by Larry Eder
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Well, the long, slow death roll that was l’affair Logan, has grinded to a close. Per a nicely written press release posted on Thursday afternoon, June 23, the former CEO agreed to terms noted as “private’ between USA Track & Field and Mr. Logan.
As we are, in this society, prone to conjecture, most recent estimates note that the settlement offered was somewhere between $1.35 million and $1.5 million. But, hey, what is $150,000 between friends? It should be understood that Mr. Logan got probably less than what he thought he deserved and much, much more than what anyone else thought he deserved. As the late writer Kurt Vonnegut would say, ” So, it goes.”
Or, does it? In the end, it is the constituency of USA Track & Field that is, once again, injured. Besides the money, legal fees and lost time, the USATF board is in the midst of trying to decide if they a) keep the interim CEO they have, b) hire a new CEO from the search, and interviews that were apparently done, c) not hire a CEO, but run the interim CEO through the board or d) some combination of the above that I can not conceive.
With a sigh of relief, we thank the board of USA Track & Field and Mr. Logan for finding a common ground: money.
There is a joke attributed to the late George Bernard Shaw, the Nobel laureate for literature in 1925. Mr. Shaw was out to dinner with a very attractive socialite. As was his want, Mr. Shaw asked the women to sleep with him. She declined. He then offered her $1 million dollars (worth about $3.5 million in today’s currency). She changed her mind. Then he took back the million and offered her $25. She, aghast, again declined and asked Mr. Shaw what kind of person that he thought she was. Mr. Shaw demurred, ” My dear, we know what kind of person you are, we are just trying to determine a price.”
It is this distasteful feeling that I am left with about this situation. However, that is modern business and modern life….sad, but true.
USATF, Logan come to terms
INDIANAPOLIS
– USA Track & Field and former CEO Doug Logan have come to terms on
his separation from the organization, they jointly announced Thursday.
The parties have agreed to mutually resolve their issues privately. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Logan served as CEO of USATF from July 2008 through September
2010. The USATF Board of Directors on September 13, 2010, announced they
had voted to secure a leadership change in the CEO position. Logan
later filed a lawsuit challenging the terms of his termination.
Both Mr. Logan and USATF are pleased to put this matter behind
them so both parties can move forward. Neither party will have further
comment on the matter.
About USA Track & Field
USA Track & Field (USATF) is the National Governing Body
for track & field, long-distance running and race walking in the
United States. USATF encompasses the world’s oldest organized sports,
the World’s #1 Track & Field Team, the most-watched events at the
Olympics, the #1 high school and junior high school participatory sport,
and more than 30 million adult runners in the United States: www.usatf.org.
