BREAKING: Symmonds off World team

read it on scribd wrote:

Wejo,

It sounds like you haven't seen USATF's official response to Nick:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/273698298/Max-Siegel-USATF

There was a lot of back-and-forth between the two parties. What I find interesting is Nicks claim that signing this would violate his contract with Brooks. That makes no sense, and Max calls him out on it.

Notice that in one of Nick's tweets he said "thanks to all of the fans for their support" and NOT "thanks to all of the fans and my fellow athletes" for their support. There has not been a peep from any non-Nike athlete on the team, no matter if they are well-positioned and have "nothing to lose" like Nick (think Jenny S. and Molly H.) or already have an axe to grind with Nike (think Leo M.). To me, that speaks volumes.

Well, he's already lost half the athletes, for his "pump em and dump em" cocksman ways...

OldPolarBearr wrote:

Some people just don't get it.

NCAA basketball and football = reality TV for ESPN and networks. High volume viewers with cheap production costs (performers with no union, dying for exposure/publicity).

Olympic sports is the same business model. Big money for networks, sponsors, and olympic committees, little to no money for the vast majority of athletes. They're just happy to be there but receive little of the true money/revenue involved.

For the record, Letsrun works on a similar model - content provided by idiots like us, who create the most visited and interesting part of the site (message board) while BroJos sit back and count the clicks/ad revenue.

Nick is challenging that model and that is very scary to sponsors like Nike.

Thank you for the clicks.

Some of your logic is backwards.

ESPN pays a ton of $ to broadcast events. The entities it pays then distribute their money to whoever. It matters very little to ESPN what the athletes are paid. ESPN cares about the viewers. NFL, NBA, - ESPN doesn't pay more for those because the players are paid a lot. It pays a lot because people watch a ton of it. Then as a result the players get paid a lot. So you have it backwards. With college, the schools keep the $ and give it to the non-revenue sports and the coaches.

**

Outside of USATF not giving the big bump in revenue to Olympic athletes, the reason track athletes don't receive a ton of money is there isn't that much money in track. Compare the revenues in track to NBA .

**

Nike should care less what Nick wears to coffee. They are paying millions to sponsor Team USA during Worlds and the Olympics. Nike is super successful in pro basketball, pro football, etc that have models where athletes are highly compensated so I don't think the model changing is scary to Nike. If track and field gets more popular in the US, Nike has USATF locked down through 2040. They are super pumped.

... that nick has his mind on other things than wanting to run fast. Wouldn't you want to race a world championship if you at all could? For the tactical practice, the training benefit, or even just the sheer fun of racing a bada$$ MF RACE!

Get Really Real wrote:

reader of the forums wrote:

The sport would be much better off without Nike.

Your childish intelligence aside, no way in hell would USA track and field as a sort be better without Nike.

It's perfectly possible for someone with childish intelligence to be correct about something. Someone having childish intelligence isn't a sufficient reason to hold that their claim about something is mistaken.

Get Really Real wrote:

There is no way, no how, any other American sports apparel company would float the sport as often and as long and as large as Nike.

The sport existed long before Nike came into the picture, and it would exist after it.

nick is being scapegoated. but it could backfire.

i would encourage nick's agent or someone to get all the non nike athletes together and threaten to withdraw.

not only that, have all the athletes from nike rival companies threaten to withdraw from the games.

with this allegiance, create a sheit storm on social media.

point fingers straight at the brass. put pressure on them to resign.

any other action means, you are either a coward or believe that nike and the ustaf should control your life, your money supply, as an athlete at the big events.

I'm with Symmonds on this one. They presented him with a contract. He wanted them to clarify an important point which was worded ambiguously. They instead kick him off the team.

Why was 'official' in quotes?

Makes it seem so vague, like even they're not sure what it means, or want to extend it to anything that might be considered like a team function. I believe the quotation marks were used intentionally, to confuse the athlete, so they would wear nik3 everywhere, just to be sure.

If it was clear what constitutes an official function they wouldn't have to use quotation marks. That is the smoking gun. Deliberate ambiguity IMO.

team dysfunction wrote:

I'm with Symmonds on this one. They presented him with a contract. He wanted them to clarify an important point which was worded ambiguously. They instead kick him off the team.

Why was 'official' in quotes?

Makes it seem so vague, like even they're not sure what it means, or want to extend it to anything that might be considered like a team function. I believe the quotation marks were used intentionally, to confuse the athlete, so they would wear nik3 everywhere, just to be sure.

If it was clear what constitutes an official function they wouldn't have to use quotation marks. That is the smoking gun. Deliberate ambiguity IMO.

More like a smoking tank. Quotation marks are primarily used to reproduce words used by another. Clearly this was not USATF's meaning. Here are other uses. Only one of these is relevant. (hint - it's Scare Quotes!)

Other uses of quotations marks

WRITING ABOUT LETTERS OR WORDS

Quotation marks can be used when referring to a specific word or letter. (Some writers instead use italics for this purpose.)

In the previous sentence, “letter” was properly spelled with two “t”s.

TRANSLATIONS

As an alternative to parentheses, quotation marks can be used to enclose a translation. In this case, it is necessary to set the translation off with commas.

His knowledge of Portuguese is limited to obrigado, “thank you,” and adeus, “goodbye.”

SCARE QUOTES

Scare quotes are used to cast doubt on a word or phrase, or to emphasize that the word or phrase is being used as a euphemism. Scare quotes are best used in moderation.

He rarely spoke of the “incident” that caused him to leave his previous employer.

The think tank’s “analysis” of the issue left much to be desired.

NICKNAMES

When inserted in the middle of a person’s actual name, a nickname should appear in quotation marks.

Greg “The Shark” Norman

Nick "The Martyr" Symmonds (ok, I put that one in).

Bizarrely, the quotation marks are missing from the post.

In SCARE QUOTES, the quotes were for 'incident' and 'analysis'.

I wish it had been a verbal contract, and USATF had held up bunny rabbit ears and winced a bit when they said 'official'.

longjack wrote:

nick is being scapegoated. but it could backfire.

i would encourage nick's agent or someone to get all the non nike athletes together and threaten to withdraw.

not only that, have all the athletes from nike rival companies threaten to withdraw from the games.

with this allegiance, create a sheit storm on social media.

point fingers straight at the brass. put pressure on them to resign.

any other action means, you are either a coward or believe that nike and the ustaf should control your life, your money supply, as an athlete at the big events.

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. Why would a bunch of athletes withdraw from the championship over this? Everyone is going to wear a Nike kit on the track. Even Symmonds is okay with this. All this crap about what constitutes an official team event has almost no practical impact on most athletes. If anything their contracts pay them more if they win a medal in those Nike kits, so why would they stay home over this stupid issue.

Because some people don't like being bullied, while others are happy taking it up the a$$. Which are you?

Never buying another Nike product again. Between this and supporting dopers f them

wejo wrote:

I emailed Jill Geer about it a few days ago and she said she could not comment because of possible litigation, so USATF as a whole has to know that was important.

Why don't you email her and ask why her husbands lame lounge act is the "house band of the USATF"? Or is there impending litigation on that too?

I'm never buying a Brooks product again. Nick ruined the brand for me.

reader of the forums wrote:

The sport existed long before Nike came into the picture, and it would exist after it.

How many of the main sponsors from the '70s, '80s, and '90s do you still see sponsoring events and athletes? Mizuno cut way back, adidas and asics yes, but overall corporations that don't produce something related to running really don't sponsor anymore.

Exceptions like Hy-vee.

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out

Kara Goucher's Facebook:

"What a sad day for USATF when we send convicted drug cheats to world champs but keep Nick Symmonds home because he won't wear Nike gear at the meet hotel."

Duane Solomon's Facebook:

(This is subtle... but he also shows support in a Flotrack interview linked below)

"On this day exactly 3 years ago I lined up in my first Olympic final, which turned out to be one of the greatest 800 meter races in history. Proud to be a par of this amazing race and share with my fellow american teammate @nicksymmonds . ‪#‎London2012‬ ‪#‎historywasmade‬"

http://www.flotrack.org/coverage/252141-FloTrack-Throwdown-2015/video/791432-Duane-Solomon-happy-with-Nick-Symmonds-taking-a-stand-against-USATF#.VcigeHG6fIU

Get Really Real wrote:

USATF needs to be decertified and disbanded, and Adult Supervision brought in again as in a Congressional team, straightening out the sport.

Yes, because getting Congress involved is likely to make things better...

I want to see tweets of athletes at the coffee bar in their sponsors gear. Also would love to see any messages posted in the hotel.

team dysfunction wrote:

I'm with Symmonds on this one. They presented him with a contract. He wanted them to clarify an important point which was worded ambiguously. They instead kick him off the team.

Why was 'official' in quotes?

Makes it seem so vague, like even they're not sure what it means, or want to extend it to anything that might be considered like a team function. I believe the quotation marks were used intentionally, to confuse the athlete, so they would wear nik3 everywhere, just to be sure.

If it was clear what constitutes an official function they wouldn't have to use quotation marks. That is the smoking gun. Deliberate ambiguity IMO.

+100

I've negotiated a lot of contracts, both in the private and public sectors for both professional and personal reasons.

1) Never sign a contract if it's not 100% clear. Unless you like taking it up the a$$.

2) If the other party can not or will not clarify something, then they either have no idea themselves or their intentions are questionable.

3) Given that most of the 'official' functions such as awards dinners, press conferences, meet and greets, etc should be scheduled by this late date, the fact that USATF can't just point to a list of things implies that they either haven't done their due diligence in getting a schedule together or are unsure that they have the bases covered and are hiding behind a non-specific.

4) Whether the issue is part of #3 or is just a matter of power-playing, the fact is that USATF would rather leave the US 800m champion off the team than go on record by clarifying the issue is telling.

5) Any grandstanding aside, Nick Symmonds is correct and is acting as anyone should act if they are presented with something unclear in a contract. He is acting professionally and we should expect USATF to act that way as well.

I know most of you are too young to remember the bad old AAU days, but this really reeks of the non-transparency of that time. Professionalism is here to stay in track and field and USATF needs to get away from a dictatorial model and get with a professional negotiation model, just like most of the professional sports.