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    • More brilliant decision making
      • RE: USATF extends NIKE partnership to 2040 4/16/2014 4:13PM - in reply to Emperor Knight
      • More brilliant decision making
      • I'll repeat what I said in the other thread, which is WTF? Nike is sponsoring USATF until 2040? USATF must be a cheap date.

        I can't imagine anyone letting a sponsor tie them up for 25 years. Who knows what the market will be like then?
    • Criminal minds
      • RE: USATF extends NIKE partnership to 2040 4/16/2014 4:56PM - in reply to More brilliant decision making
      • Criminal minds
      • Hmm , Well lets hope there is a clause that if ineptitude is demonstrated as USATF demonstrates on regular basis that Nike could request a review and contract cancellation after so many screw-ups.
        Its idiotic if true if this is for 25 years , if USATF was doing its job the value of the sponsorship should increase with time. 2014 value in 2040 ?
    • dsrunner
      • RE: USATF extends NIKE partnership to 2040 4/16/2014 5:15PM - in reply to Emperor Knight
      • dsrunner
      • About as dumb as Chicago selling its parking meters or Indiana selling a busy toll road. Can we get rid of USATF now?
    • uphill run
      • RE: USATF extends NIKE partnership to 2040 4/16/2014 5:17PM - in reply to Criminal minds
      • uphill run
      • No offense to all the haters of Nike and USATF, but is there even one other shoe company willing to invest $20 million over a 5-year span on the sport? Nike is now paying that annually. I don't disagree with calling out how dumb agreeing to something until 2040 is. It's a horrible business move from a long-term perspective, but USATF just tripled there budget from one sponsorship move, got a nice increase from their new 7-year deal with Hershey and have at least two more sponsorship deals coming.
    • eldanielfire
      • RE: USATF extends NIKE partnership to 2040 4/16/2014 6:26PM - in reply to uphill run
      • eldanielfire
      • uphill run wrote:
        No offense to all the haters of Nike and USATF, but is there even one other shoe company willing to invest $20 million over a 5-year span on the sport? Nike is now paying that annually. I don't disagree with calling out how dumb agreeing to something until 2040 is. It's a horrible business move from a long-term perspective, but USATF just tripled there budget from one sponsorship move, got a nice increase from their new 7-year deal with Hershey and have at least two more sponsorship deals coming.
        Tying up commercial activities of the whole organisation for 25 years is madness regardless of the money. You can't say Nike to a great job promoting the interests of T&F in the USA as it is.

        I can't say it rests easy considering the effect Nike appears to have on USATF. Their loss I suppose.
    • Pitch Count
      • RE: USATF extends NIKE partnership to 2040 4/16/2014 7:29PM - in reply to Swoosh goes the dynamite
      • Pitch Count
      • Over the course of 23 years USATF will receive in total, 2/3 of what the NCAA receives in 1 year for the Men's Basketball Tournament. The number is much lower when employing present value calculations. This is an awful financial deal and an even worse albatross for the organization and this Board's successors.
    • stole my thought
      • RE: USATF extends NIKE partnership to 2040 4/16/2014 7:35PM - in reply to dsrunner
      • stole my thought
      • dsrunner wrote:
        About as dumb as Chicago selling its parking meters...
        That was my first thought. Chicago sold the meters for something like 75 years. It was apparent within a year that it was a colossal mistake.

        I've said it before on this board, but anybody who truly cares should be pushing to get the USATF removed. The incompetence is mind boggling. They essentially just sold the sport to the company that nearly caused a revolt amongst the athletes less than two months ago. This would be like the current government of Ukraine accepting a 25 year bailout from Moscow.
    • Congrats to Max Siegal
      • RE: USATF extends NIKE partnership to 2040 4/16/2014 7:49PM - in reply to Emperor Knight
      • Congrats to Max Siegal
      • Great for Max Siegal. He met the BoD's goal of signing a major sponsor. Max Siegal just secured his CEO gig with USATF for life.
    • bOOmERsOOnER1
    • Where's the Cash
      • RE: USATF extends NIKE partnership to 2040 4/16/2014 9:30PM - in reply to minong
      • Where's the Cash
      • minong wrote:
        $500 million is the number being reported.
        Given some comments about additional uniforms for para and masters, one has to assume a bunch of the increase is product not cash. These deals are grossed up for retail value (so a typical athlete kit is thousands times 500-1000 kits per year for old deal means several mil of the 8M is not cash).

        Still, given their sponsor bar includes Gatorade (free drink mix, no cash), an Indianapolis hospital, and a company that makes T&F equipment (how much cash can they pay), they need quality cash paying sponsors (at a minimum, to pay severance deals, legal fees, Board travel, and the loss on that road race).
    • MI Man
      • RE: USATF extends NIKE partnership to 2040 4/16/2014 9:44PM - in reply to Where's the Cash
      • MI Man
      • It is a pretty large cash infusion which is to be congratulated but to sign up for that long is probably really not smart but time will tell. If T&F/road racing popularity picks up over the years, Nike will really benefit.

        From a timing and PR aspect, it couldn't get much worse with the recent mishaps with Salazar and USATF. It just looks bad.

        I think the USATF has to learn that the athletes are what counts.....there is nothing without them. We also all need to figure out how to make this sport entertaining and marketable.....but USATF needs to show leadership on this and they have not so far.

        If USATF continues to bumble what is to stop someone else from forming a 'new competing USATF'? I hope thats not a dumb question.
    • hedge pedge
      • RE: USATF extends NIKE partnership to 2040 4/17/2014 5:33AM - in reply to Emperor Knight
      • hedge pedge
      • How will it be distributed? To the athletes and their coaches and the youth movement, or more junkets and salaries for the bloated executives? This is about $180 million with the potential cost of inflation. Not that great.
    • Eye Hate Nike
    • Follow the money
      • RE: USATF extends NIKE partnership to 2040 4/17/2014 8:19AM - in reply to Emperor Knight
      • Follow the money
      • What it means is that with Nike paying for everything, USATF can tell athletes to f off because Nike calls all the shots now and will still be calling the shots when the current generation of athletes' CHILDREN are competing as adults.