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Diane Dietz’s RG reports blow the Track Town / IAAF scandal wide open

Online at the Register Guard tonight, and in print tomorrow. There’s no way to adequately summarize this, read it all here. Vin Lananna’s take is  ~$800K a year, from 2012 to at least 2021. Lananna also owns a private media company that will be in on the championships. And while Lananna is making bank on this deal, he wants UO to give the IAAF everything at no charge – and cancel classes:

TrackTown USA is asking the UO to cancel all other activities during the championships — including orientations, seminars, camps or classes.

… “Participating teams will be lodged in University of Oregon housing, all of which will be brand new or renovated prior to” the event, according to the bid book. The UO has said it is borrowing money to finance the construction.

TrackTown USA also has plans to use the Knight Law building, the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art and the Matthew Knight Arena — all, Lananna asks, at minimal charge.

Hayward Field would be upgraded with triple the seating, including a new main grandstand featuring 300 linear feet of flexible suite space for corporate hospitality and event operations, according to the bid. The work will be privately funded, according to the UO. [I thought Hans Bernard was asking the state to pay for this.]

TrackTown USA is asking for the use of various physical spaces at no charge, including classrooms, meeting rooms, lecture halls, lounges, outdoor spaces and the university’s 6,100 parking spaces, according to UO documents.

TrackTown USA will require help from UO employees in catering, housing, IT and network services, the UO Police Department, Enterprise Risk Services, plus employees from academic departments, including athletics, architecture, business, international affairs, journalism, human physiology and the Global Studies Institute.

Any regular University of Oregon staff time spent working on the event would not be charged to Track Town USA,” according to UO documents.

Dietz has everything, except maybe a quote from Vladimir Putin. If she doesn’t get a Pulitzer there is no justice. But she’s got more. Way more:

http://registerguard.com/rg/news/local/33843964-75/email-released-by-university-of-oregon-sparked-french-probe.html.csp

An email released by the University of Oregon in October caused French prosecutors to open an investigation into how TrackTown USA won the bid to host the 2021 World Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Eugene.

The email showed a connection between Nike executive Craig Masback and International ­Association of Athletics Federations President Sebastian Coe, who also was on the Nike payroll at the time.

http://registerguard.com/rg/news/local/33804692-75/lananna-ties-to-nike-phil-knight-have-grown-ever-tighter.html.csp

2007: Craig Masback, CEO of the nonprofit USA Track & Field, announces Eugene will get the 2012 U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials, of which Nike is the sponsor. One month later, Masback quits the national track group to take an executive position at Nike.

http://registerguard.com/rg/news/local/33736651-75/lananna-draws-paychecks-from-multiple-public-and-private-sources.html.csp

Who pays Vin Lananna?

The University of Oregon? TrackTown USA? Phil Knight? Nike Inc.?

The answer appears to be: All of the above.

Since Lananna is a two-thirds-time public employee who also works fulltime as president of a non-profit corporation, the public can know a lot about how much he is paid each year for these two jobs: $769,105.

That’s $434,105 from the UO and $335,000 from TrackTown USA, according to the latest figures.

He also gets $30,000 a year straight from Beaverton-based Nike for “endorsement or consultation” work, according to a disclosure form he filed with the UO.

And, of course, free parking at the Jock Box.

4 Comments

  1. Dark Wing Duck 12/20/2015

    For what it’s worth, UO has more like 4100 parking spaces, not the 6100 promised.

    • uomatters Post author | 12/20/2015

      Maybe 6100 is the number of hunting licenses parking sells ;)

  2. zach 12/21/2015

    For clarity can I ask a simple question: Was the bid contingent partially on the construction of the 45 million dollar dorm UO seeks to build near 17th and Moss Street ?

    • uomatters Post author | 12/21/2015

      Seems yes.

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