USATF CEO Masback leaves for Nike

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USATF CEO Masback leaves for Nike

Unread postby rainbowgirl28 » Wed Jan 09, 2008 8:12 pm

http://www.usatf.org/news/view.aspx?DUI ... 9_14_41_46

Masback to leave USATF after 10 years of service, will join Nike in Global Business Affairs role
01-09-2008

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Jill Geer
Director of Communications
USA Track & Field
317-713-4663
INDIANAPOLIS - USA Track & Field CEO Craig A. Masback is departing USATF after leading the organization for more than 10 years, USATF President Bill Roe announced Wednesday. Masback will become Director of Business Affairs for Nike's Global Sports Marketing Division and will transition to his new position over coming weeks and months.

In his decade of service as CEO of USATF, Masback has helped oversee the rebirth of the organization. Shortly after taking over as CEO, Masback and USATF established the nationally televised Visa Championship Series and began an Elite Athlete Services Department that revolutionized governing body/athlete relations. Masback also worked with the organization's Board of Directors to institute one of the sporting world's first "Zero Tolerance" anti-doping policies, and vastly expanded the grass-roots services provided by the National Office. Since 1997, Team USA also has steadily seen its medal tally at World Championships and Olympic Games grow from an average of 17-19 to 25 medals or more at the last Olympics and last two World Championships.

"Craig has been a great leader of our sport," said Roe. "As a former athlete, he understood what would make a difference for our athletes and coaches. As a businessman and lawyer, he helped professionalize our operation at every level. We wish him well at Nike."

"I have said from Day 1 that this has been my dream job," said Masback, who was hired in July 1997. "Leading the organization out of financial difficulty, convincing new sponsors to come on board, establishing new events and TV properties, finding new partners, expanding our programs on the grass roots level and tackling the challenges presented by doping have been immensely challenging and, ultimately, immensely rewarding. I couldn't have done it without the work of a dedicated staff and the enthusiasm and expertise of our volunteer community. After 10 years, it's time for me to embrace a new challenge."

Record growth

Masback oversaw 10 years of rapid growth and development within USA Track & Field as an organization and across the sport of track and field nationwide. Among the significant milestones and developments:

* Growth of the annual USATF budget from $6.7 million (1997) to more than $17 million (2008), fueled by a significant expansion of sponsor revenues. This allowed USATF to eliminate a $3.2 million deficit and establish net assets in excess of $3.3 at the end of 2007.

* Establishment of the Visa Championship Series (formerly the Golden Spike Tour) in 1999. The Visa Championship Series has provided USATF's professional athletes with quality domestic competitions, significant prize money and increased visibility via coverage in over 100 TV programs on NBC, CBS, and ESPN.

* Growth in attendance at domestic track meets, with record attendance being set at the Olympic Trials, Penn Relays, Texas Relays, Drake Relays, and most other top meets over the past eight years.

* Establishment of the Zero Tolerance anti-doping policy in 2003, which expanded on USATF's anti-drug efforts that were first launched in 1989.

* Establishment of an Elite Athlete Department which overhauled USATF's relationship with and services for professional athletes.

* Rebirth of American distance running on the elite level and increased participatory growth on the grass roots level in road running and school-based track and field.

* Emergence of charity running as a powerful economic force, as charted annual by a USATF survey that indicates annual funds raised approaching $800 million.

* Increase in the number of USATF registered clubs to 2,500 and the number of USATF-sanctioned races and events to more than 5,000.

* Establishment of "America's Running Routes", an online mapping service featuring over 185,000 running routes around the country.

"It's been my privilege to work on behalf of the sport that gave me so many opportunities in life," Masback said. "I hope to be able to continue to contribute to the bright future of track and field in some capacity in the coming years."

Masback will join Nike as the Director of Business Affairs for Global Sports Marketing. In this new role he will negotiate and manage Nike's contractual relationships with athletes, sports leagues, federations and teams around the world.

USATF's search for a new CEO will begin immediately Roe said.

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rainbowgirl28
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Unread postby rainbowgirl28 » Thu Jan 10, 2008 12:41 pm

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics ... nike_N.htm

U.S. track mogul Masback headed to Nike
Updated 14h 8m ago | Comment | Recommend1 E-mail | Save | Print |


Craig Masback
USA Track and Field

Craig Masback at a 2004 speech in Houston. After 10 1/2 years with USA Track and Field, Masback says he's leaving for a job at Nike.

PHOENIX (AP) â€â€

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Unread postby rainbowgirl28 » Thu Jan 10, 2008 12:42 pm

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a ... 247/SPORTS

Masback leaves USATF
U.S. track and field CEO for past 10 years will take job with Nike

By David Woods
david.woods@indystar.com

Craig Masback has unexpectedly resigned as USA Track & Field's chief executive officer, one of the most influential positions in Olympic sports.

Legacy: Craig Masback is credited with increasing U.S. track's budget and exposure. - Star file photo

The announcement was made Wednesday night in a news release from USATF, whose national offices are in the RCA Dome. Masback will become director of business affairs for Nike's global sports marketing division.
Masback, 52, is a Princeton graduate who once ran a 3-minute, 52-second mile. He was an attorney and television announcer before succeeding Ollan Cassell in July 1997.
In a statement, Masback said he was leaving what had been his dream job.
"After 10 years, it's time for me to embrace a new challenge," he said.
Indianapolis businessman Bob Kennedy, a two-time Olympic runner, said Masback's departure would be a loss to the sport.
"From the day he started doing the job to today, he significantly increased the revenue through marketing, sponsorships and partnerships with corporations," Kennedy said. "That provided so many more resources to the organization as a whole.
"He increased our television exposures annually, which was great for our sport. He worked hard to professionalize and legitimize the whole drug-testing network."
Masback consistently declined to take credit for improved medal counts, calling the results "serendipitous."
During his tenure, Team USA went from 17-19 medals at Olympics and World Championships to 25 or more medals at the 2004 Olympics and past two world meets.
According to the USATF release, the organization's budget grew from $6.7 million in 1997 to more than $17 million in 2008, thus eliminating a $3.2 million deficit.
The search for a new CEO comes at an awkward time, just seven months before the Olympic Games in Beijing.
Masback's departure for Nike closely follows a USATF announcement to place four of the next five national meets (through 2012) at Eugene, Ore. Nike and the University of Oregon are closely linked because Nike's CEO is Phil Knight, an alumnus and donor.
USATF brought the 2006 and '07 USA Championships to Indianapolis.

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rainbowgirl28
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Unread postby rainbowgirl28 » Thu Jan 10, 2008 12:47 pm

http://www.latimes.com/sports/olympics/ ... &cset=true

TRACK AND FIELD
Masback leaves USATF for Nike

The USA Track & Field chief executive is leaving for a job with the sport's leading sponsor, Nike.
By Philip Hersh, Special to the Times
January 10, 2008
After a decade in which his organization gained in both counting houses and medal counts but lost global esteem because of doping scandals involving many of its stars, Craig Masback is leaving USA Track & Field for a job with the sport's leading sponsor, Nike.

Masback, the USATF chief executive since July, 1997, will become director of business affairs for Nike's global sports marketing division.

In a telephone interview Wednesday, Masback said he expected to leave in six to 12 weeks. USATF will immediately begin the search for a new CEO.

"This is not great news for USATF or the U.S. Olympic Committee," USOC chief executive Jim Scherr said Wednesday. "Craig was very effective in his job, and he moved the sport quite a long way in the 10 years.

"But I think it is a good move for Craig personally."

Masback, a one-time elite miler and TV commentator with degrees from Princeton and Yale Law School, helped put USATF on solid financial ground after inheriting a $3.2-million deficit. His annual USATF compensation had run from $350,000 to just over $400,000 in recent years.

But, despite his determination to fight doping, the Masback years also included the busts of Olympic sprint champions Marion Jones and Justin Gatlin; having several track athletes involved in the BALCO scandal; and doping cases involving far more world and Olympic medalists than any country in the world.

"In spite of my commitment and the organization's commitment to do the best job we could on doping, we didn't do well enough," Masback said. "But the nation and world have come to realize this is not just a track and field problem."

Masback said he "would not deny" his relationship with the USATF board was occasionally fractious but added, "I am certainly not leaving because of that."

In the Wednesday release announcing Masback's departure, USATF said its budget has grown from $6.7 million in 1997 to $17 million for 2008, and it has net assets "in excess of $3.3 million."

On his watch, the performances of U.S. teams at the worlds and Olympics also showed solid gains since 2004, and U.S. distance running has rebounded from a quarter-century of doldrums.

Philip Hersh covers Olympic sports for The Times and the Chicago Tribune.


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