USATF needs more than a new logo

it needs a visionary. someone to inspire. craig massback does not do this. what if we had a guy who would be out there congratualting us at our finishes. like an icon who we would want to sprint to the finish line to be the first one he shakes hands with.

i dunno. i thought about this the other day and decided USATF needs a hero in the front office. a real drill seargent mother f***er who's friendly at the same time.

someone with personality i guess. the impression i get from usatf officers is that they are reminiscent of a southern governors office- happy to be along for a ride on the gravey train and just do enough to keep their job.

that statement is totally unfair to those who do work hard at usatf, but it seems like their is alot of bitches on committees

The problem is that when you get young energy involved they get discouraged by the "old guard". Hansons are doing a great thing, but they do it independently of USATF for just that reason. Indiana Invaders hosted more meets with sub 4 minute milers than USATF did last year. The sad part is that Craig Masback is not on the horn asking leaders like this "what needs to be done?". Instead he continues to listen to the old guard. The first thing that should be done is get rid of Everyone involved in USATF in any capacity that is over the age of 60. These are all of the guys that think they know the solutions, but all they do is create problems.

what about a coupe. im 25, i'd support it.

Start with rolling Brooks Johnson and John Chaplin out on the street. They have done nothing good for USATF. Demote Masback to a pencil pusher and get someone with some marketing savvy and personality ~ character in there.

why doesn't everyone just stop going to USATF meets completely. i don't see why someone doesn't actually try to do something instead of just talking about it on message boards. i havent been to any meets in a while because of Masback's bullshit

Why don't we start an articulate Internet petition with grievances and have everyone who cares sign it? Circulate it to colleges and the track-road-cross country-oriented competitive running clubs too. Then send it into USATF with a copy going to the USOC which in some capacity oversees USATF.

Which organization was it that threatened to strip USATF of its status if they didn't clean up their act a couple of years ago?? Drugs and such. They might be worth getting involved here too. I think USATF needs a massive shake-up, it is a very shittily run organization.

talk wrote:

i don't see why someone doesn't actually try to do something instead of just talking about it on message boards.

I think that is exactly what the Hansons have done. USATF has committee's set up for the purpose of development. Spending years trying to figure out who is deserving enough to be on the committe. Once that is done we spent another entire convention deciding our mission statement. A year later we had meeting to decide where the funding would come from. Meanwhile the Hansons just did it.

yeah but it took them 6 years to get to the point where it was successful. don't make it sound easy to make developmental teams - there have been several teams over the years that have shrunk or disappeared despite the best of intentions and funding. and also hansons caters basically to a very small slice of american track and field, or even distance running - male marathons. their scope is much more refined....and they dont have to worry about advertising and all that. usatf has to deal with runners competing under different sponsors as opposed to one. much harder task.

I think I agree with most you...new people but WHO?

Let's start suggesting people. Maybe even non-runners like Pat Croche (last name spelling?) the manager for 76ers in the early 2000s. He was high energy and put a lot of energy in the city.

Maybe Jim Ryun. Any sighting of his resume on Monster? j/k! he is currently out of a job

Who else?

7 spike shoe wrote:

yeah but it took them 6 years to get to the point where it was successful. don't make it sound easy to make developmental teams - there have been several teams over the years that have shrunk or disappeared despite the best of intentions and funding. and also hansons caters basically to a very small slice of american track and field, or even distance running - male marathons. their scope is much more refined....and they dont have to worry about advertising and all that. usatf has to deal with runners competing under different sponsors as opposed to one. much harder task.

My point is not that Hansons is the answer. My point is that someone that I never heard of can do what USATF or TAC or AAU has never been able to do. I never heard of Hansons in 2000 because they weren't on the radar. Now they are a household name within running. This could never happen in any other sport because their governing body is KING. Now that we know that it can happen in ours, I think that we are better off looking to other small businesses with a passion for Track and Field to work on development in other events.

I would suggest the same for Track and Field Meets.

Get someone from another successful sport. NASCAR or NBA or anyone that has figured out how to market our sport. It doesn't have to be the head chees but someone who has a strong understanding of PR.

i know this isn't a perfect comparison for a variety of reasons, but i look at how MLS (the american professional soccer league) has grown over the last few years and i'm pretty jealous. obviously this is a sports league with teams and a variety of other differences from how our sport is set up. but they seem to have done a good job with marketing, not overextending themselves, achieving financial security, etc. the growth really came to their sport when they got a former top level NFL guy, don garber, to take over as commissioner. he's done some amazing stuff on the marketing side - most notably on the TV side where MLS has a "set" time slot on saturday - but also via the internet.

looking outside the track world for leadership is probably a good idea.

It's not AGE that is screwing USATF, its ex-olympians on staff.

For instance, Mike Conley. He's come out numerous times saying he prefers Basketball, and he thought he could be an NBAer. He was one of those that promoted Greg Oden, OH ST freshman. His own kid didn't even run track. If he would put as much effort into USATF, as he does promoting BB, then it might be something.

USATF focuses too much on elites athletes and not spectators and retaining former athletes. Just look at the running base in the US.

Great olympic caliber athletes

Many youth programs

Great over 40 crowd, many never ran prior.

Few post college runners

So, they neglect the hand that feeds them. The post college runner who "go pro in other things than sports"

It takes very little to get involved in USATF. Just show up for your local/state meetings. Get involved. Go to the national level and you can't help but get onto a committee. The problem is... Who has time for that? Older people. Young people with energy are too involved making a money, supporting families, raising children, etc... The old guard will continue to dominate unless the young go getters stop complaing and start getting involved.

wejo, you are the only ass tramp with time to do this. put together an organized complaint page and we will take the time to fill out official complaints with our letsrun screen names attached. i will be the first in line to do so.

Money is at the bottom of it. Other sports generate more of it from having equipment to sell and selling tickets to people who want to watch. Maybe our sport is too predictable and simple. (It is still hard.)

So the problem, to compete against the other sports for $$$, is not one that USATF can solve without perhaps changing the nature of the public/customers.

If our sport were a business we would change the product line to be something our customers would want.

But we are not a business.

I see what we do as closer to the arts than NBA.

Tom