial aspirations, it's also out of passion and even concern for the sport.
"I'm founding this event because track and field feels like a dying sport," he said, "and I want to create more fan interest aside from just the usual families and friends."
Next year
While he's optimistic that the event will catch on, he understands that these are games of chance.
"For far too long, fans have been craving for the best races to see the best high school athletes going head-to-head in competition. I'm betting on this concept to bring the fastest kids in the world to one venue to race against each other," said Ayre.
"We're hoping that this event will catch the attention from other athletes from around the world who want to compete and generate more fan interest," he said, while he works to "bring something special back to the New York area that has meant so much to me."
Next on the agenda is to capitalize on that six-figure investment that was made, in part, "with the hope of securing a title sponsor for 2026," said Ayre, noting that Puma already has the rights to the outdoor meet.
"I'm taking a risk on doing something new, but it's a calculated risk. I've made much of my living in this field for many years and see the need for this more expansive event," said Ayre. "We're already looking forward to next year."
