Professor Reflects on Creating the ‘Consulate of New Mexico’ During the 1996 Summer Olympics
(Editor’s Note: The following is an article written about the presentation of Robert J. Romano, an Associate Professor at St. John’s University, at the Sports and Recreation Law Association Conference in New Orleans in February. SRLA is the leading association representing sports and recreation law professors, who teach sports law at the undergraduate or graduate level.)
By Drew Schott
Ahead of the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Wade Miller hoped to be one of the thousands of fans to attend the international sporting event in Georgia’s capital. Miller, a New Mexico resident and volleyball fan, planned to travel to Atlanta for the sport’s championship game and called the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) for tickets. Yet when Miller got on the line with an ACOG representative, he was told he could not buy tickets through the organization because New Mexico was not part of the United States.
“Wade Miller, being the nice guy that he is, decided to try and tell the woman that New Mexico is the 47th state, the capital is Santa Fe, there is beautiful desert scenery and it’s an absolutely beautiful state,” said Robert J. Romano, an Associate Professor at St. John’s University. “Then… he said, ‘I want to speak to your supervisor.’ The supervisor got on the line and she said to him, these were the exact words that she told Mr. Wade Miller, ‘Old Mexico, New Mexico, the Territory of Mexico, it doesn’t matter. You’ll have to contact your Olympic Committee office in Mexico City in order to get tickets.’”
Miller was eventually given a telephone number, but for the Puerto Rico Olympic Committee. His situation eventually gained the attention of Romano, then a stand-up comedian with a house roughly half a mile away from Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park. Romano, using his comedic skills, came up with a satirical solution to Miller’s predicament.
“I said, ‘What do you do about that?’” Romano said. “Well, New Mexico needs a consulate.”
And so, the Consulate of New Mexico was born. Romano shared the inside story of creating it during his lecture – “‘The Consulate of New Mexico’ Bringing the World Together in Sport Outside the Field of Play” – at the Sport and Recreation Law Association Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Miller placed flags and the Olympic rings around his home and bought brochures, food and drinks to make visitors feel welcome. Miller Lite eventually sponsored the consulate, which hosted over 400 people from various states and countries including Ireland, Italy, Kenya, Russia and Sweden. The consulate’s witty activities extended to Olympic festivities as well, as Miller hosted a torch lighting event during the actual Olympic torch lighting ceremony at Centennial Olympic Stadium. Romano also formally petitioned the International Olympic Committee to hold the 2048 Olympic Games in New Mexico.
During a conversation with a visitor on July 21, 1996, Romano explained that when he was traveling through New Mexico, the state’s citizens jokingly asked to see his passport. This helped inspire his “goof” to open the Consulate of New Mexico. That visitor ended up being a reporter from The New York Times.
“People would come in, sit down and chat,” Romano said. “Other people from different parts of the world were there. Everybody was chatting, getting to know who was there at the time. Towards the end of the games, we limited it to only when the tiki torch was on were we open. We were getting people at 11:00, 11:30 at night coming by. It was a lot of fun. The Olympics, for us, were a fantastic time. To share that experience with all my friends and family was fantastic.”
Yet running the consulate did not come without its hiccups.
“We got a cease and desist letter from ACOG because we were using the Olympic rings,” Romano said. “We ignored it. We then got a certified cease and desist letter and we ignored that one too. We had (U.S.) Marshals show up at the house telling us to take the rings down, which we did at that time. Then, the petition to the IOC, we got a lot of resistance. They sent us a real, nasty letter that we didn’t have authority. We just laughed and responded to it.”
Robert J. Romano
Similar to how the Olympics unite the top athletes from across the world through competition, Romano felt the consulate struck a similar tone by bringing people together and having a good time with one another. In addition to The New York Times, the consulate was visited by other publications including Sports Illustrated – which also took photos – USA Today, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Santa Fe New Mexican. Sports Illustrated’s article and pictures of the consulate appeared in print on the second day of the Olympics and resonated enough with people that Romano was approached for autographs while watching handball alongside his sister. Romano, who also recalled visits from ABC and NBC, believes that the write-ups from Sports Illustrated and The New York Times helped give the consulate “a lot of momentum.”
“The best part about this, and what made it really special for me, was my mom and dad came,” Romano said. “They were visitors and we all got to experience the Olympics. What we did was we brought the world together in sport outside of the field.”
As Los Angeles prepares to host the United States’ first Summer Olympics since Atlanta in 1996, Romano looks back fondly upon running the Consulate of New Mexico. Before its closure, he made sure to thank the man whose quandary sparked his clever idea.
“Wade Miller, the guy from New Mexico who couldn’t get tickets to the championship game, we got him two tickets to the volleyball championship game,” Romano said. “We gave him the tickets at the consulate. He was grateful. He was happy.”
Events, “The Consulate of New Mexico” Bringing the World Together in Sport Outside the Field of Play SLRA, (February 25, 2026), https://www.srlaconference.org/program-schedule/.
Drew Schott is a J.D. Candidate at Tulane University Law School. He is also a current Staff Writer for The Sports Lawyer Monthly.