Max Siegel does it again - Siegel was paid $3.8 million in 2021 to run USATF

Pure and simple..the Nike contract. NOw whether you agree with it is another matter.

There isn’t one US track and field star making as much as this person.

How sad it is for the athletes to know they are the reason these people exist and very little value is provided.

Every year it is the same thing. Max Siegel and company make more and more money and the athletes receive very little.

if it wasn’t for private donations directed at the athletes it would be even worse.

The service and core competencies that USATF provides to US athletes, fans, and the sport is sub par.

Ex Athletes that are well educated with strong organizational and interpersonal skills and business background should get involved, oust these overpaid administrators and create a far better athlete centric organization.

ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING.

And don't call me racist. Last week on the podcast, I went on a rant when I heard a white ex-Cornell runner made $1.2 million for med device sales but Weldon deleted it from the podcast. Hopefully, he'll let me talk about Siegel's salary this week.

PS. I changed the title of the thread. It was initially Max Siegel Salary.

Look, I get it. Private school headmasters make $600k. But $3.8 million? If I thought he did something innovative, maybe. Instead, he's done what? Held a Worlds in Eugene and let Nike sponsor USATF? Does it take a genius to come up with those ideas?

I think a third grader could knew that Eugene and Nike cared more about track than others.

He's terrible, and a dinosaur.

It's going to be unpopular amongst purists, but the way to get track into the mainstream is through fantasy sports and gambling. Track is nothing but human horse racing, so let's treat it as such.

ESPN and the like are absolutely starved for live programming in the summer; the FanDuels and such of the world are similarly starved to open new audiences and for something other than baseball to drive liquidity. It'd be so easy.

The next CEO should be someone from the tech world who understands all of this.

Max has kept the USATF fully funded for years. Get off of his back. CEOs make a lot of money. There is a hint of racism when most people talk bad about Max.

He did get Nike to sponsor the Acsis World champs. I'm not sure everyone could have pulled that off.

As someone in the gaming industry I have to say few sports lend themselves less to betting than track.

He has kept himself fully funded. Revenue absolutely flat for over a decade ~$30-34mm/year. He alone takes 10-11% OF REVENUE. Nike $ is about $14mm/year.. And the revenue costS $1mm per year in commission to Helfand Bevilacqua, who brokered the deal for USATF. So they are paying for the revenue at a sizable cost. And he hasn’t generated a single other meaningful revenue or producing deal. There are about a dozen or so grossly overpayed staff who have it as their entire careers to retain this payment source. The rest of the organization are volunteers who have no incentive to devote their lives to changing an entrenched cadre of sportocrats. Those who try get sued and hounded out.

Can you expand on the bolded part, and possibly include examples?

Honestly I didn’t even realize he was black until I just looked him up because I was confused. I assumed he was a very old white man from his last name.

11% of revenue! Sounds like he reports to a friendly group of board members.

Roger Goodell, who reportedly makes $63.9M, comes in at only 0.3% of reported NFL revenue.

CEOs can justify large salaries if they succeed at their job. Track and field is in really poor shape. It gets little TV coverage, hardly anyone knows any athletes (other than Allyson Felix) - do you think anyone knows that the US has the 800m Olympic champion? Or the 100m world champion? Mu and Kerley would be crossover stars in a well-run sport. McLaughlin-Levrone is a legend already but she'd need to wear a name tag for any ordinary member of the public to recognize her. You think the NBA has these problems with its stars? Siegel is getting big-time compensation for managing the decline of a sport. If you think that the sport has just found is level, then fine, but in that case, pay the CEO a salary that is commensurate with a small-time sport.

I wonder what type of luxury expenses Max and the other USATF executives are reimbursed these days compared to when this came out:

washingtonpost.com

USA Track and Field CEO has alarmed some insiders with his spending and style

https://www.facebook.com/will.hobson.39

Since taking over in 2012, Max Siegel has overseen soaring revenues with a polarizing management approach.

Open link

Perhaps the one thing we all agree on - F Max Siegel. That figure truly is disgusting. Let's also ID his board cronies who put him there and defend him.

its always great to see someone overcome systemic racism, white privilege white supremacy etc to achieve wealth success and fame by dint of hard work

How does his salary get determined?

I know of no one who could not have brokered the NIKE deal…..child’s play….his salary is unjustifiable and grossly disgusting.

It’s a great gig, if you can get it!

Without knowing the details, I’m assuming that any commissions that he got from the Nike deal are front loaded over the life of his contract with USATF, so he gets more the first few years, and less the longer he works for them.

You have to call out the members of USATF’s board who approved his contract in the first place—they’re just as complicit. You have to call out the board and the athletes advisory committee for essentially neutering Vin Lananna’s effectiveness as president. And you also have to call out former president Stephanie Hightower, because without her, Max isn’t the CEO.

What’s laughable is in the report, it says Siegel works 60 hours a week. If that’s the case, he doesn’t have time to run his NASCAR team.

The USATF convention is this weekend in Orlando. Interesting to see what comes out of there.

This, the Nike deal was a no-brainer for NIKE......they get to OWN all of the USATF events for 20+ years....that is the cheapest advertising nike has ever paid for.