Doug Logan fights back, sues USATF for wrongful termination
Doug Logan
M65 pink-slipper Doug Logan isn’t going quietly into the night. Yesterday he sued USATF, and Prez Stephanie Hightower issued this statement: “Today, former CEO Doug Logan filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against USATF, which we have anticipated for the last few weeks. USATF looks forward to the resolution of the lawsuit, which we vigorously will defend against. The filing of this suit and its ultimate resolution will not affect USATF and how we serve the sport. Although we cannot speak to the specifics of pending litigation, we can assure you that USATF is open for business and more committed than ever to achieving our strategic goals and serving all our constituents.” Lots of snarky comments on the letsrun.commessage board. Time for a poll!
This will be a very expensive “firing” for USATF. Money that should be spent on the sport will be spent on legal fees and for buying off Doug Logan.
I am waiting for dues to go up and money that allegedly was to go for masters to suddenly disappear.
The next thing we are likely to hear is that USATF is broke and filing for bankruptcy.
engineer - October 21, 2010
Unfortunately I think that Mary is going to be correct here that this is going to be a huge financial drain on USATF, with the additional “issue” of being bad publicity for the sport, leading to reduced sponsorship money.
Not much that can be done at this time by the rank-and-file, other than waiting this out and seeing what is left at the end.
Got to make you wonder what the USOC is thinking now … could this eventually lead to decertification of USATF by USOC if USATF?
engineer - October 21, 2010
Sorry … hit reply too quick.
Got to make you wonder what the USOC is thinking now … could this eventually lead to decertification of USATF by USOC if USATF comes totally unglued?
Scott Hannay - October 21, 2010
Is it just me??, or have I seen NOTHING GOOD come out of the USATF’s new regime in the past year???
I hope that Logan’s suit exposes the bunch of screw-ups that exist at USATF. The lame proposals, the idiotic newsletter and blogs, I just can’t take it. I would like to know what our Association leaders were thinking, when they voted for these people. Relatively- famous athletes do not always make good leaders and administrators. I am hoping for a BIG Shake up this December. I will certainly be asking our local association reps to demand answers and changes.
When you feel the need to reassure others that there is no problem, guess what, you have a problem.
Milton Girouard - October 21, 2010
The USATF seems to only be interested in promoting and looking out for themselves at the National offices. Track and Field in the United States is poorly marketed, advertised and generally promoted as a sport and that’s the way they like it. It’s pathetic to see world class athletes make little or no money, as when two time Olympic
Silver medalist in the shot put, Adam Nelson competed in a T-shirt that read, “Space for Rent” when he threw trying to find a financial sponser, sending a message that T&F governing bodies treat their athletes as the beggers and the homeless of the sports world in the USA. Billions of dollars are made in profits by the hosting country of the Olympic games. NBC makes a mint off of their coverage of the Olympics and what does the athlete get? A McDonalds happy meal at Athlete Village and if their lucky a medal, if not, a coach seat plane ticket back home… that’s it. With all the athletes you see in the Winter and Summer games seeking and recieving dual citizenships to compete for another country other than their own because they had a relative two or three generations ago that was of that nationality, ect. I say why not have the USA elite athletes do that as well and compete for overseas countries that might give a damn and help finance them properly to train, compete and earn a a little change while doing so. Could you imagine Bob Costas and his NBC’s coverage when the USA is 11th or 12th in the T&F medal count trying to explain why the USA has no more elite athletes? If a guy can make millions promoting the “Sham Wow” on a 30 second spot on television, You would think a marketing organization can figure out how to properly promote T&F to sports fans and get people excited about it. Don’t think it can happen? Not enough interest? B.S.! Some of the best sports promotion was done on an old show called ABC’s Wide World of Sports and was one of my favorite shows in the 1970’s. I watched in awe cliff divers leap to their apparant deaths only to show their grace and perfect concentration. I watched interestingly at athlete profiles, like of weightlifter Vasili Alexeyev in his Russian home, Rock Climber Ron Kauk and his lifestyle, climbing and living in Yosemite Valley, Ca. I even enjoyed the Ice Skating Barrel jumpers that is no longer competed. Think about it, ABC was actually able to promoted barrel jumping to the USA audience when it was primarily a European sport. Don’t tell me it can’t be done for T&F in this country. No USATF…No big deal!
As a non-profit, do we have pro-bono legal services? I doubt it. We will pay the equivalent of the entire Masters budget on a few hours of legal fees. And that is before we come to the settlement. Do you think they will divide the loss equally against all factions (yes I choose that word deliberately when involved with USATF) of the organization? Since high performance athletes are the lion’s share of the budget, will they take the lion’s share of this loss from their money maker? I doubt it. We’ll go through all this bleep because some people have to play power politics.
Vance Jacobson - October 21, 2010
Has (or is it still?) USATF become an organization to advance individual goals and egos versus serve the common interest of the sport? USATF should be in the business of customer service and for the most part it is, with the support of thousands of selfless volunteers and athletes who give effort and pay good money to sustain the sport. USATF leadership needs to gain a better understanding of its customers – maybe even to understand who the customers are. What little I have seen is that Mssrs. Logan, Harvey, Perkins (WMA) and others are at least out with the people – the customers. Ms. Hightower. Never seen her in public. That observation, in and of itself, reveals some disfunction. Shades of the old AAU.
Randy Wilson - October 22, 2010
Milton,
As Judge Chamberlain Haller said in My Cousin Vinny “That is a lucid, intelligent, well thought-out objection”.
I’ve never met anyone that’s not fascinated by the hammer throw when standing next to the cage. The trouble is getting them there. Track meets are like water polo and volley ball, unless you are related to someone and compelled to attend it’s tough to draw a crowd.
Milton Girouard - October 22, 2010
Randy, You’re absolutley correct as T&F stands now, but if you have a governing body or organization like the NFL , NBA, ect. that markets the player, as well as the team and sport, fans can get some appreciation for the athletes themselves and then build a sort of “cult” following to bring out spectators for the athlete themself and/or the event they compete in. I also don’t agree with publicizing T&F as a whole when marketing it on TV. too many events with too many different styles of athletism. I would like to see it more event segmented when advertised, like having say, just USA throwing event athletes, Males and Females televised in a one hour special like they do before a big MMA fight, with clips of them training, their personalities and competing with camera’s up close and personal, as you stated well about the hammer throw, on Cable Stations like Versus, which is geared more to males and jocks in general of both sexes. Then you could have certain Womens events doing these same bios and clips for LDR but let’s say on, The Oxygen channel, ect. For more of a female backing that may be more fitness oriented. That’s where a smart marketing media group would help tremendously for T&F. Also break up the coverage of televised T&F events so I’m not having the camera go from long jump for 30 seconds, to shot put for 15 seconds, showing the thrower from the waist up only ( huge pet peeve, can’t see full technique!), then to the 200 meters where I’m watching the athletes stretch and psych themselves up longer than it takes to run the race, ect. Example of my idea of televising T&F would be, Day 1, just sprints and middle distance. Day 2, Long Distance, Day 3, Long jump, triple jump, high jump and pole vault. Day 4, Throws, ect. Now an audience can sit down and fully enjoy their favorite events with Commentators on that day that were former champs in those events, coaches or well versed in that specific event day. Then maybe a middle distance fan would sneak a peak to a thrower day programming and may get more of an appreciation of throwing events because they are being explained with throwing knowledgable commentators what to look for, technique, athlete feuds with one another, best friends who train together, ect. and being filmed properly to get a few full body angles with 200 frame per second cameras. It also wouldn’t hurt to have some of our athletes showcase a bit of their personalities which really was a huge draw in the 1970’s-80’s with bigger than life athletes such as Steve Prefontaine, Brian Oldfield, the back and forth between Mac Wilkins and John Powell, High Jumper Dwight Stones, The chill dudeness of Al Feuerbach. We now know nothing of the personalities of our T&F athletes of today, bad, good or indifferent which is a huge reason why folks don’t tune in to watch or go see a meet in person. Have grudge match type of events like Bolt Vs. Gay in the 100m. ect. but not just in that race, but in other races and field events at one meet. The more we see of them on TV, in print ect. the more the public will identify. That then means the more athletes would need to evetually get paid and organize a real union. That also means the USATF or USOC would have to really work for a living and to tell you the truth, I think the’re both happy being behind the scenes with what they make for a living in-turn for the lack luster effort they put forth in promoting the athletes and sport they are entrusted to watch over.
Milton Girouard - October 26, 2010
Here is a perfect example of an Athletic organization and country taking advantage of T&F athletes and other Olympic style sports athletes to benefit financially in the Billions with disregard of the athletes safety. This needs to stop NOW! http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20101026/wl_time/08599202734900
Ken has followed track as an athlete, writer and web-master since the late 1960s, and saw most sessions of track and field at the 1984 Los Angeles and 1996 Atlanta Olympics. He also attended the 1988, 1992, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Trials, the last three as a blogger and Patch correspondent. [More...]
11 Responses
This will be a very expensive “firing” for USATF. Money that should be spent on the sport will be spent on legal fees and for buying off Doug Logan.
I am waiting for dues to go up and money that allegedly was to go for masters to suddenly disappear.
The next thing we are likely to hear is that USATF is broke and filing for bankruptcy.
Unfortunately I think that Mary is going to be correct here that this is going to be a huge financial drain on USATF, with the additional “issue” of being bad publicity for the sport, leading to reduced sponsorship money.
Not much that can be done at this time by the rank-and-file, other than waiting this out and seeing what is left at the end.
Got to make you wonder what the USOC is thinking now … could this eventually lead to decertification of USATF by USOC if USATF?
Sorry … hit reply too quick.
Got to make you wonder what the USOC is thinking now … could this eventually lead to decertification of USATF by USOC if USATF comes totally unglued?
Is it just me??, or have I seen NOTHING GOOD come out of the USATF’s new regime in the past year???
I hope that Logan’s suit exposes the bunch of screw-ups that exist at USATF. The lame proposals, the idiotic newsletter and blogs, I just can’t take it. I would like to know what our Association leaders were thinking, when they voted for these people. Relatively- famous athletes do not always make good leaders and administrators. I am hoping for a BIG Shake up this December. I will certainly be asking our local association reps to demand answers and changes.
When you feel the need to reassure others that there is no problem, guess what, you have a problem.
The USATF seems to only be interested in promoting and looking out for themselves at the National offices. Track and Field in the United States is poorly marketed, advertised and generally promoted as a sport and that’s the way they like it. It’s pathetic to see world class athletes make little or no money, as when two time Olympic
Silver medalist in the shot put, Adam Nelson competed in a T-shirt that read, “Space for Rent” when he threw trying to find a financial sponser, sending a message that T&F governing bodies treat their athletes as the beggers and the homeless of the sports world in the USA. Billions of dollars are made in profits by the hosting country of the Olympic games. NBC makes a mint off of their coverage of the Olympics and what does the athlete get? A McDonalds happy meal at Athlete Village and if their lucky a medal, if not, a coach seat plane ticket back home… that’s it. With all the athletes you see in the Winter and Summer games seeking and recieving dual citizenships to compete for another country other than their own because they had a relative two or three generations ago that was of that nationality, ect. I say why not have the USA elite athletes do that as well and compete for overseas countries that might give a damn and help finance them properly to train, compete and earn a a little change while doing so. Could you imagine Bob Costas and his NBC’s coverage when the USA is 11th or 12th in the T&F medal count trying to explain why the USA has no more elite athletes? If a guy can make millions promoting the “Sham Wow” on a 30 second spot on television, You would think a marketing organization can figure out how to properly promote T&F to sports fans and get people excited about it. Don’t think it can happen? Not enough interest? B.S.! Some of the best sports promotion was done on an old show called ABC’s Wide World of Sports and was one of my favorite shows in the 1970’s. I watched in awe cliff divers leap to their apparant deaths only to show their grace and perfect concentration. I watched interestingly at athlete profiles, like of weightlifter Vasili Alexeyev in his Russian home, Rock Climber Ron Kauk and his lifestyle, climbing and living in Yosemite Valley, Ca. I even enjoyed the Ice Skating Barrel jumpers that is no longer competed. Think about it, ABC was actually able to promoted barrel jumping to the USA audience when it was primarily a European sport. Don’t tell me it can’t be done for T&F in this country. No USATF…No big deal!
As a non-profit, do we have pro-bono legal services? I doubt it. We will pay the equivalent of the entire Masters budget on a few hours of legal fees. And that is before we come to the settlement. Do you think they will divide the loss equally against all factions (yes I choose that word deliberately when involved with USATF) of the organization? Since high performance athletes are the lion’s share of the budget, will they take the lion’s share of this loss from their money maker? I doubt it. We’ll go through all this bleep because some people have to play power politics.
Has (or is it still?) USATF become an organization to advance individual goals and egos versus serve the common interest of the sport? USATF should be in the business of customer service and for the most part it is, with the support of thousands of selfless volunteers and athletes who give effort and pay good money to sustain the sport. USATF leadership needs to gain a better understanding of its customers – maybe even to understand who the customers are. What little I have seen is that Mssrs. Logan, Harvey, Perkins (WMA) and others are at least out with the people – the customers. Ms. Hightower. Never seen her in public. That observation, in and of itself, reveals some disfunction. Shades of the old AAU.
Milton,
As Judge Chamberlain Haller said in My Cousin Vinny “That is a lucid, intelligent, well thought-out objection”.
I’ve never met anyone that’s not fascinated by the hammer throw when standing next to the cage. The trouble is getting them there. Track meets are like water polo and volley ball, unless you are related to someone and compelled to attend it’s tough to draw a crowd.
Randy, You’re absolutley correct as T&F stands now, but if you have a governing body or organization like the NFL , NBA, ect. that markets the player, as well as the team and sport, fans can get some appreciation for the athletes themselves and then build a sort of “cult” following to bring out spectators for the athlete themself and/or the event they compete in. I also don’t agree with publicizing T&F as a whole when marketing it on TV. too many events with too many different styles of athletism. I would like to see it more event segmented when advertised, like having say, just USA throwing event athletes, Males and Females televised in a one hour special like they do before a big MMA fight, with clips of them training, their personalities and competing with camera’s up close and personal, as you stated well about the hammer throw, on Cable Stations like Versus, which is geared more to males and jocks in general of both sexes. Then you could have certain Womens events doing these same bios and clips for LDR but let’s say on, The Oxygen channel, ect. For more of a female backing that may be more fitness oriented. That’s where a smart marketing media group would help tremendously for T&F. Also break up the coverage of televised T&F events so I’m not having the camera go from long jump for 30 seconds, to shot put for 15 seconds, showing the thrower from the waist up only ( huge pet peeve, can’t see full technique!), then to the 200 meters where I’m watching the athletes stretch and psych themselves up longer than it takes to run the race, ect. Example of my idea of televising T&F would be, Day 1, just sprints and middle distance. Day 2, Long Distance, Day 3, Long jump, triple jump, high jump and pole vault. Day 4, Throws, ect. Now an audience can sit down and fully enjoy their favorite events with Commentators on that day that were former champs in those events, coaches or well versed in that specific event day. Then maybe a middle distance fan would sneak a peak to a thrower day programming and may get more of an appreciation of throwing events because they are being explained with throwing knowledgable commentators what to look for, technique, athlete feuds with one another, best friends who train together, ect. and being filmed properly to get a few full body angles with 200 frame per second cameras. It also wouldn’t hurt to have some of our athletes showcase a bit of their personalities which really was a huge draw in the 1970’s-80’s with bigger than life athletes such as Steve Prefontaine, Brian Oldfield, the back and forth between Mac Wilkins and John Powell, High Jumper Dwight Stones, The chill dudeness of Al Feuerbach. We now know nothing of the personalities of our T&F athletes of today, bad, good or indifferent which is a huge reason why folks don’t tune in to watch or go see a meet in person. Have grudge match type of events like Bolt Vs. Gay in the 100m. ect. but not just in that race, but in other races and field events at one meet. The more we see of them on TV, in print ect. the more the public will identify. That then means the more athletes would need to evetually get paid and organize a real union. That also means the USATF or USOC would have to really work for a living and to tell you the truth, I think the’re both happy being behind the scenes with what they make for a living in-turn for the lack luster effort they put forth in promoting the athletes and sport they are entrusted to watch over.
Here is a perfect example of an Athletic organization and country taking advantage of T&F athletes and other Olympic style sports athletes to benefit financially in the Billions with disregard of the athletes safety. This needs to stop NOW! http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20101026/wl_time/08599202734900
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