SafeSport Failure - Alleged Rapist Allowed to Time Largest National HS Meets

If a platform charges a 7-8% service fee and that money is actually going toward accountants, servers, support staff, security, and the general costs of keeping the system running, most people can live with that. Running a reliable registration or results platform isn’t cheap, and those fees also help pay the employees behind it, along with things like health insurance and basic benefits. In that situation, the fee makes sense because it is funding the actual operation of the platform and the people who keep it functioning.

The problem is when that same 7-8% fee is not going into maintaining the system at all, and is instead being passed along to outside groups that are already getting paid by the meet. If the fee is being used to supplement timing companies or other entities that are already receiving substantial payments from meet hosts, it stops being a legitimate service fee and starts looking like a backdoor payout.

That is where it feels slimy. Coaches think they are paying a normal processing fee, but instead it becomes a quiet way to pull extra money out of teams that are already stretched thin.

A fee that covers the real cost of running a platform is understandable. A fee that quietly subsidizes other businesses is a completely different situation, and people are right to push back on it.

You still don't understand where the money goes and why and how track and field, cross country, and road racing actually work.

Last time I checked timers are a very important part of the sport. They manage meets, bring in officials, do much of the work coaches don't want to do. The best timers don't just set up cameras and pull results. They are the ones managing meets now. Your view points would be far more valid in 2015, but not in 2025.

There is a reason the vast majority of the sport uses Athletic. It's not just about registration or fees, it's about the entire platform and all of the great tools coaches, athletes, parents, fans, timers, meet directors, and more can use.

The gross actions of one individual is what this thread is about, which should be what we talk about, but the vast majority of the employees at Athlete seem to be great people, at least from my interactions, who care a lot about the sport and continue to build better products the entire sport can use. Let's let the legal process play out and judge from there.

No one here is saying timers aren’t important. They are, and anyone who has coached or directed meets knows how much they take on. That’s not the issue.

The issue is the fee structure. When a company states that a third of its service fees go to timers simply for steering coaches to their platform, that’s not meet management or integrations. It’s a referral payout funded by athletes, parents, and schools who are never told that part of their fee is being passed along to someone already being paid for the meet. That’s exactly the kind of shady business practice people are calling out.

You can think Athletic has some useful tools and still question how it operates. Being widely used doesn’t automatically mean its practices are transparent or healthy for the sport.
And let’s be honest: your perspective reads like someone speaking from a timer’s side of the table. That’s fine, but it doesn’t make the concerns here any less legitimate. Coaches deserve to know where their money is going.

On the larger point, this is about Dan Bowdoin. The problem isn’t just his actions. It’s the company’s response, which was weak, evasive, and inconsistent with what people in the sport know to be true. That response fits a broader pattern of dishonesty that seems woven into the company’s culture. That’s why people are questioning things. Not because they “don’t understand the sport,” but because they see a pattern and are finally calling it out.

"There is a reason the vast majority of the sport uses Athletic."

Yes, its the money Athletic is paying timers to use the services. Some of the products are solid, but the reality is most in the industry would prefer to not use Athletic. They are not liked, but timers will gladly take their money. At they same time, they are waiting for the day that "Athletic Timing" tries to steal their business.... the timer would lose the timing business and the Athletic fees.

Today:

- Meet pays timer (timers in large part decide or influence what registration provider is used)

- Participants pay meet and registration provider

- Registration provider pays timers

Future:

- Meet pays Athletic Timing

- Participants pay meet and Athletic

- Athletic keeps all their money

- Other timers go out of biz or make much less

I am a timer who uses Athletic and have never seen a cent of registration fees paid back to me. How do I get this money you are speaking of?

So, disgusting details about a 38-yo man get deleted but the disgusting details of the assault of a 16-yo minor girl have been locked on this board for years. Clearly there is an agenda at work to target a particular individual that the owners do not like.

The idea that the vast majority of the sport uses Athletic isn’t accurate. Many of the largest and most competitive states including New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, and Georgia use MileSplit. A couple of dozen others use it as well. Athletic’s footprint is primarily in the Pacific Northwest, with a handful of additional states in the Midwest and east coast.

They are brother that formed the company together.

That is not true they just received a contract with USATF and in 2024 AAU, which goes all over the country

Dan Bowdoin found guilty. Sentencing to take place on June 3rd.

His trial was originally set for Tuesday but I do not see any links to it or a guilty verdict. Do you have a link?

Both Milesplit and Athletic.net are junk

It likely resolved in pre-trial disposition (i.e. a plea). If there was insurmountable evidence, that's what people do

I reported someone to safesport. The person on the phone seemed genuinely surprised that they had to actually do something other than take money and administer tests. They were paralyzed. Seemed angry that i wanted to report someone

Almost 100% athletic.net in michigan. Very easy to use. Great live timing. Great meet and athlete search functions. Every coach I know groans when you have to use Milesplit. It seems to be growing each year from what i can tell. New balance uses it too, several other national championships.

Weirdo behavior to come onto a post about someone who committed unspeakable crimes to defend the company he created. Glad your money went to supporting his legal fees?