Doug Logan & Gail Devers
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"Shin Splints"
A Blog by
Doug Logan
Strong in the Broken Places
Friday, August 07, 2009
STRONG IN THE BROKEN PLACESRockford, Illinois, is the home of a massive piece of modern, public sculpture entitled Symbol. Its creator was the Russian émigré, Alexander Lieberman, whose day job was editor of Vogue magazine in pre-Tina Brown days, and who was a scion of the Manhattan literati scene. The piece is composed of pile of asymmetric pipes and tubes, supported by two stout vertical pillars and painted a screaming shade of red. Funds to commission and erect this work were raised by a committee of local "swells" in an attempt to introduce avant-garde art to the philistines.
In the early '80s we brought the legendary comedian Henny Youngman to Rockford to perform in a local theater. As we were giving him a tour of the downtown, we showed him the sculpture. This master of the one-line quip had only one question:
"How can you tell when it's broken?"
I have privately compared USA Track & Field, metaphorically, to Lieberman's work. The random pile of odd shaped members, to me, are the disparate constituent groups that compose our corporate family; Youth, Masters, LDR, Race walkers, etc. And they are held aloft by the two pillars of our enterprise: Grassroots and Elite Competition. As Symbol was delicately erected and welded together, so too is governance of our federation a balancing act of oft-competing interests.
So, how can you tell when the federation is broken?
When the baton of leadership was passed to me a little over a year ago, I knew we had some obvious and some subtle issues to address. We had a Board of Directors that had a well-earned reputation for dysfunction. The professional staff was improperly organized and lacked talent in several key areas. Our governance documents were in complete disarray. We were at war with the USOC. We had ceded control of our assets in a bad deal with a marketing firm. There was a tolerance for abuses of travel, ticket, expense and other business "best practice" policies. Our selection and preparation procedures for our national teams and staffs were seriously flawed.
We had no long-range vision, no metrics for success, no strategies to compete in the sports industry environment and no tactical plan to advance any strategy. Finally, we were mired in a culture of blame-assignment and shifting. The way we are organized, in a myriad of autonomous, unaccountable committees, prevents the establishment of responsible, prudent governance.
As I traveled around the country, meeting with athletes, coaches, officials, associations, committee members, journalists, race directors, agents and other members of our extended family, there has been a tacit and honest recognition of these structural problems. And, when I ask what they expect me to do about it, the unanimous response is always some variation of "fix it!"
Well, we are on our way to fixing it. We now have a sober, responsible, smaller Board of Directors that has seized the moment and has begun the hard work of reinvention of the federation. We are blessed to have a visionary President and Board Chair who challenges us daily to advance the development of the sport. We have functionally reorganized the professional staff, recognizing strengths and talent, and hired a skilled cadre of new senior leaders. We have begun the arduous process of revamping our Governance Manual.
Our relationship with the USOC has become a true partnership rather than one of adversaries, and, in some recent instances, we are being asked for advice and assistance. We have regained our control of our marketing assets, pulled out of a bad partnership, and executed a historic and lucrative sponsorship extension with Nike. We have put a stop on petty abuses of prudent business practices. Project 30 has provided us with a framework for the management of our national team programs that will enable us to continue to dominate the medal count in international competition. The Board of Directors has developed a draft of a long-range Strategic Plan that will position the company to excel in our industry. And, we have begun the wrenching process of vesting ultimate accountability in all of our processes in our Board of Directors.
Of note, we have accomplished all the above in a transparent way, communicating our intent, deliberations and reasons directly to our constituencies.
However, we have a long way to go. There are those who think our task is finished; others think we should pause to let the changes sink in before we tackle further restructuring.
To those I would answer in the following way: We have a short window of opportunity to make some history. We are poised on the brink of being able to achieve real success; success that will make this the major sport it deserves to be.
To stop now is both irresponsible and foolhardy.
So, how can we tell if it is still broken?We can tell:
If agents, perhaps, have the major role in determining the management of our relay program.
If entitlement is the dominant mindset of many of our athletes
If committee chairs arbitrarily make decisions that create chaos in competition and unsafe conditions
If leaders take stands that are steeped in blatant conflicts of interest
The great Ernest Hemingway wrote a telling sentence in A Farewell to Arms that I am reminded of from time to time. "The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong in the broken places".
We are embarked on a great adventure in the fixing and reinvention of this great sport. We will work toward a day when history, if not the late Henny Youngman, will judge that we have become strong in our broken places.
To view Symbol in all its avant-garde glory, visit http://www.rockfordillinois.com/gif/symbol.jpg
COMMENTS
Elite and grassroots seem pretty vague terms. Is the club I coach, Greater Boston Track Club, elite or grassroots? We are not professionals, everyone is a student or has a job, yet we won the women's club nationals and placed 4th in the men's. So where are we on your radar? Do you even know what our club and clubs we compete with want?
Doug Logan is a great writer, that's for sure. I agree with him that the sport still has a long way to go. I can't imagine a basketball hoop being set over 10 feet at the NBA Finals, yet the steeplechase barriers are set too high at the USA Nationals? I would like to know what the "metrics for success" are thought to be for the sport.
Maybe the saddest thing of all is that the blog of the CEO of our governing body names a blog "shin splints"
I don't see and NFL blog by Roger Gooddell named "off sides" or an NBA blog by David Stern entitled "Air Ball". It is sad in my humble opinion.
Terrific and literate summary of what was wrong and what is being done to fit it.
I do hope in the rush to earn the 30 clean medals we do not forget that the financial and physical health of the organization are in grassroots programs, not the elite. Winning some of those 30 targeted medals is going to happen regardless of what USATF does, but leading the country to be healthy through regular running, walking, throwing and jumping is by no means an accident.
What are the health metrics for USATF grassroots development?
doug,
i have consulted at many companies who have put far too much credence in their board of directors. ceo's who like their salaries and perks hide behind their bod's. i see you doing this in your words.
please resist this.
i disagreed with your hiring - you are not of our sport - but our sport is so disparate, that we brought a person like you on ourselves -shame on us.
you write well, but yes in my mind you are transparent.
transparently a non-runner who is running a group of runners. go figure.
and earnestly, he spelled his name ernest.
maybe your reconfigured senior staff could have vetted that one out. . . .
-nuge
This blog is insightful, compelling, and well-written. If only the same could be said of the USATF magazine I get in the mail on occasion. It seems like the design of that publication got stuck in about 1985 and, far worse, there is very little sense of the basic axiom of good journalism: the story is everything. Please hire some people on your communications team who have experience writing sports stories and someone with deep background in magazine design. It reads like a high school running club bulletin, not a national magazine. New England Runner, with a tiny staff, does a much better job. But really you should be trying to be on a par, in terms of design values and audience identification, with Runners World or Running Times. Equally problematic is the way USATF communications seem to make almost no distinction between its internal communications and machinations--committee minutia, administrative soul-searching, boring insider details--and public exciting stories of athletic highs and lows. These external stories should be the foundation of the communications effort. Do you see the NFL sending out press releases to its fans about the workings of its board of directors? This blog is for the real insiders, but most of what USATF SHOULD be putting out are stories of track and field IN ACTION not track field internal politics. Snooze.
At this point, after reading through all of your blog entries, my impression is of a person who is trying way too hard to impress. Yes, you have a way with words, but your writing is quickly approaching the obnoxious, on its way to the unbearable. How about lightening up a bit? I'll be curious to read what you have to say after the 2012 Olympic Games if Team USA does not achieve the 30 medals. Will we read about your impending resignation?
At this point, after reading through all of your blog entries, my impression is of a person who is trying way too hard to impress. Yes, you have a way with words, but your writing is quickly approaching the obnoxious, on its way to the unbearable. How about lightening up a bit? I'll be curious to read what you have to say after the 2012 Olympic Games if Team USA does not achieve the 30 medals. Will we read about your impending resignation?
All you people are doing is complaining, give him time for christ sake. Do not criticize a person unless you walked a mile in his shoes. If after a period of time there is no changes then I understand,but can we be patient please. This organization is a cruise ship not a speed boat
Congratulations, Mr. Logan. You not only write compelling pieces (even if some seem to think that good writing and intelligent leadership must be mutually exclusive), but you have demonstrated the courage to address the issues that have needed to be addressed. As a High School coach, I have always worked to help my student-athletes become better people while finding their best performance as an athlete. For some time prior to your arrival, I was struggling to find evidence in our sport that playing by the rules was always worth it - which meant that the young persons I coached were also struggling with the temptation to cheat. By exposing our problems, you have made my life, and the lives of these young men and women, much simpler and more rewarding. By cleaning up the process of competing as an elite athlete, you have also removed many of the headaches that were lying in wait for some of my former athletes. I look forward to the your continued improvement in our sport.
I've taken the position that grassroots and elite programs need not be mutually exclusive. The more our Team Nebraska Brooks athletes have success, and interact with their local communities, the greater the ripple across the entire state.
I am confused as to who is responsible and accountable for Youth and Grass roots fund raising for us idiots, volunteers we pay our own expenses, youth chairs. We are a non profit and do not have grant writers at national or state level? How do we get funds to grow? How do we function? Here ar seven salaries doing what? $250k to maybe $300k plus for what? What do they do? We pay our own expenses and donate time for the benefit of your new dysfunctional USATF. I am sorry Doug. You sound good and write good, but you can't communicate with us real people.Your loosing the core people and officials who work their asses off for USATF. What a waste of time and energy. I have been a member since 1977. Two world records, numerous teams and plenty of politics. I have done more for development then you can imagine and you can't pick up phone and call. Sorry Doug. You don't get it. Blogs are not the answer. Try picking up phone and communicating with your rank and file. Tom Petranoff
Dear Doug-
We believe you and USATF along with its' so called Board of Directors have some serious issues. First, stop trying to be like O'Bama. He's degraded the Presidential seat so badly, I bet our poor people in this country wouldn't even consider running. It's distasteful, degrading and flat out unprofessional to slam the past of USATF. Former CEO Craig Masback and CFO Jim Elias built major accounts to get USATF out of the "RED" after the 1990's Olympic Games! If we all do recall, USATF was serverly maybe close to being bankrupt...Then former CEO Masback came in and cleaned up the pieces or what was leftover. He earned his salary by all means. Was he perfect, no. Let me be CLEARer (O'Bama quote) If you think your perfect, wake up punk. You're making a salary of 500,000 plus a year. Now you hire three other executive staff to cushion your seat and they are making roughly we'll say $200,000 a year. Benita, has absolutely no experience with the science area. She should have been hired as the CDE (Chief Director of Events). How do you hire an individual with no experience in the conditioning field nor sport science area. Meanwhile, you state Project million dollar is going to win medals. USATF has been very successful in history. Keep the 'TUDE you have going and you will be the last one standing at the finish line with no one around besides your overpaid staff and underpaid staff who do the real work. As for Stephanie Hightower, what else can she screw up. You should contact O'Bama and asked what his plan is to bailout the United States. Funny how people forget the good things people have completed as past leaders. Having over 18yrs. of experience in the administrative field, you are a disgrace. What is your background - DOUG!? From doing research you were successful not in the sport world nor science world.
Doug- if you truly like what you do currently, we encourage you to give back $200,000 in your salary.
Hey Doug-
Maybe you should cease all staff from being part time and no longer permit staff from living in different cities. Wouldn't it be important to have your Communications Director living in the City of Indianapolis and not many hours away not to forget about other staff who have special treatment............................ If you are going to call USATF a company, it should lose the non-profit exemption and be forced to pay taxes to the Federal Government. I smell BOYCOTT on the horizon of USATF paying members.............DS
Doug- Just a note of encouragement! i was fortunate to be a part of the strucure of USATF in atlanta and have been a club coach since the "TAC days!" Growth takes time and is painful-- I hope all who work with the Youth phase of USATF
wiil continue to provide support and "comments of growth" so the administration can help craft a viable organization ffor the 21 century! Call on us as you see fit! "chris"
i don't see any cheetahs or fast horses putting on a wrist watch or a heart rate monitor so they can run fast how about you? seems to me there's nothing on here that even concerns running. first you have to accept it's not a sport. i think somewhere, somehow, someone must have suggested that some how men and women are equal.
maybe i should go take an ice bath, go for a recovery "run" on my treadmill or pop some pills. american sissies.
My comment is to counter the entry by Dick Spunk. I believe that any organization that doesn't run itself with the concepts of "best practices" is doomed. Mr. Spunk doesn't understand that. Having all of your staff in one location may have some benefits(depending on the structure of the org.) There is a thing called remote working( tele-commutting.) The Internet is a wonderful tool to bring people together when they are geographically far apart. For example, the PR dept. can be housed elsewhere from main office. Whatever the sins of the past were, their gone!! Focus on what we can do NOW!!! Develop the youth program to its maximum. That's where the new talent will be from. Mr. Logan...full speed ahead!
What am I missing here? From Wiki...During Logan's last year at MLS, the league lost $34 million.MLS was reported to have lost $250 million in its first five years under Logan.
I have to respond to Jack Hall's response to Mr. Spunk's. Jack, when you supervise staff members, you cannot adequately supervise staff more than 18 hrs. away from the main headquarters. Telecommuting is good if your a salesperson. But, one of the lacking areas of USATF is "CUSTOMER SERVICE"! Positve public relations. Doug, it's been a year. You've only used up monies put in place by Craig and Jim for future success and backing. Would love to see Doug respond personally to the responses left on the blog. You started something Doug, be a man and respond.
Hello fellow USATF members. I am a pole vaulter, and due to that fact i have had shin splints many a time. What my coach has taught me to do gets rid of them not only temporarily but permanantly if you keep it up. All you do is get on a treadmill with a seven to ten percent incline. Then you walk for a mile of so. you do that three times in one week and they'll be gone for sometime, if you continue to do that alteast twice a week and they'll never come back. Have a great day everyone.
Major considerations: send USATF Youth to AAU under one umbrella and USATF Masters to Senior Olympics. It is a huge waste of time to coordinate and manage these divisions along with Open and Elite competition - it sucks the organization dry of energy and resources. Also, USATF lacks a professional sports website and is in dire need of an upgrade.
Doug, you are on the right track. Athletes today don't understand what professionalism is. But don't use that term "conflict of interest." People these days don't understand that concept either. If you put relay candidates whose personal shoe company contracts include bonuses for world championships medals and then negotiated a deal on their behalf with the USATF president's fiance, that is not a conflict. It's an opportunity. Right?
To be successful USATF must have a strategy for success, Which includes 1. Defending the Sport 2.Creating a turning point 3. Going on the offese with the same message.Everyone must be on the same page with the same goals in mind.For example in 2008 147 billion was spent on treating obesity and we all know that Track and Field and cross country are two of the best sports fo developing fitness in American youth. Is it part of the strategy?
WE must ask ourselves what is the value of elite track in our modern sports culture and what do we have to do to get it back into the mainstream of American Sports..Last week at our annual North American Pole Vault Association Championships we replaced a number of elite vaulters with high school teams representing cities in California and Nevada and 11,000 people should up to watch the event.Last week as I sat in a near capacity crowd in Drake Stadium for the AAU Nationals I pondered the thought, what are the youth and high schools doing that college and elite track isn't doing? Much of the answers came at the opening ceremony of the AAU Program.
Don't stop with USATF at the national level. The ASSOCIATIONS are the step children of USATF. I am a former president of an association. All that you have said can be applied to many local association.
I think there should be a federal investigation of the whole organization, top to bottom.
Thank for your efforts.
Ronald S. Henderson.
Don't stop with USATF at the national level. The local ASSOCIATIONS are the step children of the USATF. I am a former president of an association. ALL that you have said can be applied to many local associations. I think there should be a federal investigation of the whole organization, top to bottom. Thank you for your efforts.
Ronald S. Henderson.
I find these flowery blogs meaningless and less than helpful. Let's stop blaming the Athletes and start looking at the parent organization that isn't providing the proper up bring to have a success "Track Family" Tom Petranoff is right, Who is looking after the Youth and grass roots and we continue to pay our own way and the USATF SUCKS our resoures up while not helping our youth to be strong effect Elite's one day.
Doug,
The responses to your blogging are consistently sending a message...rhetoric alone is not helpful. What our sport needs is energy at all levels, but the key is not just focusing on Olympic medals as the measure of success. If we can focus on growing the sport, the medals will come as a result of human nature and the very nature of our sport. What we do is measurable...how high, fast and far can we go? What happens in the human endeavor to do that gets muddled when we strive to control those pursuits, to artificially manufacture results because we have not allowed natural selection and competition drive the process.
Doug, what I sense is part of the discontent about your current efforts is the fact that you are a hired gun and have little history for the sport's purists to reflect upon. There are plenty of interested and invested individuals available to run our sport and if there is one area to create enthusiasm for our sport it is there...help indivduals find their place in the sport without having to have a pedigree or credentials beyond a sincere interest to help at whatever level they are drawn to. My message is simple...make participation at the entry level attractive and easy, provide outlets for those who succeed to stay viably involved, and allow individuals to help organize and run the sport without a crushing bureaucracy. For example, I got official certified, but never once received a welcome to encourage me or educate me on how to become an official for area meets...I was only an All-American and a head coach for 10 years and perhaps am not good enough to be an official? How many others out there want to help run, promote, and energize our sport, but have been left out due to lack of harvesting and nurturing their interest.
My hope is that Doug Logan continues to write "Shin Splints" and, should he choose to read responses, that he has the wisdom and patience to distinguish heat from light, a particular example of the former being a lengthy, ungrammatical, and sometimes simply rude entry on August 8th. When someone is moved to suggest that good writing is somehow a mask for inadequate action, or is somehow without substance on its own, it's well to recall that writing is simply the organized expression of ideas, and that good ideas are the necessary precursor to good actions. And whether one agrees with the ideas expressed or not, the blog provides general membership with a level of transparency that it rare among large organizations, nonprofit or otherwise. And I appreciate both the insight in Doug Logan's thinking and his clear, creative, and articulate expression of them. May we who reply strive for the same.
Fifteen years ago USATF was nearly bankrupt and in serious disarray. Craig Masback was brought in as CEO to help right the ship and set a new course. I think a review of the financial status of USATF during Craig's tenure would show that impressive progress was made and that Jim Elias established much stronger accounting procedures. There were, of course, many other problems within our organization. It is difficult to fix everything at once and those whose interests are not addressed immediately usually feel slighted. We are an organization of mostly volunteers. The "heavy lifting" is really done at the local level by dedicated people who love our sport. Volunteers are particulary difficult to "manage" because the national staff has little leverage. Volunteers feel entitled (as they should) to speak out and criticize, but they also often feel little compulsion to get with the program once a decision has been made if they do not agree. That makes it hard to move an organization quickly in a new direction. This is in no way a criticism of volunteers or their opinions, just a statement of an existing condition that we must recognize because we don't have the money in our sport to pay everyone for everything they do. I see Doug trying very hard to provide us with a vision of where we want to go. This is a necessary step for any organization that wants to change. As part of justifying the creation of that vision, however, I don't think it is necessary to throw the previous administration "under the bus." I am certainly willing to give Doug and Stephanie latitude in trying to implement a new vision and methodology within USATF. I am also pleased to see that people care enough to comment positively and negatively through this blog. At least a dialogue has started. I believe progress has been made. My advice to Doug is to keep it positive; Newton said he was able to see so far because he stood on the shoulders of giants. Recognize your giants!
Enough talk about the new board. It's August. Lets see some changes that the association and individual membership can relate to.
Everyone should give Doug Logan a chance before turning so negative in their comments. The Project 30 Task Force Report was very thoughtful and well-done. Right now, I think that USATF needs a professional sports management person as CEO more than a lifelong Track and Field person. Obtaining corporate sponsorships, like the new deal with Nike, is a necessity to obtain the resources to implement the vision in the Project 30 Task Force Report. Our $30 membership dues do not go very far to meet the financial requirements of USATF. If Team USA wins 27 or 28 medals in the 2012 Olympics, that will be a triumph, not a reason for Doug to resign, as someone suggested in the comments. Project 30 has set the goals for Elite Competition results very high, and any substantial progress toward those goals should be applauded.
The value of the sport is way more than winning 30 medals..We have a great sport which is the foundation for most sports being played today and it is not being sold to the American Public..Track and Field supporters need to read the book National Pastime by Szymanski and Zimbalist which tells how soccer spread around the world.
What I want is a post-collegiate club system that gives athletes an experience that is like college but as different as college was to high school. They are not beginners, but there are a lot of people between 22 yrs and 40 who want to be part of teams. Your job is to make that system.
First of all, I am not a good writer. Never do spell check and never will. It still reads the same but is not professional to a certain elite group. I don't waste my time trying to impress anyone. Ask any board member in New England about me. I have always said it like it is. I work hard and do what I say. When you look at USATF/ TAC over the years it is hard to believe that we are worse now then when I left to go to south africa in 1988. Twenty years and I felt like Michael J.Fox going back the future. Nothing has changed. Ollan Cassell to Doug Logan. From what's in it for me? to what's in for me too. Like USATF can afford the salaries paid to the staff they have. No communication, no transparency, no plan. Spinning the wheels. Doug is an expensive temporary solution who gets paid to tell us we are idiots. We are idiots. Not me anymore. I am done and you will all be happy to see me go. You will all be happy to ride along this waste train of corporate america. It is like the whole economy in a small mirror. I see Doug has lost a lot of money under his watch at soccer and see more of the same for USATF. I left for South Africa in 1988 because there was no plan and shoe companies cut off sponsorship in 1988. I had nothing to loose. Our sport was in top ten in usa in 1977. Where are we today? Not on radar except Olympics or drugs issues. Win with Integrity??? How about manage with integrity and do what's best for the sport instead. Doug will be gone soon, from what I hear ,and who would want this job anyway? $500k per year? I guess many would like cake job and have extra million or two for retirement. Brooks Johnson and many others have stripped this organization to the bone. Why not everyone else? IAAF and it's members are like a mafia organization. No accountability. No one to answer too. USATF does not answer anyway. Sorry to waste valuable time on this mess.
I resigned my Youth Chair position today.
Doug, I hope you're ignoring these comments. Blog comments are one of many ineffective, shallow, inaccurate communication methods usually utilized by people with too much time for venting. Real adults talk to each other. (I'm sure my comment will spur some more of the same!)
Jeffery Bower, blogging is good as long as the individual who does it responds. But, this allows members/staff to vent concerns. Doug, I believe if you wish to be open to the membership that you release immediately the salaries.
Hi Doug:
I've been searching through and doing a little research with other National Governing Bodies. It's sad how badly USATF is doing considering how successful it used to be and all. USA Track & Field is the oldest organization in this country but in the worst shape. Everyone is looking for the immediate fix. Start with your grassroots to coaching to high schools then collegiate. In 8 to 10 years you should see a difference. You need to have staff that look and talk the sport from a PR perspective. But, reward the staff who workhard. Paying these individuals 200,000 dollars a year or plus is a flat out slap in the face of your true employees who bust ass each day! Meanwhile, those making the big bucks are probably out the door by 5:00pm each day. You know who I am referring too. Your being watched closer than you realize! Do anticipate a federal audit. Being part-time doesn't entitle someone to huge salaries either... ACCOUNTABILITY starts from the top-down.... Doug, ignore politics and start removing some staff and then add staff, but damn-it do it with some thought and not cuz Stephanie Hightower thinks you should hire someone.
I am not very informed on any of these subjects... But comparing the USATF to any of the other professional sporting organizations is preposterous. The differences are so great that it is apples and oranges. First of all, when push comes to shove the NFL, MLB, NBA ect. are run as businesses ($$$) and USATF is not. This is most noticeable if you look at the goals of the USATF, which are mostly performance based, including 30 medals in 2012. This is the equivalent of the MLB stating that its primary goal is to win the World Baseball Classic. As an organization, the MLB only cares about the World Baseball Classic for its ability to increase the popularity of baseball in the US and generate money. This is not to say that the professional players and coachs don't love the world wide competition, but from an organizational stand point it is purely business. There are obvious advantages for the USATF to focus on the medal count at the Olympics, but by focusing on the results of competition the USATF does not parallel any of the other professional sports organization.
The second reason that USATF is so different from any other professional sports organizations is that the USATF is made up of two group of people, the "Professionals" and the "Fans". No other professional sports organization includes their fans and armature competitors in their professional structure. Half of the people on this blog are posting as part of a "Player's Union", complaining about the lack of organization and support elite athletes receive. The other half, the fans and those that compete in track for the exhilaration of the competition complain that they are not being given a fair share of attention and $ (which is in large part theirs). This blatant conflict of interest can not be overcome and is exacerbated due to the fact that member's dues subsidize many elite athlete programs. There needs to be two completely separate organizations; One that is dedicated to the fans and average Jo runners who love the pure competition of Track, while a second organization concentrates on the professional aspect of the sport. You don't see the NFL trying to collect dues from anyone that has thrown a football. They also don't support Youth and HS football teams for any reason other than publicity. The reasons why the USATF is run the way it is seem very complicated and probably start with a lack of money in Track, but the USTAF will never achieve the national success it wants as long as it continues to be operated with the blind passion and love for track and no emphasis is placed on the $$$ (Something a lot of great athletes and competitors will hate to admit).
Make it three parts: Professionals, Post-collegiate Clubs,and youth. Maybe four: Masters are grownups and can take care of themselves. They are each different from each other.
This whole blog comes across as a major bummer. You might as well title it "Why we suck". There's all these details about what's wrong and no details about what anyone is doing to solve the problems. You sound like a commander that's just sounded the bugle call to charge and then is sitting around waiting for someone else to lead it. How bout filling this space with a detailed list of what WORK has been done by your office on a week to week basis and give us some confidence that OUR money is well spent. When others are stealing our success the most obvious thing to do is find out what they are doing right..and copy it, then improve on it.
I agree with Dr. High -- why spend so much energy throwing the past management under the bus? Do you have to tear down others to make you and your ideas stand out? This is typical of many newly hired execs and possibly it is a reflection of new Board and new President's attitude regardless, I will be curious to see if staff follow same rules as being placed on others -- I am very much in favor or tight rules, no waste, and no conflicts of interest as long as staff follow same.
USA Track and Field cannot be all things to all people. To build any brand you must focus on your core compentencies as an organization and outsource what you don't do well. My suggestion (I have not ties to this organization) is to hire a company like Ries & Ries to build the USA Track and Field "brand" and focus on what the organization does best. We should also consider seeking sponsors for and building a brand around each event i.e.,the 100 meters,the mile, marathon,hammer etc. We need sponsors for each event.Build a marketing plan around each event and assign accountability and measures of success for each project manager for each designated area. Identify "firsts" in the marketing of each event and we will attract the attention of the media. Treat each event as a small business with accountability for results and build business plans for each area. Become more agile so you can focus on market change quickly. Back to marketing. Who was the first one to break the four minute mile? Roger Bannister of course. Who was second? All of us track geeks know but the general public does not. No one remembers who was second. Who was the first to walk on the moon? Neil Armstrong. Who was second? No one remembers. My point is that we need new "first's for track and field to succeed. We need new ideas that are memorable to the press. They help make or break the sport. Create new firsts by casting a new vision. Create a big goals for American Track athletes and promote the heck out of it. We need big goals like when Bannister went after the first sub four minute mile. Let's go after the first SUB 9.6 100 Meters. Let's challenge American milers to be the first American under 3:45. Let's challenge our long jumpers to be the first one over 30 feet. Let's get excited about challenging American women to be the first under 4:10 in the mile. And let's build brands around all of these areas to bring Track and Field back to the top of the sports world in this country. Let's just do it.
With MLS well into its fourth season, SI's Grant Wahl writes that "three years of administrative malaise is enough reason for MLS owners to dispense with excuses and show" league Commissioner Doug Logan "the door." Wahl cites shrinking attendance numbers and "stagnant" TV ratings and notes that MLS has "reportedly lost" $100M in its four years.
In addition, Logan "has presided over the sale of only one of the three league-owned franchises," the Clash, while the Burn and Mutiny remain unsold. One league exec, who referred to Logan's role in helping to "orchestrate" the departure of MLS Deputy Commissioner Sunil Gulati earlier this year: "The league was successful the first year because there was a good plan and Doug let other people do their jobs.
Then he decided he knew more than the experts, and since then we've been on a downhill slide." Another exec said the league "has done horribly in the media ever since Doug announced that we'd draw 20,000 people a game before the season began two years ago." Wahl floats '94 World Cup organizer Alan Rothenberg as a potential replacement for Logan and calls him "the only administrator who has made soccer work in America."
Wahl: "But for the league to grow, it needs its own David Stern, a leader with a financial and marketing vision who produces results and leaves the soccer part to the experts"
Interesting..... Bye USATF
P.S. We need to quit the blame game. It solves nothing. It's time to quit the whining, put our differences aside, and come up with a vision that inspires our kids, our communities and the rest of the world. Let's all look in the mirror and be examples to the kids we serve by coming up with new and innovative solutions that take our sport to the next level. Track and Field taught us all how to set and reach big goals as kids. Let's pass the positive attitude baton to our kids by solving these problems and setting an example. It's not about us; its about the youth we serve.
USATF is schizophrenic - the youth folks think it's all about them and masters the same, and yet the Annual Report is all about goals for elite competition only. No plan can succeed in a disjointed and fractured environment like this. MLS never tried to manage its own along with AYSO - it's madness. On a side note about sports promotion, having to listen to Tom Hammond/NBC bastardize our sport makes me ill - thank God for Universal Sports with a live feed and British broadcasters who actually know something about the sport.
Couldn't agree more with the previous poster. Coverage by NBC/Versus is excrutiatingly painful.
A big part of the problem would be if USATF spins off road racing, which they barely support but earn millions of dollars from, and either create a separate branch to the organization to only manage road racing or simply let it go and let others create an organization that can organize road racing. Road racing is by far the most lucrative and visible aspect of the USATF community, yet it gets no funding, no recognition and no attention from those in charge. Why should USATF rule road racing when it isn't even in their name? This is only one of many concerns, but it is perhaps the most important and should be focused on at the highest of levels.
"Let's go after the first SUB 9.6 100 Meters." Posted by: Larry Weber on 8/15/2009 6:14:15 AM PT
To late for that.
Perhaps a bottom line can work for pro track, but not for the other segments. I am a member of USATF and of the New England Association and a member track club but not a stockholder looking for a dollar return on investment. For clubs the measure of success is not money, but depth and quality of competition.
Scott Bush,
I set the bar too low on that one! 9.58 wow!
Doug-
Maybe you should be in the country working on a stragetic plan and not putting out a two sentence statement stating the obvious. Must be nice to make half-million dollars a year to travel with a staff of 4.
Accessability, Excitement, Diversity, Excellence.
That is what my first full year of USATF has meant.
Support the youth and their parents and our future is very bright. More venues and meets for the very young athletes are
needed.
I will be brief. We make simple things too complex. USATF is dysfunctional. One COO, eliminate the CEO. A Board of Commissioners (12 members maximum) similar to the NBA and the restructured USA Basketball. Now comes the tricky part, two bodies: USA Elite and USA Athletics. The sole purpose of USA Elite will be support, oversee and facilitate our Elite Athletes and those who are elevated to that level by performance. USA Athletics will handle all Youth, Community, Non elite level members, and the Seniors. A special note on Seniors, maybe a special emeritus program can be developed and maintained within the community branch. These are the people who will pass down a love of the sport and are the greatest volunteers for the most part. Do not make the mistake of alienating them.
A quick note on press relations and overall coverage. The NBC/Versus experiment is a disaster. USATF needs to reach out to other federations and really look at developing a collective contract that works to showcases non-traditional sports on traditional broadcast media. The Universal Sports platform has its virtues, but the lack of bandwidth supplied has made most mobile users experience horrible.
So much for dropping the relay program...
Today I read an article on the hyper-successful first year of Major League Soccer franchise Seattle Sounders. They've attracted 30,000 fans for home games this season, have captured the city's attention and are only looking forward on how to improve their team. The last paragraph really got me thinking when one of the owners stated, "Don't take anything for granted, especially the fans, because they're the engine that's driving this." While I do believe in the steps Mr. Logan and USATF are taking forward in terms of supporting the professional athletes in the organization, what exactly are they doing to support the core fans of the sport, as well as reaching out to new fans, i.e. the 8 million people that do road races every year? I'd like to hear Mr. Logan talk about this side of USATF and how they plan to promote the sport to the general running public. We can have the best athletes in the world, but if no one is there to watch them or support them does it really matter?
Doug, this time put twice as many people on your next gold ribbon panel. That will surely improve our relay teams :).
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Doug Logan is the CEO of USA Track & Field
(USATF), the national governing body for track and field, long distance running,
and race walking. Headquartered in Indianapolis, the organization has more than
90,000 members throughout the country.
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