USATF, Max Siegel being sued by Board Member Jim Estes for defamation

Good. Bring it all down.

I absolutely love this.

However, it will be a tough case for Estes to win. Claiming losses is not easy to do and here's his lawyer:

Estes has been “impacted by this in any number of ways,” Hagerman said. “I’ll just leave it at that. He’s been significantly impacted by these events.”

Either this settles out of court or is delayed long enough that Max has moved on to other things.

Still I'm cheering for Estes on this one.

What will happen as a result of this is Seigel raising entry fees for pros and memberships for USATF members to pay his lawyers. That greedy f*ck.

Jonathan Gault has spoken to Estes' lawyer.

letsrun.com

USATF Board Member Jim Estes Suing USATF & Max Siegel for Negligence & Defamation

LetsRun.com

Estes lawsuit stems from USATF's decision to disqualify Chattanooga's bid for the 2024 Olympic Marathon Trials because Estes worked as a consultant on Chattanooga's bid. The idea that Siegel cited that conflict of interest as...

Open link

I love this suit. The idea that USATF would cite Estes' conflict of interest as the reason to the DQ the Chattanooga bid is laughable to me considering according to the Washington Post "under (Max) Siegel’s watch, USA Track and Field has awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of business to an Indianapolis marketing firm that once advertised itself as “a Max Siegel company.”

I only hope Estes has the cajones to see this to trial, cause I wanna see Max and Renee answering questions under oath.

Vin Lananna is up next. That rat

I know Jim Estes and Max Siegel from working with them when I was president of USATF New England. I believe and trust Estes more than I believe and trust Siegel.

Tom

Jim Estes is a classy guy, a good man. I've worked with him several times in the last few years. Good on him for calling out the hypocrisy within USATF.

I don't get the issue with Vin. His job at usatf is unpaid. He took the job largely to offer some oversight on Max and his cronies. Max basically had Vin fired due to the bs charges around worlds and tracktown. Vin had to take legal action to get his job back. I assume Vin and Max hate each other.

The problem is Max lining his and the board's pockets and not really caring about t&f. The 30yr Nike deal #1 example of stupidity, but it's a long list.

Jim Estes has been a whipping boy and He got tired of it and will force Max to change the way he does business. Max needs to watch his back.

And how's that been working out?

Most of what I know about the history of this comes from LRC. With that caveat, I fully agree with Rojo. Given what I know, I hope Estes wins.

Pulling the plug on TN for the reasons given, makes me wonder if Siegel is not conflicted here. That is, does he have a personal interest in having the trials in Orlando? Maybe we will learn more in discovery.

I mean it’s clear as day now that Max and company clearly took some bribe, used Jim as the scapegoat to take down Chattanooga and get them disqualified so he could go against the boards decision and choose Orlando right? Like none of this has made sense from the beginning with barely any information on why Orlando and now we have this entire timeline that clearly shows what was happening.

Siegle is an atrocious CEO. The guy treats USATF like a part time gig. He spends most of his time on his auto racing team. Does anybody know what drove his hiring? The guy's resume is not as impressive as I assumed it would be and he doesn't seem like he has a background that fits the bill.

Rojo, Gault, please read the following: THERE IS A REAL STORY TO BE WRITTEN ON MAX IF YOU CARED ENOUGH

As of last summer, Max was letting everyone know that he wanted the Trials in Orlando.

Likewise I have worked with Jim on numerous occasions and continue to do so. Always had/has my respect.

I’d be a character witness on his behalf if asked. Quality guy in my opinion.

I'll second the character witness. Jim and I have not always seen eye to eye but I've always appreciated how he would tell it as it is, not beat around the bush, and still managed to be diplomatic, even when he was pissed off. You know where you stand with Estes and I've been involved (tangentially or directly) in events with Jim at least 12-15 times, off the top of my head. As another poster said, I truly hope this goes all the way to trial and Max has to answer under oath, and discovery is public, as I have barely more than zero trust in slimy Max.

This guy can’t seem to get away from the taint of corruption. I guess $3.8 million isn’t a good enough detergent. Shady USATF should be gutted.

100% USATF should be gutted now. Max ,Vin are all corrupt. What the F are we waiting for