USATF Lays Off 11% Of Work Force; CEO Takes Salary Cut

USA Track & Field cut seven of its 65 employees yesterday, and CEO Max Siegel took a 20% pay reduction himself in cost-cutting moves amid a pandemic-related revenue decline. All of the cuts come in divisions that support live events, Siegel said. USATF sanctions 8,000 events a year, but since early March, all of them have been postponed or canceled. Financial and other support to elite athletes is unaffected by the cuts.

With sponsorship and USOPC funding making up 78% of its budget, USATF is less reliant on the income generated by grassroots events on a week-to-week basis than many other NGBs. But the cuts hit “functional areas where there’s really no work” Siegel said. USATF’s '18 revenue was $33.4M. No other employees besides himself were asked to take pay cuts. Siegel had been making $1.2M annually in '17, according to the most recent publicly available tax filings.