Some athletes and former employees within the USA Track & Field community are "alarmed and dismayed" by what they see as USATF CEO Max Siegel’s "soaring pay, lavish spending and unethical nonprofit leadership," according to Hobson & Rich of the WASHINGTON POST. Interviews with more than 40 people who have worked with USATF and a review of hundreds of pages of documents and emails paint Siegel as a "polarizing figure." Seven of those interviewed "had direct knowledge of the organization’s financial records." Most former employees "spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution from Siegel, who once sent a text message to a retired Olympic athlete in which he said he would '(expletive) anyone up that goes after me personally.'" Under Siegel’s watch, USATF has "awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of business to an Indianapolis marketing firm that once advertised itself as 'a Max Siegel company.'" Former employees said that while a prior USATF CEO "only flew coach, Siegel regularly flies first class, recently used a private jet and stays in luxury hotels." Siegel "initially agreed to an interview for this story then canceled and designated" USATF CMO Jill Geer to speak on his behalf. Geer "denied that Siegel has benefitted personally in any way" from USATF's work with his business associates. Siegel’s travel habits "are approved" by USATF's BOD, which this year is paying Siegel $1.7M in salary and bonuses. USATF BOD Chair Steve Miller "defended Siegel’s compensation and perks as necessary to retain the most successful deal-maker in the nonprofit’s history." He said, "Max has done a spectacular job." But former USATF BOD Counsel David Greifinger said, "We’ve got athletes who are struggling to make ends meet to stay in the sport, and meanwhile we have a CEO who is living lavishly. That’s not leadership. That’s Marie Antoinette."
INSIDE THE NIKE DEAL: Hobson & Rich noted Siegel in '14 announced a 23-year "sponsorship agreement with Nike worth a reported" $500M. Miller said that the idea to approach Nike "did not come from Siegel," but from former Nike execs Adam Helfant and Chris Bevilacqua. Miller added that Helfant and Bevilacqua "led negotiations" for USATF on the deal. USATF's '14 990 tax form showed that the organization "paid their firm," Bevilacqua Helfant Ventures, $505,000 as part of $23.75M in commission payments due through '39. Some Olympic athletes "expressed dismay upon learning that the Nike deal -- which some already saw as favorable to Nike -- was negotiated by two former Nike executives collecting a sizable commission and not Siegel." Several former employees said that under the leadership of Siegel and COO Renee Washington, the office environment "has become authoritarian and tense" (WASHINGTON POST, 10/8). Geer in a statement said, “We are confident that our actions, and those of our board and management, have been conducted in accordance with our bylaws and disclosure requirements" (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 10/9).
MORE TO THE STORY? 3 WIRE SPORTS' Alan Abrahamson wrote if the point of the Washington Post story is that Siegel is "flying up front while American athletes are sitting in the back," someone should "call USA Swimming and ask if the entire team ... flew to Rio on Mark Cuban’s private jet." At the world indoor championships in March in Portland, Siegel "for sure stayed at The Nines hotel," but so did the "senior executives of track and field’s world governing body," the IAAF. One of the "basics of the USATF top guy’s job is to forge and to maintain a constructive working relationship with IAAF leaders." Siegel's "compensation package, loaded with performance bonuses that pushed his package" to $1.7M also was "approved by the USATF board of directors." USATF competes for sponsorship dollars "against the four primary major leagues and the roughly 30 teams in each league," so to suggest that Siegel’s compensation package "should somehow be measured against a 'typical non-profit' just misses the mark" (3WIRESPORTS.com, 10/7).
