"Major Announcement" from USATF On New Event and Sponsor Wednesday in NYC

Unless it's a domestic track and field series held during the summer, it doesn't matter much in terms of elevating the sport. My guess is it's probably finalizing the details on the Jamaica v USA dual meet Doug Logan always wanted to hold. Unless it's a road race of some sort, it makes very little sense to have the 40-year old Deena at the event, although isn't she one of the athlete representatives on the USATF board?

As for a new partner for the sport...hopefully it's an innovative company like Apple, Microsoft or Google. Those types of deals would make noise in the sports business world. My fear is it's a company like United/Continental, Chase or another mega-company that sponsors a million different organizations and events and USATF would just be a drop in the bucket.

I am hoping for the positive from USATF, but expect disappointment.

It's not related to this same-day NYC event is it?"Join us on Wednesday, Feb. 13 at the Javits Convention Center at 608 West 40th St. @ 11th Ave. to be a part of the revolution in running as adidas unveils new innovations in energy to the sport. Check-in is at 10:15 a.m. and the presentation starts at 10:30 a.m. followed by interactive experiences, interviews and lunch.Interview opportunities include adidas America Director of Running Mikal Peveto and adidas America Running Manager Chris Brewer. In order to best accommodate your editorial needs, please let us know if you have specific interview requests ASAP. If you haven’t already given it, please send us your shoe size.We hope to see you there – please send your RSVP by Feb. 1."

wejo wrote:

USATF is having a "major announcement" on a "new event in 2013 and new partner for the sport" in NYC tomorrow with Deena Kastor and USATF CEO Max Siegel.

Deena's main sponsor is Asics, and with USATF's relationship with Nike, it's not Asics that is being brought on board.

Any ideas? Also Deena isn't involved in track anymore so I wonder if it is some sort of road running deal. Another tidbit is Deena turns 40 on Thursday.

Details below:

Who: USATF CEO Max Siegel, Olympic bronze medalist Deena Kastor and additional guests

What: A major announcement from USA Track & Field unveiling a new event in 2013 and new partner for the sport

When: 1 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 13

There are so many elite T&F and MLB/NFL pros from the far corners of the globe in Southern California during the winter it's stupid not to start up a Winter Outdoor Track and Field League at OTC and Mt Sac that's for sure.

Word is Al Jazeera is the new partner.

2 billion new eyes for our great USA T&F #1 team in the world.

Congratulations to Max & Deena for piecing together the deal with the world most innovative multimedia news organization, Al Jazeera.

Asics will sponsor a massmarket event centering on the fitness runners, dieters and deeper into the pack of big city marathon eventers.

In a surprise piece of news Asics is releasing a shoe designed with this event in mind.

;)

Well I doubt it's Adidas since Deena will be there but what do I know I didn't even know of the Adidas event.

I wouldn't be surprised if it has something to do with Mammoth TC and that brand new track of theirs. Would Deena Kastor travel all the way across the country if it didn't involve the club she now operates?

my guess is that it has something to do with televising more meets - trying to avoid the universal sports problem. WHich is that if you can't get universal sports, you can't see much track.

for ex, time warner cable doesn't carry universal sports, so you can't see any diamond league meets and for the WC meet only the lame highlights show on nbc.

God knows all -- it is a new sponsor for the US road championships series. The monetization comes from a singular registration portal for each of the events.

god, that sounds like a reasonable guess. That road championship series could sure use a boost - it has been pretty lame for a while now.

so - anyone at this announcement?

NEW YORK – In its biggest single-event sponsorship in more than a decade, USA Track & Field on Wednesday announced that it will launch the .US National Road Racing Championships in the fall of 2013. The announcement marks the beginning of a three-year partnership between USATF and Neustar, the administrator of the .US top-level domain, to initiate and grow a national-championship, mass-participation road race.

So... they are adding a road 12k nat'l championship to the already existing lineup of road nat'l championships including 1 mile, 5k, 10k, 15k, 20k, half marathon, 25k, marathon, 50k, 50 miles, and 100k. Yay?

might be wejo wrote:

So... they are adding a road 12k nat'l championship to the already existing lineup of road nat'l championships including 1 mile, 5k, 10k, 15k, 20k, half marathon, 25k, marathon, 50k, 50 miles, and 100k. Yay?

$100k prize purse for a 12k race is the "Yay" part. If there are appearance fees on top of that to get the top runners to line up, it could be a great event.

No need for appearance money , its the biggest road prize dollars outside of a marathon in US. The players will show trust me.

Important for then to get some type of TV/cable coverage , hoping sponsors are requesting this from USATF.

Typical USATF - we are holding a championship race - but we will not say where or when until 2 weeks before. Don't want anyone planning or preparing for it.

Typical USATF,

No it is worse than that. In the article they explain that there are many competing races just about narrowing it down to the week it has to be yet they still couldn't make the call.

12k? 12k???

Leave it to USATF to pick 12k, a distance not even serious runners can cite a world class time for.