No Longer a fan of Deena Kastor

I could care less about a temper tantrum or not. Bottom line is look at her results. NYRR is a thriving organization with strong corporate sponsors of their events. They are a money making machine with contacts at every level of the sport. They promote athletics to youth and support athletes at the Olympic level. They have expertise managing Road Races, elite track races and even cross country. The NYRR does more for every level of road running and track and field (at least from a distance runner's perspective) in a given year then the USATF has ever done over the course of its existence.

As for the tantrum thing... please. I'm sure Roger Goodell or Bud Selig don't ever throw tantrums, or aren't control freaks. In order to be a good CEO you can't hide behind your desk and accept when things don't go your way. Its OK to voice your displeasure as long as you fix what you need to fix until you get your way. You have to demand excellence and EXPECT to get what you want. If you don't expect to have your way (clearly with the proper work, sacrifice, and dedication) then you're not the right fit for a CEO position.

Our National Organization shouldn't think any less of itself to have the same type of attitude. We shouldn't want a CEO who doesn't get pissed. We should want a CEO who get's fired up and says what he/she feels when the time is appropriate. And MOST IMPORTANTLY, backs up the talk with action. Mary does all of this. She has the tools, experience, contacts and industry knowledge to turn around the USATF. You tell me 1 person who could do better and has better results running a multi-million dollar enterprise, and I'll be happy to agree with you. But as far as I can tell, no one has the chops, results, contacts, and knowledge that Mary has.

It blows my mind that because Mary was pissed that NY didn't get the trials you somehow think that makes her unfit to run USATF. Do you realize how ridiculous that sounds?

No matter what the facts, or whether it was wise to give Houston both marathon trials or not, Logan's comments on the matter to Universal Sports were ridiculously out of line and absurdly bridge-burning.

marathon experience........... wrote:

You have been punk'd. Mary is not nearly as well thought of as you may think. Her temper tantrum after not receiving the trials showed her real colors.

And therefore got Kastor and others to do some of her dirty work.

chikin,

I'm not going to disagree with any of that. The one thing I would note is that I don't know of any athletes that have the CEO chops, vision, or experience in landing large corporate sponsors, managing mult-million dollar budgets, etc. Phil Knight, Surely. Masback was a great choice in this respect (and would probably be better now with the Nike experience). Doesn't mean these people don't exist, I just don't know of them. I don't think Deena probably has the management experience to build a brand, basically, from scratch.

Vin is a non-athlete that could arguably do a fantastic job. He's a great administrator and has a solid vision, so he could be an option.

Not sure of anyone else with the management capabilities and experience, vision, contacts, cut throat attitude, etc though. Again, they very well may exist (I'm sure they must), but not sure who. Someone who was a high level/elite runner, went into business and was successful there as a high level manager/CEO, and now wants to come back.

Anyone fit that bill?

Maybe this is a problem right here. If USATF were doing better, you might find more opportunities to race and make money or getting training support.

Sorry someone else already said that it has to be a man.

Mary ego?

Guess you never met Fred

I did say that and one caveat, Mary might have the ability to transend that. Might.

As sport goes, especially track, it has to have the male perspective, and a female in the lead may not help that. The NYC Marathon is a different animal. However, Mary's bitterness that Houston won the 2012 bid is a very infantile display of northeastern arrogance and bigotry. She should not be concerned that despite Houston being a 2:07/2:23 race now. Houston will never be New York, but if there was any race that DESERVED to be awarded the trials it was Houston. (Take time to reflect that Houston paid runners before it became a professional sport, is a multicultural city, is and has been a "race" and not a time trial since the early-80s, hosted numerous USA championships and nearly always has perfect weather.)

Too bad Mary missed a chance to let the sport grow in the 6th largest market in the US. Maybe that is the window to the kind of CEO that she would be, and that is not a pretty picture.

marathon experience........... wrote:

You have been punk'd. Mary is not nearly as well thought of as you may think. Her temper tantrum after not receiving the trials showed her real colors.

If you're in a position of authority, almost by definition it is not possible to be well liked by everyone. If you're the most popular president in America I bet you'll only get 60% of the vote.

Temper tantrum? Mary voiced that she was disappointed with the decision. I didn't hear of a temper tantrum. If Mary gets upset it's a temper tantrum, if Phil Knight gets upset, it's passion right?

The NYRR has done some great things the last few years. Having said that I'm glad the trials were selected for Houston if they had the financially superior bid. Our system works when the NYRR can lose a competition for something. We want the NYRR and Boston and Chicago competing with one another not anointing themselves. It's good for the NYRR to lose once in a while and think "What can we do better?"

That's why I thought it would have been best to put the 2012 Olympic Track Trails out for bid. At least make Eugene beat someone. I don't see how USATF can be any worse off putting it up for bid.

Houston still has to raise the money. NYRR and BAA submitted bids based on experience and both are more familiar with sponsor development and USOC conflicts. Interested in seeing how this resolves.

marathon experience........... wrote:

Deena Kastor is a member of the USATF Board of Directors and had this to say about the firing of Logan.

``It came down to reviewing his performance and not finding great results in the past 2 1/2 years and (his) not being able to fix things brought up in our evaluation of him,'' Kastor said.

I sure as hell hope that Asics doesn't use the same set of standards for sponsored athletes. WHAT IN THE HELL HAS DEENA DONE IN THE LAST 2 AND A HALF YEARS?

Logan shit on the NYRR by awarding the Trials to Houston. Mary Wittenberg was pissed. NYRR sponsor Deena's training group and has provided 6 figure appearance fees to her personally.

OUR SPORT SUCKS.

As a member of the board of directors, Kastor has the right to an opinion, and her current running ability has no bearing on how she feels about the leadership of USATF. Are you really saying that because she's obviously on the very slippery down slope of her career that she can't have a negative opinion about Logan's performance? That's BS. She's closer to it than you and has a much better perspective, so I'll go with her opinion and not yours.