Doug Logan in Trouble at USATF?!

The board can fire him.

In my opinion, Hightower is on a perpetual power trip.

I was in Houston last January for the USATF Half Marathon Championships and meet Doug.

I was impressed with his address to the media about the race and the possibility of Houston hosting one of the Marathon Olympic Trials. Houston had a lot of money set aside to host the Trials.

Hopefully, they treat him fairly and give him a chance to meet their expectation (whatever they are) and they are not out to hire get rid of him to hire a friend….

It's a kind of strange article because it talks about improvement in a way that is not at specific

I think he's done an okay job so far. Trials to Houston, bucking the overbearing NYRR "we deserve the race so give it to us already" threats. I've like the few public comments he's made, about improving T&F broadcasts and publicity etc etc. Perhaps there's some backdoor dealings that we aren't privy to? Perhaps Logan is turning his back on Nike and they aren't happy? Perhaps this is all BS?

I agree, no specifics at all. What are their expectations ?

Mr. Obvious wrote:

The board can fire him.

God I hope you mean the message board; Letsrun taking control of USATF...

Improve or be fired?

I was fortunate enough to be at Millrose, Penn, Adidas, and Pre this year (as a spectator of course) and I thought the meets were fine. Getting to Adidas is a pain, but it's NYC.

Is it a question of attendance? Popularity of the sport? Watching the Paris meet and seeing that huge stadium packed with fans made me wonder if that could ever happen here. Logan can't really help ticketing big name athletes then having them pull out a week before the meet.

As for athletic performances...at the end of the day, you either run fast, jump high, or throw far and no one in the front office can help that but the athlete. The athlete gets the sponsors based on performance, the athlete pays coaches, and the athlete has to execute.

Maybe USATF needs to take on more of a team approach when it heads over to Europe, etc?

I know of an incident with a former agent. He still has great ties and pull with companies, federations, athletes and events. He talks to a lot of people.

He was approached by a few agents because there were some concerns they had and he was asked to contact Logan to air these concerns. When he called, Logan kept referring him to Lamont Jones and never would take his calls. He got pissed and insulted. Now, I hear this might have had something to do with getting the ball rolling.

This was something about an agent/meet promoter with too much pull and the other agents weren't really happy about.

Oh Gawd no....Not Doug. Say it isn't so. If he goes what will happen to the Shin Splints blog - his maverick contribution the sport of track and field.

I know of an incident with a former agent. He still has great ties and pull with companies, federations, athletes and events. He talks to a lot of people.

He was approached by a few agents because there were some concerns they had and he was asked to contact Logan to air these concerns. When he called, Logan kept referring him to Lamont Jones and never would take his calls. He got pissed and insulted. Now, I hear this might have had something to do with getting the ball rolling.

This was something about an agent/meet promoter with too much pull and the other agents weren't really happy about things.

True or not? A few people talking about it in Des Moines.

Why is this even news ? Is Doug Logan an athlete ? No. Is he the head of the IAAF ? No.

The USATF cannot fix the myriad problems that track and field faces because track and field is an international sport with competitors from all over the world and the body that runs the track and field show is the IAAF. They are the ones that stage the meets that bring in athletes from all over the world. They are the ones that have been stuck in a multi decade long rut that have resulted in few positive changes to the sport. It does not matter who runs the USATF really. But If I do have a gripe against him though it is with that gawd awful USATF website. Why anyone would spend more than 10 seconds there is a mystery - he really should have done something about that in the last 2 years.

Could it be possible that NYCRR are pissed enough about the marathon trials to get him ousted?

I would assume that they would start looking at his job status sometime after Worlds or the Olympics, not during an off year. Does the USATF want one of their athletes to win the Diamond League this year? To me, it doesn’t make sense.

I'll reserve judgement on the financial savviness of the Houston decision when Houston comes through with what they've promised.

Well, he was in charge when nationals were conducted in buttf*** Des Moines that maybe had 1000 people show up each day. If you were the CEO of a public company and completely dropped the ball on your biggest event of the year, you would be in trouble too. The broadcasts of track meets continue to be horrific with announcers who don't know anything and partial coverage at best of distance events. The ESPN cut away to Moe, Larry and Curly in the booth to discuss a potential no hitter during the 5000 last month was the nadir.

Also, what does the Adidas meet at Icahn have to do with USATF? Isn't that a Golden League event that has nothing to do with USATF? That's probably why it is a top rate event.

That was a very sucky meet. It shows the decline of Millrose, and that California meet all by the same meet "promoter" in Boston, the Global Atletics Group.

Me thinks Hightower wants the job.

the national meet is only partly his fault. you have to remember that masback was in charge when des moines was awarded the meet. it is hard to generate much interest in the meet when it essentially means nothing due to no world championships or olympics.

if this rumor is true watch out for vin lananna to get the job.