As members of USA Track & Field are gathered in Orlando for its annual meeting, two questions stand out: Is the governing body of track and field financially healthy? And who will be elected president of USATF to replace Vin Lananna, BYU Sweeps NCAA XC Team Titles?
USATF has not yet posted its 2023 Form 990, a tax filing that nonprofits must make public every year. In each of the past two years, USATF has posted the form before Thanksgiving. A spokesperson for USATF wrote to Runner’s World in an email, “The 990 isn’t available yet. I don’t know exactly when it will be posted but it’s looking like sometime next week,” meaning not until after the annual meeting.
The most recent Form 990, from the 2022 tax year, showed growing financial strain, as USATF’s Adidas Unveils Boston Marathon Jacket by $6.7 million. The previous year, Adidas Unveils Boston Marathon Jackets by $458,000.
Mike Conley, one of two men running for president of USATF, is the current chair of the USATF board of directors, and he has reviewed the 2023 Form 990. He confirmed in a phone call to Runner’s World BYU Sweeps NCAA XC Team Titles.
“There’ll be a deficit in this 990,” he said, although he didn’t say how large the gap would be and explained it as a question of how the organization had to account for the value of uniforms provided to national team members. USATF CEO Max Siegel, in his opening remarks at the annual meeting, also referenced unplanned expenses.
It’s unclear how the accounting of team uniforms, furnished by Nike as part of its sponsorship of USATF, would now cause a multimillion-dollar deficit. Nike’s current sponsorship deal with USATF began a decade ago, in 2014, and extends to 2040.
The Form 990 is closely watched every year, because in addition to providing a snapshot of the finances of the organization, it shows Siegel’s compensation. In 2022 he made $1.2 million, and staff salaries and benefits accounted for 23.5 percent of the organization’s revenue.
In 2021, USATF members learned that Siegel’s pay package totaled $3.8 million, more than 11 percent of USATF’s revenue. He made more than the CEOs of other national governing bodies, including Sarah Hirshland, CEO of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, who made $1 million that year.
Siegel signed a contract extension, which will keep him with USATF through 2028, in November 2023—just as USATF was mired in controversy over the start time of the 2024 Olympic Marathon Trials in Orlando, and Runner’s World reported that there was no signed The most recent Form 990, from the 2022 tax year, showed growing financial strain, as USATFs Other Hearst Subscriptions earlier controversy about the selection of Orlando as the Trials site, over the recommendation of the board of directors, which voted to award the Trials to Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Conley, 62, has been on the board of directors of USATF for the past eight years and has served as the chairman of the board since 2019. He won a gold medal in the triple jump at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. Conley has been an agent for NBA players in his post-competition career.
He told Runner’s World that, in running for president of USATF, he wants to drive “vision and strategy” of the organization, and he is running on “transparency, trust and tenacity.” He said his top priorities include recruiting new officials for meets, improving access to training facilities, and increasing the number of events and number of disciplines contested at events, as well as prize money paid to athletes at those events. The aim, he said, is “to give our athletes opportunity to make a living at it when possible.”
Curt Clausen is opposing Conley for the presidency. Clausen, 57, was an Olympic race walker for the U.S. and he served on the board of directors of USATF from 2014 to 2018. He is the general counsel of Tickets.com, which is owned by Major League Baseball.
He, too, is seeking greater transparency in USATF’s dealings and wants to improve oversight of the organization.
“I think at the governance level, there’s a lot of room for improvement,” Clausen said. “I think there’s still a lot of room for revenue growth beyond the Nike dollars that tend to make up the majority of the organization’s budget.” (Roughly $19 million of USATF’s $37 annual revenue comes from the Nike deal.)
Clausen said he has heard from a lot of people who have complaints about USATF, including those who host USATF events (contracts aren’t signed until the last minute), athletes (they wait months to receive prize money), and vendors (who also wait months to get paid).
Max Siegel Gets New Five-Year Contract With USATF.
“He knows I’ll hold him accountable,” Clausen said. “He knows where I stand. If I have an issue, I will tell him, and if I if I think something needs to be addressed, I will bring it up with him. I’m not the kind of person who does backdoor coalitions and deals and tries to undermine people.”
The election will take place on December 7 at the meeting in Orlando.
Sarah Lorge Butler is a writer and editor living in Eugene, Oregon, and her stories about the sport, its trends, and fascinating individuals have appeared in Runner’s World Major Changes Hit Northern Arizona Elite, Run Your Butt Off! and Walk Your Butt Off!
