USATF SUCKS!

Perhaps you could offer to take over the website.
Or pitch your services as a strategic business-promotion consultant. They may retain you if you make a decent enough presentation.
Or extort the attorneys representing drug cheats who test positive, so USAT&F doesn't have to commit resources to legal efforts to enforce suspensions.

All of the above would be a better plan of action than launching an anonymous bulletin-board tirade.

ESPN/espn2 has been televising the GL meets...one a week, as a matter of fact.

Why are you defending USATF..??? Do you think they do a good job????....

the usatf must do a better job to market our sport. more high school athletes compete in track and cross country than any other sports yet we hold our national championship meet in a stadium that seats 7000 people. there is a big problem there. also it seems that the usatf has kept some serious drug violations hush-hush. i think it was seb coe that said "it would be worth the short-term embarassment to identify those cheats and clean up the sport." whoever said it, i agree. finally, if you would like to voice your opinion to CEO Craig Masback, he responds to his email personally, usually within 48 hours!

Nobody seems to realize just how volunteer-based USATF is, although they're trying to upgrade that. They have little money, few (full-time) people, and at the local level, an entirely volunteer organization. Locally, most states are lucky to find enough people to put on the youth programs, never mind anything else.

Marketing track and field better? Hmm... let's see. Pro sports have owners and cities who buy advertising, pay for the athletes, etc. and pay in to the governing body. Some of the money goes into a general pool that gets split among the owners. Track?

Frankly, compared to 6 or more years ago, track's visibility has improved, in my opinion. But visibility and promotion depend on the reception by the general public, and that is far less than for, say, football, baseball, and, say, NASCAR. There are two ways to approach this: 1.) focus on elites, work on more sponsors and broadcasters to broadcast more elite meets and hope for the enthusiasm to spread that way, or 2.) get the public more interested in the sport due to grass roots programs that help them to relate to the events they're watching. USATF seems to have chosen option 1; I like option 2. Given the current status of USATF and the public's lack of interest, either option is not going to happen instantly.

Option 1 takes money and sponsors. Option 2 takes volunteers. I see more people complaining about what USATF isn't doing for them than I see people offering to help , change, or fund it. And yes, I was involved with my local USATF for a while, until I moved.

Maybe now that Webb is a pro, he'll try to market the sport.

The reason track isn\'t popular is because the USA didn\'t invent it. Same thing with soccer, we didn\'t invent it. Basketball, baseball, football...we are good cuz we invented it.

I'm mostly defending the idea that "trackdaddy" is complaining about something to which he clearly attaches importance, without offering any value-added "effective marketing" -- other than televising a meet a week (already being done), give the athletes more money (where will THAT come from -- who will "give" more to USAT&F to redistribute?), or quit protecting the druggies (actually an excellent concept, but high profile busts can crack a fragile public image for the sport as it is...bury the bodies at night, so to speak..."quiet retirement").

Complaining here does nothing. If "trackdaddy" really wants to set things right, he can offer his sevrices as an outsourced promotional agent. That way, T&F gets access to his knowledge about "business, money, marketing, etc..." And "trackdaddy," I hereby waive any claim to a services-brokerage fee if you choose to follow up on this suggestion -- that way, everyone wins.

A Canadian invented basketball. He was working in Massachusetts at the time.

Running a specified measure of distance and timing it. Ooooohhh, I wonder who was the brilliant mind that invented that sport.

yeah ... umm ... well what i am saying is that the structure is all set up wrong... the system isn\\\'t working! and if you think track is better than 6 years ago ... you\\\'re wrong (carl lewis, mary slaney, michael johnson, etc... etc... it isn\\\'t any better than back then). volunteers? yeah to a point ... but come on, put some money into it ... INVEST. not my job, i am out there entertaining the fans (cometitor, doing my job in training and racing ... and paying to compete in the sport to make the olympic team)... please don\\\'t defend usatf in favoring the job it is doing ... they aren\\\'t doing anything but a nut job! maybe a new American track federation should start from scratch and overtake usatf! get a clue usatf... what you\\\'re doing is not working ... no matter how you look at it and try to make yourself feel good saying that you are going in a positive direction (that\\\'s what enron, worldcom and citigroup do.... believe/rely on illusions). i may not be smart enough to think of the right system... all i am saying is that the one i compete for sucks and provides NO SUPPORT FOR THE ATHLETES AT ALL (except if you\\\'re the #1 person in you\\\'re event... I mean what did 2nd place get paid at nationals? maybe 2500 dollars? if even and first was maybe 3000 dollars? GIVE ME A BREAK! this is the u.s., you can get more money a year selling FOAKLEY\\\'s or hot dogs on a street corner than you can being an Olympian (or close to one)! PLEASE DON\\\'T DEFEND USATF! Especially since they can\\\'t tell the truth about the druggies; hence: worldcom and enron at a lower level (it\'s all about how they appear). I ran in a few USATF elite events this year and at the athlets dinners, the night before the meets they were saying, \"When you get interviewed by tv, make sure you say how AWESOME THE CROWD WAS!\" Most times the crowd sucked and others there was hardly anyone there. At one meet the announcers on tv said there was standing room only when in fact the stands were about 10% full.... NO JOKE! False Perceptions = Don\'t get you anywhere and are a sign of weakness!

good reply Freddie ... how dumb can you be to say someone invented running? come on buddy!

"yeah ... umm ... well what i am saying is that the structure is all set up wrong"

I think what Joe McV is saying, and I agree, is how can you rip on something and not offer any alternative? If the structure is so bad, what do you think the structure should be? Should individual athletes form their own federation? Should the "New USATF" be guided by the club system? Do you have a proposal by where the "NEW USATF" is supported directly by Nike and their return on their investment would bring them a 100 billion $ profit by the year 2010? Tell us what you have in mind...

"but come on, put some money into it ... INVEST. not my job, i am out there entertaining the fans (cometitor, doing my job in training and racing ... and paying to compete in the sport to make the olympic team)..."

Who are you talking to? I'd say a full 95% of people who read and post here are doing the same thing you are, so who's job is it to invest if it is not yours? If you are so entertaining, who are you? Give me your name so that I can scream it out from the stands when I hear it at the "NEW USATF" national championships.

"all i am saying is that the one i compete for sucks and provides NO SUPPORT FOR THE ATHLETES AT ALL (except if you\'re the #1 person in you\'re event... I mean what did 2nd place get paid at nationals? maybe 2500 dollars? if even and first was maybe 3000 dollars?"

That is because they don't have any more to give. Sure they might grease a few palms with some of the $$$ and some might even end of in the pocket of those who don't deserve it, but in reality they just don't have any $$. And by the way, tell me which country's national champs gives MORE than $3k. I bet you can't find a single one.

"I ran in a few USATF elite events this year and at the athlets dinners, the night before the meets they were saying, "When you get interviewed by tv, make sure you say how AWESOME THE CROWD WAS!" Most times the crowd sucked and others there was hardly anyone there. At one meet the announcers on tv said there was standing room only when in fact the stands were about 10% full.... NO JOKE! False Perceptions = Don't get you anywhere and are a sign of weakness"

Actually false perceptions tend to get you very far. Why don't you invite all your buddies to come see you race, and why don't you start a marketing campaign in your area? Like: "Come Cheer Trackdaddy On to Greater Glory" and print up posters and send out mailers to the whole town, and send out some spam too, you might get some intrest there, plus set up trackdaddy.com to show everyone how special you are. Then you might start helping to fill those empty bleachers.

Really, Trackdaddy, the key is all about self promotion, or finding someone who will promote you for YOU. You just need to go out and cold call every business in your town, and tell them what YOU will do for them, and see how far you get. You will then understand why USATF has problems telling their sponsors what they can do for them.

So, Trackdaddy, go out and do it for yourself. Print up a resume, do a marketing campaign and get your own sponsorship package together and earn a friggen living. With the current USATF there is no free lunch. So until you form your own "NEW and improved USATF" you'll always be Trackbaby.

ok, I know that this is off topic a little but.... Naismith was a Canadian and invented basketball. So Canadians invented basketball and hockey and can't play either for shit in the Olympics. What exactly are they doing up there?

Regarding promoting the sport, a good thing to look up would be Greg Foster's interview with Runners World onl;ine a few years ago. He was one of the best ever in his event and NEVER stopped [promoting himself and the sport.

Even Tom Hanks, every tim he appears in a film, spends a couple of weeks out on tour promoting it, dicking around in hotel rooms answerign the same questions in day after day one one-on-one press interviews.

Promotion is EVERYONE's job.

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XCpotential wrote:

ok, I know that this is off topic a little but.... Naismith was a Canadian and invented basketball. So Canadians invented basketball and hockey and can't play either for shit in the Olympics. What exactly are they doing up there?

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So now the solution to all our problems is to form a new organization. Whoopie.

Way back when, the AAU ran everything. 30 years ago their archaic rules and inbreeding (together with a similar situation at the Olympic level) had created such a mess that the result was stripping oversight of the various amateur sports from AAU and creating sport-specific governing bodies. Things improved marginally, but there was also a slow evolution generally which ultimately led to the professionalization of the sport we have today. But all-in-all, changes in governing bodies were not the be-all and end-all. USATF?s predecessors like USTAF and TAC didn?t represent great sea changes with each conversion.

At this very moment, 6000 kids are in Omaha at Junior Olympics. The stands are nearly full with athletes and relatives. And if you go to the USATF web site, you?ll find that there?s a webcast going on where you can watch the entire meet. But here?s the kicker - AAU is still around, and still holding its own Junior Olympics too! Nearly as big, and in many parts of the country, AAU is actually the dominant organization in kids? track! This sort of infighting crap and turf protection is BS, and needs to stop. The answer, of course is that we should put all of our SUPPORT behind USATF.

Youth track is irrelevant to your point? Uh uh. The point is, with all its blemishes, it?s OUR organization, and we change it from within. Big ships turn slowly, and this one?s no exception. How about webcasting senior nationals? How about stars of the sport showing up in Omaha and hobnobbing with the kids? The grassroots support track had in the ?60s has a lot to do with squeaky wheels - if your local newspaper has good track coverage one day, call or e-mail the sports editor and say, ?Good job! More!? It really only takes calls from 2 or 3 people on a single day for them to notice (seriously).

First of all, you're right - I forgot, 6 years is too short a comparison. 10 years, then. Back then, individual athletes might have risen above the noise (but I'm sorry, NOBODY in the general public ever knew who Mary Slaney was, except other distance runners), but not track as a whole. Part of Michael Johnson's rise was a result of USATF realizing they should market themselves and their athletes. Sure, they could do better, I'm just saying this isn't their worst.

If you're demanding better pay, and you blame USATF, then you'd better say where they're going to get the money. As far as I know, (which isn't that much, I'll admit) their income is from people joining (which the public does not do, because it's for elites, and not them), youth programs (I don't know the finances for that, but many of the state meets I've seen are lucky to break even), advertising and marketing, and corporate sponsors. You've already noted that meets aren't turning out big crowds, so ticket sales aren't the answer, or at least, not the first one.

Which leaves selling stuff with USATF on it, or the corporate sponsors, which is what USATF is trying to do. You could try the club approach, if you can get companies to sponsor clubs. Unless the rank-and-file start avidly running track like they play softball, they're not going to form huge clubs that can fund elites.