What Do You Say?

 What Do You Think Can Make Track and Field Better?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. List at least 4 things USATF could do today that doesn’t take money to improve the sport

D writes: “Being on the elite level of things I am acutely aware that 99% of the things WE can do to improve the sport will take money in some way shape or form.  I am sure some grass roots people have better ideas and thoughts on this than I do”.

 

Ken writes: “A. Add a search engine to usatf.org. The site has vast resources — but many great sources of information are buried in its bowels.
B. Move to online voting for a “sense of the track community” — in advance of the annual meeting. Handful of delegates don’t possess all wisdom.
C. List incomes of all professional track athletes — to show the sport is worth pursuing as a livelihood.
D. Survey other Olympic sports for “best practices.”  We could learn a lot if we tried”.

2. List 4 things they could do today with up to 200,000 dollars to improve the sport

D writes: “I am not sure how much these things will take.  What WE can do to improve the sport is advertise and have a viable marketing plan.  Not necessarily TV time, just exposure.  We cannot keep relying on high school parents, and word of mouth to get people to meets.  Street teams, radio announcements, occassional personalities to support the various meets.
We definitely need to get brand recognition at the elite level.  We are healthy at the high school level, the college levels, and even the big relay meets we have, but it all falls down beyond that.
That 200k should go towards a position in Indy for a domestic czar whose sole purpose is to market the sport”.  

 

3. What is your dream list for USATF to help improve and grow the sport of Track and Field

D writes: “My dream is one solitary wish, to have a real marketing department that is working to grow the sports profile on the American landscape”.

 

Cheryl writes : I wish USATF would stop allowing somebody else to do their job,shoe companies,vitamin companies.Find people to grow the sport that love it so much they would promote track payment or no?? Stop doing business as it has been done to long already.  Integrate all of track and field (Youth through the Masters) at high profile  may be just a race or two for each meet. Show the world that you can be a track and field star at any age this is the ultimate  forever sport and the beauty of track and field . Watching all ages is inspiring to everyone and I believe it would go very far to reaching out the genral public. Everyone has run at some point in their life, this sport can be relateable on many levels . Lastly stop blaming the elite athletes for all the woes of Track and Field, better support and guidance of America’s finest need to be a major goal. Highlight and make public interest  of more of the athletes not just 5 or 6. We have many more great talented athlete than the small number few even know thew name of. Marketing  is King.  

4. Do you think the youth program of USATF could be improved to serve the children and developing elite athletes better? If so how?

D writes “ I am of the belief that all grass roots prgrams should be separate from USAT USATFs main responsibility should be to the elite level program, I believe this for all NGBs.  It is too much of an undertaking for USATF to manage all levels of the sport especially in the US where we have 100s of thousands if not up to a million participants at the age group level.  The demands for youth programs is different from the elite level which requires a different set of rules, and causes conflicts up the chain.  And we have not talked about budgets”.

Cheryl writes: Provide better cohesive leadership in the youth ranks,share best practices, have a standard to run regions. I guess this can be hard with all volunteers and parents but USATF should overhaul the proigram and make it more unified. Provide a best practices manual, hold accountable regions for poor performances  by that region based on set criteria.  Better web presence and information on web sites. Utilize local non-profit advertising to actively promote the sport . 

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