Track needs big, bold and risky ideas because it's too mundane to begin with. In an era where attention spans are generally short, that's not encouraging. Siegal is too stubborn and should listen to Vinny.
Back in 1997, Nancy Ditz and others had the courage to stand up to Ollan Cassell. Too many asskissers in the sport today to have that kind of courage. If we were able to let Vin do his thing from the beginning, USATF and Athletics in general would be much better off.
Vin is a good dude and really wants the sport to thrive. USATF is run by toadies and boomers that fear change and are jealous of the opportunities afforded to today's athletes.
Vin is a good dude and really wants the sport to thrive. USATF is run by toadies and boomers that fear change and are jealous of the opportunities afforded to today's athletes.
Probably the biggest, boldest, idea in the history of the sport was professionalization. It was Boomers who made that happen and AAU toadies who resisted it. When you have a guy like Siegel making an eight figure salary and being treated like royalty whenever he travels on business for the sport you aren't looking at someone who wants more than cosmetic change because real change may cost him that job. And the toadies surrounding him don't want it either because they're positions are dependent on him having that job.
Really simple idea to make track more popular: promote individual races, don't sell TV rights to traditional provider, give them to some social media company, and have race feeds pop up in easier to digest ways. Some text you get five minutes before the 400 hurdles starts with a link to to the race. Or the top athletes would basically be social media personalities/influencers showing their own races. Millions of people would have watched and then tweeted about the race. . . . The advantage of track in this day and age is that the most exciting stuff can be shown in 2 to 3 minute segments. People watch all sorts of dumb videos on their phones, they would also watch live track races. . . . It would be very easy to make the top track athletes much more famous. . . .
Speaking of Siegel, USATF still hasn't responded to my request for comment as to why he scheduled a press conference that took place in the middle of the meet while the competition was going on and did so with just 50 minutes notice.
My mom's and dad's generation could have used Vin Lananna's and Ken Goe's ideas on pro track. My generation wants to be set free by USATF to find our our way of making a living in track and field: sign with pro clubs, wear sponsor logos, get paid with bitcoin and ethereum, and we want to make money from NFTs and Smart Phone Game Avatars, etc.
I want to hear any big bold ideas for track. I can't think of hearing of any. Legalized gambling is about as close as I can come. And no sh@t like have teams in city's and the like aren't big ideas. Nobody wants things in like NYC versus Chicago dual meets...
Big and Bols w/o anyone in the stands! Brilliant! Rojo stop hating on Max. You sound like you are prejudice.
Considering Max is headed to prison sooner or later for all his shady deals that line his own pockets with millions and payouts to his various companies "working for usatf", no-one should be consulting him further for anything.
He's paid himself to a multi-millionaire from the Nike deal alone.
Indeed, Vin is a great champion of the sport! He is responsible for bringing the World Championships to the United States and it truly was a great meet! USATF needs to evolve quickly in order to take advantage of Vin’s efforts and USATF should wholeheartedly endorse his vision for the sport.
Eugene probably failed cuz Max wanted it to. That being said Hayward needed a new stadium just not that one! Usatf is 100% crony and vin can fight if he wants but will never really win, just small wins followed by a basement office.
AAU, then TAC and now USATF. Always been a clown show. Max just the latest head clown. I’m sure he picked up pointers from the best; IAAF, FIFA and of course the IOC. Penthouse hotel suites, private jets, luxury cars. In spite of USATF, Eugene was a wonderful expertise for me and my buddies.
You often hear writers, NCAA, and USATF persons on these matters. Their voices are a faint whisper, unheard and ignored since theirs no money, no market in their respective niches of the USA to back their words. For track and field, running, and marathons the critical mass in the USA is centered solely around the Olympic Games. For athletes the market is primarily the southwestern states. For example the 200 mile long Southern California beaches have 100,000 active runners each day, 365 days a year minus one or two weeks of rainy weather. That's more runners each day in So Cal of the year than NY, Chi, Bos, Berlin, and Lon marathon combined entries.