Yesterday it was announced that USA Swimming would be handing out $1 million in grant money to help struggling USA Swimming clubs. Before you think I wrote this post purely to beat on USA Swimming, let me say I applaud the move. It’s something, which is better than nothing. It’s also not nearly enough.
I’m not here to place blame on USA Swimming. I was, on a personal level, at least as unprepared for the ground shifting out from under me within the last two months. I built a business mainly around me FLYING ON AN airplane to places and working in close proximity. My last trip was to Norway and Denmark, something I can’t even imagine when it will be ok to do again.
USA Swimming’s problem is that they are massive. They already were an incredibly overstuffed and clumsy bureaucracy. Change is happening crazy fast, and they are simply not equipped to change anything quickly. They will move and adapt slowly. If they are lucky, things will most likely “go back to normal”.
Right now USA Swimming has the cash to infuse to member clubs that have had their businesses devastated by Covid-19. But in the long term, I believe their business model is seriously threatened. Last week I talked about how USA Swimming has overseen a system that for decades has favored gigantic clubs. Those clubs may be significantly challenged in their ability to stuff the maximum amount of athletes into a lane as they have done.
One level up, you have a huge part of USA Swimming’s revenue strategy, dating back to the tenure of Chuck “See No Evil” Wielgus. The swim meets that USA Swimming have grown to massive sizes and been a cash cow for USA Swimming. Junior National meets with a thousand athletes at one site. Olympic Trials with 2000.
For all of these meets, USAS is not only drawing revenue from meet fees. That is chump change. USA Swimming has leveraged brand partnerships that mean that huge crowds of people coming to swim meets mean a lot to their current sponsors.
An easy one to identify is Marriott hotels. When 2000 athletes attend Olympic Trials, many of them will be high school kids who travel with their parents. Would parents of older athletes miss their possibly only chance to see their kid swim at Olympic Trials? Then there are coaches, officials, and yes, even some spectators. A big USA Swimming meet brings thousands of people to an area. There is no way USA swimming is not getting a kick back on Marriott hotel rooms.
So let me ask you, when is the next time you think that we will have such a massive swim meet? We may never again. I believe in the future many teams will look to hold meets that don’t require any of USA Swimming’s infrastructure.
In many cases, teams are months away from returning to swim practice. Competition would naturally be even farther away. Teams will hold small scale, local competitions. internal time trials or perhaps meets involving one other teams. And guess what? Those kind of meets are awesome. Many people will ask themselves why they were attending swim meets that were painful for nearly everyone in attendance.
At the risk of contradicting my very transparent political beliefs, I think this crisis is also revealing how much more important your LSC is than the bloated, overpaid office in Colorado Springs. The leader of American swimming through this crisis, as far as I can tell, is John Bradley, who works for Minnesota Swimming.
Kudos also to Julie Bachman, in Gulf Swimming, for stepping up to the plate. At the national level, Mark Hesse should be paid as the communication director. He’s been more effective at communicating information than anyone I’ve down there. I also want to apologize for mentioning him because I’m sure my praise is like a kiss of death in Colorado Springs.
Finally, Greg Earhart and the College Swim Coaches Association rocked it rallying the sport to push back on an NCAA waiver request.
I hope that the grant money truly does save some clubs. I know many are struggling if not already completely folded under the weight of this dramatic change. If we want to save the sport we need to look locally, not nationally. We need to be agile and prepared to restart under completely different business conditions than existed in February.