Breaking: Max Siegel Expose in The Washington Post - It's going to be tough for him to survive this!!

Well, George, young people have just taken over the New England USATF.

habs wrote:

Very interesting that Jon Drummond was the ex-athlete that leaked the explicit texts from Siegel.

If we have to rely on former drug cheats to be our whistleblowers, we are in a very sad situation. I hope this story will go mainstream.

Hey maybe the guy "got religion" after being busted, and is honest now.

...It's possible.

What Vin wants, Vin gets wrote:

polevaultpower wrote:

Is Vin a Nike pawn? That's a valid concern.

If anything, Vin is a Vin pawn. He's just another player in the game he is playing.

If you really know Vin, he's a Track and Field evangelist. THAT'S the most accurate description of him.

Now, someone who's reached his status is bound to have detractors or someone who felt slighted by him. I got to know him after reading smears etc. about him here. And found him to be way-y the opposite.

Nice guy, down to earth, loves and cares about this sport immensely. At his age he could easily be retired and taking long vacations to exotic locales with his wife...like a lot of retired successful people. He's extending his career years to fight for the rebuilding of this sport.

To do that, one would be smart to be close to Nike. And it isn't like he sought out Nike... They recruited him away from a job he was happy with and was going to taper off his career with.

Let's at least be realistic and accurate with who the man is in day to day life. (This board is not exactly a place of accuracy or realism, with this story though, there should be enough readers who know how much Vin and Track Town have busted their arses to move track forward.

Anyone who was at one of the last 3 OT's can see there were a lot of fun things there for fans, and a lot of attention to detail. He's already set for life financially; it's all about rebuilding the sport for him.

I would be okay with his pay if he had actually negotiated the Nike deal. I know lots of folks think it is a bad deal, but it is really hard to walk away from a guaranteed deal of $20M/yr for two decades. As I noted at the time, it frees staff to pursue other deals. Yes, other deals are not all that lucrative, but that is pretty common in NGBs. Getting product is often what you are going to get. Also getting a cut of proceeds from sales is not unusual either.

It is not $20M per year. Half of that is the implied value of the uniforms and other free gear. Max prob outfit his family, maybe his racing team, with few gear and then charged a commission on the value.

transparency not wrote:

polevaultpower wrote:

They did undergo an audit recently, there have been vague reports about it at the Board Meetings.

Which I suppose means that this audit is not available to the public or USATF members?

Note the audit form has changed a few times since Max was hired. Red flag. Look at the board minutes, there was a discussion about a dispute with the auditor about how the Nike deal was presented in the report. Seems like max could not show it the way he wanted or they did not want the audit to tell the world USATF collected a big chunk of gray money up front so large commissions and bonuses could be paid out.

Point- max will fire his accounting staff and his auditors as soon as they try to properly disclose the truth.

Come an Go wrote:

habs wrote:

Very interesting that Jon Drummond was the ex-athlete that leaked the explicit texts from Siegel.

If we have to rely on former drug cheats to be our whistleblowers, we are in a very sad situation. I hope this story will go mainstream.

Hey maybe the guy "got religion" after being busted, and is honest now.

...It's possible.

He's part of Nike and on Nike's payroll. That sucks. We need an independent USATF President, and not a Nike whore like Lanana.

So what are everyone's predictions for what will be the fallout from this piece?

Geer resigns? Or does she accept that being called a "B" once in a while comes with the territory?

mar828 wrote:

So what are everyone's predictions for what will be the fallout from this piece?

Geer resigns? Or does she accept that being called a "B" once in a while comes with the territory?

Depends on how much they pay you to sign a no disclosure agreement.

mar828 wrote:

So what are everyone's predictions for what will be the fallout from this piece?

Geer resigns? Or does she accept that being called a "B" once in a while comes with the territory?

Hopefully, Max is out on his ass. He is a cancer.

WindyHill wrote:

It is not $20M per year. Half of that is the implied value of the uniforms and other free gear. Max prob outfit his family, maybe his racing team, with few gear and then charged a commission on the value.

That's been one of my big questions about the Nike contract. How much is cash and how much is product? While USATF does sell a decent amount of Nike product in their store, and makes some money from that, there is a tremendous amount of free Nike gear that is going to be given away every year...

- Team USA uniforms, including junior teams, masters teams, I think MUT teams finally get uniforms...

- Free polos for officials (supposedly happening in the future)

- Free bags at the USATF Convention and Associations Workshop and Youth Workshop

- Shirts for some of the National Championships

etc...

So if Nike gives USATF 500 backpacks to give away at the Annual Meeting, and each backpack has a retail value of $75, I assume the value assigned to that transaction is $37,500. But what is Nike's cost, maybe $10 per backpack? So they spend $5,000 and get $37,500 value toward the contract? And in this case, if Nike wasn't giving them the swag, USATF would probably just not have a gift for attendees, or something much smaller.

Multiply that by many thousands of pieces of gear per year, and it starts to become really relevant how much of the contract is cash and how much is product...

The fact that Siegel is a black man that is involved in NASCAR just tells me he's a person completely devoid of principles and character.

In his text to Drummond he uses

"Vail" instead of "veil" and

"role will it" instead of "roll with it".

These aren't typos. They are idiocy. From a Notre Dame law graduate.

He would have been detected as an idiot had he joined a law firm. His previous self employment, his current position, and his authoritarian leadership style arise from Necessity. Idiots like Max survive and sometimes thrive by adapting to their own lack of intelligence.

The fact that the Nike deal goes so long weakens it further. The people touting it have never heard of inflation apparently.

Also if it was only negotiated with Nike and no one bid against almost certainly it was way less than the deal should have been worth for USATF.

At the trials in LA it was pathetic. After the athletes finished, dehydrated and spent from the heat, no thank to the race organizers for not adding additional water stops, they had a luxury area set up for Max and his pals catered and stocked with fantastic beverages. Meanwhile the athletes got a tiny bottle of water and told to screw off if they even looked at the luxury tent.

And don't even ask about the lack of anything at the medical tent, which you know is kind of important when you have elites racing a marathon in brutal conditions. $50 spent at the dollar store could have better stocked the med tent. But who cares, Max got to stay at the Ritz!

As for Jill Geer

Sigrid Unset wrote:

Jill got her job through nepotism. Every time this is posted blowjo's delete it because they like her / she gives them access / prompt replies.

False. Feel free to say that and leave it at that.

The posts get deleted because you go beyond that. We don't think how she got hired in the first place is relevant to the discussion at hand, considering she has worked for the last three USATF CEOs. I don't think anyone else on the USATF senior staff can say that.

Feel free to discuss how she does her job currently.

I definitely wouldn't say Jill gives us a lot of access. Prompt replies yes. She's got a tough job. Often we contact her about something people are upset about with USATF and her job is often like it is with this USATF/Washington Post article- to manage the situation, try and put a positive spin on it. I wouldn't want her job because organizations/people screw up (some more so than others) and the PR person is supposed to put a positive spin on it. In this Washington Post article, Jill even had to try and put a positive spin on Renne Washington calling her [Jill] a bitch.

From the Post:

"Henson provided a copy of an email in which Washington wrote to Henson, of Geer: “Jill is a bitch.”

“I can’t personally recall ever hearing [Washington] use an expletive to refer to any colleague,” Geer wrote."

smd wrote:

I like the parts where Jill Geer says Siegel and other executives stay at luxury hotels because other, less expensive hotels are booked. Gosh, if only someone would alert the head of USATF when things like the Olympic Trials are happening so that he can book far enough in advance.

Random sidenote. At World Indoors while the IAAF and USATF honchos were staying at the Nines, we needed an extra bed as our AirBNB only had 2 beds. So I booked a hotel on priceline for $66 a night (I was thinking it was $100 a night but this thread says $66

but they add taxes) in downtown Portland. Nice hotel. Tons of rooms were available downtown Portland. Turns out it was a Marriott. I'm rushing to get in the closing elevator and there is one guy in it and he holds the door for me. It's Trayvon Bromell, and he's just won the gold medal in the 60m that night.

mar828 wrote:

So what are everyone's predictions for what will be the fallout from this piece?

Geer resigns? Or does she accept that being called a "B" once in a while comes with the territory?

Fallout: Zero!

There's no link to damage the decision makers who hire Max. That's what's missing from this article. Don't underestimate the survivability factor of Teflon idiots like Max. He won't even have to respond to this article. Watch it happen: No response. No consequences.

Another thing I learned staying at the Marriott was the USATF athletes at World Indoors have roommates. So Ajee and Brenda were roommates in the Marriott. I guess it's not totally surprising because at the Olympics they have roommates.

I'm pretty sure at the Nines everyone has their own room :)

As predicted, the company mouthpiece reprinted a memo from Max and Jill:

http://www.3wiresports.com/2016/10/07/race-based-character-assassination/

The expected response was limited:

1. Lies from disgruntled ex-employees

2. Everyone hates a successful black man

We have a winner. Number 2. The first does not work with the evidence you know.

Alan Abrahamson is in a tough spot. A fired "Olympic beat writer" has little chance of earning a living based on his writing alone. Click bait blogging, maybe? Real journalism, no chance. At least he can pull a few thou a month reprinting press releases from Max.

Newsflash: Max signs 20 sponsors in his first month - 19 more than USATF ever had!!!

Newsflash: Max leads american team to record medal haul - personally helps USA end steeple drought.

Newsflash: Max breaks down barriers, MLK Streets across the country renamed to honor the man!!

forkLeft wrote:

mar828 wrote:

So what are everyone's predictions for what will be the fallout from this piece?

Geer resigns? Or does she accept that being called a "B" once in a while comes with the territory?

Fallout: Zero!

There's no link to damage the decision makers who hire Max. That's what's missing from this article. Don't underestimate the survivability factor of Teflon idiots like Max. He won't even have to respond to this article. Watch it happen: No response. No consequences.

I think there could be some fallout. Might Congress get involved? I doubt the USOC will do much as they want to protect themselves.