Hear this idea out.
Every shoe company gets to put money in the USATF pot. The more a company invests the more signage they get at USA meets. Each company then creates a team uniform for that years Worlds/Olympics. After the qualifying meet the athletes vote on which kit they want to wear. For the other gear included the athlete package, all logos from the sponsoring companies will be present. Everyone wins.
Now as Symmonds has now suggested that athletes are not getting paid, a solution to this might be a yearly salary from USATF based on how you ran the previous season as long as they have hit the years World/Olympic standard, and plan on continuing your athletic career. But not as high as 100k a year because athletes have sponsors of their own and make earnings via races. Conditions would include the athlete must compete at Nationals, 2 or 3 meets in the USA and then at least one diamond league race. If injured the athlete is able to split the salary in half for the next 2 years in order to regain fitness. There is also the idea of an "up and comer" salary that is given to athletes who forgo the NCAA system who are with xx:xx of the world/olympic standard and under the age of 21.
an example of how a salary system may work using the Mens 800m as an ex.
1:46.8-1:46 (up and comer)
1:46-1:45: 15k
1:45-1:44: 18k
1:44-1:43: 24k
1:43-1:42: 28k
1:42-1:40: 35k
could this work and solve all the problems.