USATF Crippling Part 2

U.S. 800 meter champion Nick Symmonds is taking on governing bodies USATF and the IAAF, saying they are crippling the sport. Symmonds wants to bring in more sponsors to the sport of track and field, but he feels the current logo regulations that are in place are preventing that.

"It's unfair and I think the free market system would allow some of these injustices to be worked out and allow athletes to pursue alternate sources of income," Symmonds told KVAL Sports.

As it stands right now, the IAAF and USA Track and Field allow just two sponsorship logos to appear on athletes clothing at any competition site governed by either of the two organizations. Symmonds wants that changed in order to grow the sport and he thinks he has a solution.

"I propose four to six inches of skin be allowed to market to corporate sponsors and perhaps four to six inches on the back of a jersey," said Symmonds. "The backs of jerseys have no corporate sponsors right now and that's prime real estate for advertising."

Symmonds contends that the current rules are crippling track and field because they limit how many sponsors an athlete can have. That means less money in the pockets of the athletes.

"There's thousands of companies out there that would love an opportunity to advertise in track and field," said Symmonds. "But as it now they're not able to because they're not a clothing manufacturing company and they're not allowed to have their corporate image displayed anywhere on an athlete during competition."

"It's not just the USATF and the athletes," said USATF spokesperson Jill Geer. "The apparel companies are very much a part of it also. Until you get everyone in the room at the same time talking to each other, there are an infinite number of possibilities for ways to work with each other and hopefully a couple of those can stick."

That could happen in early December when the Athletes Advisory Committee will meet with the USATF and the apparel companies to attempt to find a solution.

"If everyone approaches it with an open mind, there's no reason why we can't come up with something that works for everyone," said Geer.

"There's some athletes out there who don't land shoe deals right out of college and they need the chance to pursue their Olympic dream as well," said Symmonds. "If they're not going to land a shoe sponsorship, then they should be allowed to go to any business out there that has an interest in track and field and would like to invest dollars in the growth of the sport."

Location : "http://www.kval.com/sports/local/134089273.html?tab=video&c=y&fb_source=message"

USA Track and Field "Stop Crippling"

Recently, Nick Symmonds has attracted alot of media attention with his campaign to challenge the national and international governing bodies of track & field to “stop crippling” the sport by limiting an athlete’s ability to feature the logos of multiple sponsors on the competition uniform. This raises a bigger, more general question about the marketing and promotion of the sport that USATF addressed this week in a move that has, itself, has gained a lot of attention.

After years of issues and difficulty between the governing body of USATF and the Athletes themselves, the athletes are starting to take actions. With the very minimal commercials lately and drastic drop in popularity of the sport, officials at USA Track & Field have decided to take a new approach by hiring an external firm to restructure its marketing and communications efforts. Some have questioned the way they went about hiring Max Siegel Inc., as well as the potential conflicts of interest with the principal, Max Siegel, being a recently departed board member. Still, the more important question for USATF members and athletes is, can this move finally put track back on the map?

You don’t have to be a professional track & field athlete or even a serious fan to know that the marketing and promotion of the sport and its stars has been a challenge of late. Gone are the days of national advertising campaigns that featured our sports biggest names. With the exception of one or two international athletes, the average citizen wouldn’t the recognize images of America’s track stars, even when they consistently top the podium in major competitions.
Four-time world champion and Olympic gold medalist Dwight Phillips, he said he is optimistic that any change is good change.

“I think it’s going to work. When I travel to other countries what I notice is that no matter if someone is a runner or a thrower, if they’re winning they are on everything. The more the public sees us out there, the more interested they will become in watching and supporting us.” While Dwight did mention that moving toward the NASCAR blueprint of numerous sponsorships for individuals would give us a shot at the earning potential of other professional athletes, he also concedes, “We’ve got to start somewhere, this is a positive step.”

Following Post came from here:
http://blog.gotracktownusa.com/2011/10/24/dwight-phillips-weighs-in-on-usatfs-bold-bid-for-change/

Nick Symmonds created a Facebook group about crippling Track & Field:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/groups/162889787132224/

Nick Symmonds FULL Argument:
http://www.flotrack.org/blog/38650-Im-Tired-of-USATF-and-IAAF-Crippling-Our-Sport