Craig Masback, the CEO of USA Track & Field, popped in on the USATF Masters Track & Field Committee meeting this morning, and took a bunch of questions in his 50-minute venture onto geezer turf. I give him credit for dealing straight with us, even if it meant telling masters that we weren’t likely to get more money unless we raised it ourselves. But he still held out hope that we could squeeze USATF for more dime if the masters make requests for specific money for specific programs — something that could occur as early as Friday morning.

I started by asking him whether the much-ballyhooed USATF Foundation had given the masters program any cash. Masback replied, “The foundation has yet to give money to anyone.” Further, “I’m not aware that (the) masters (committee) has asked for money.”
Masback later stressed that if anyone gave the foundation a chunk of change and specified it would go to USATF Masters — that’s where it would go.
But he described the foundation as “aggressively independent” — and said USATF would have to compete for grants against any other group that sought funding — even groups outside of USA Track & Field — because “the foundation takes a broad view of our sport.”
And Masback dropped the name of George Mathews for the first of at least a half-dozen times, saying the incumbent chairman (who later was re-elected) “insisted” that the foundation’s mission statement include a mention of masters track. Masback also said the foundation may start doling out money beginning with its February 2005 meeting.
My second question was about the recent, pathetic USATF annual allocation to Masters Track & Field — $32,000 in recent years.
Masback said, “I know it’s been a concern because George made it a concern” (leading some listeners to wonder how Mathews signed up Masback as his campaign cheerleader). “The budget allocation has been made on historic precedent — rather than the number (designed) from the ground up.”
He confessed that “$32,000 doesn’t sound like a lot,” but that “we barely break even — or (may even) lose money — on every member” — based on their $15 or $20 annual membership fee. But he said the USATF Budget Committee on Wednesday told the USATF governing board that a restructuring of the fee system is in order, especially after having surveyed the fee structures of other sports and having found that $40 was about the lowest annual fee around.
USA Swimming, for example, raised $5 million by upping its membership fee a dollar a year for five years for its 250,000 members, Masback said. USATF has about 80,000 members and could possibly add $200,000 to masters coffers if the fees were bumped. He said it would be necessary to “sell people on what we’ll do with the (extra) money.”
Later in the day, as Masters Treasurer Frank Lulich discussed the 2005 budget (which also included other revenue sources for a total of nearly $56,000), the news emerged that George Mathews was going to appeal to the USATF Budget Committee on Friday morning for a bigger allocation than $32,000. Other masters officials told me privately that Mathews had to be pushed to hit up the Budget Committee for more dough. D’oh!
Harry Brooks, who later would take third in masters chair voting, asked Masback why the USATF Web site couldn’t host a Masters Listserve — a forum for communicating with masters by email. Masback recalled how in 1997, when he was first hired as CEO, many groups (since defunct) had tried to sell USATF on various Web site solutions. But USATF decided to shun those offers, he said, and “grow organically — a slow process, probably too slow a process…. It’s still not perfect, not fast enough… Maybe a Listserve would help.”
Again Masback dropped the name: “George (Mathews) has been very tough on us with respect to this issue.”
When track webmaster Andy Hecker pointed out that USATF webmaster Keith Lively had been slow to act on masters complaints about the inscrutable Web site, Masback said, “When the issue surfaced (on linking to the USATF Masters rankings, for example), “we gave in (and linked up) — because it’s the right thing to do.”
When Hecker pointed to other lack of progress on the masters Web site, Masback asked Hecker for the original email Hecker had shipped to Lively. “Send that letter to me,” Masback instructed.
On the issue of corporate sponsors, Masback was blunt: “Let me be frank with you. Your numbers do not blow people out of the water.” He cited national masters outdoor meets that have attracted as few as 1,000 entrants in recent years. “Masters track and field is great for (inspirational) imaging, but we’re not delivering a great number of masters athletes.”
Masback noted that if Masters T&F brought “a sponsor to the table,” Nike (a major USATF underwriter) has a “right of refusal.” In other words, if the masters sponsor was in competition with Nike, by contractual obligation USATF would first let Nike decide if it would pony up the money for masters.
Masback thus seemed to be saying to USATF Masters it has the power to hire its own fund-raiser — an apparent shift in the policy that sponsor-hunting was strictly the purview of the USATF marketing department.
“I pledge to you: If you bring in $200,000 for sponsorship (and has no administrative cost to USATF’s home office in Indianapolis), that $200,000 will go straight to masters.”
Masback also dropped a little new bomblet, saying that Michelob Ultra and the new masters sports magazine GeezerJock might soon join BenGay as a Masters track and field sponsor, perhaps paying the cost of an athletes’ party at indoor nationals. He said the “greatest untapped (marketing) oportunity in American sports” is masters long-distance running — for its educated and affluent baby boomer demographics and because Runner’s World magazine has a bigger audience than golf and skiing magazines.
Asked why the masters track movement has stagnated in numbers, Masback offered a couple theories: There are some other organizations (such as the Senior Olympic circuit) that siphon people off. And he gave what he called his “non-PC” answer: “It’s much harder to be a track athlete than a road racer.”