Pat McDonough

"TritonRider" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I don't follow much track racing, but was really impressed
with the

facility,

Quoted message said:

and the riders down at T-Town. Seems to me that this is a
good thing for

our

Quoted message said:

track program. Edumacate me.

The people who train and race at T-town seem to think that
McDonough is a good choice (although of course having
practically *anybody* at USAC focussed on track cycling
would have to be good for that branch of the sport...it's
been almost completely ignored for many years now). A
different question to contemplate, though, is what does this
mean for T-town? First a new indoor track is going to open
on the west coast, and now your long-time director is moving
on...will T-town remain an international draw, or will it
simply become just another US track (albeit a very well run
one with excellent facilities at that)? Hopefully the powers-that-
be at T-town are already asking themselves this question.

Andy Coggan

In article <[email hidden]>,

Andy Coggan said:

"TritonRider" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:20040314201151.03317.00001275@mb-
m23.aol.com...

Quoted message said:

I don't follow much track racing, but was really
impressed with the

facility,

Quoted message said:

and the riders down at T-Town. Seems to me that this is
a good thing for

our

Quoted message said:

track program. Edumacate me.

The people who train and race at T-town seem to think that
McDonough is a good choice (although of course having
practically *anybody* at USAC focussed on track cycling
would have to be good for that branch of the sport...it's
been almost completely ignored for many years now). A
different question to contemplate, though, is what does
this mean for T-town? First a new indoor track is going to
open on the west coast, and now your long-time director is
moving on...will T-town remain an international draw, or
will it simply become just another US track (albeit a very
well run one with excellent facilities at that)? Hopefully
the powers-that-be at T-town are already asking themselves
this question.

Pat's done a great job but the factor(s) that are more
important than him are the community and corporate support
for T-town's programs and T-town's methods of encouraging
that support. I doubt those will change.

There have been discussions for years about the value of
having a track on the West Coast for training when the
weather is not so good in Eastern PA. I think the riders
will still want to spend significant time near T-town as
opposed to the LA area. Some of the factors that help T-town
be successful probably won't happen in LA-at least not for
several years or more.

-WG

warren said:

Pat's done a great job but the factor(s) that are more
important than him are the community and corporate support
for T-town's programs and T-town's methods of encouraging
that support. I doubt those will change.

I see him as having two big challenges:

- The perception that you can dedicate yourself to the
track, succeed, and still get screwed. Which really hurts
recruitment.

- Recruiting sponsor support. Track has never really
recovered from the loss of EDS as a sugar daddy. The USOC
pays money for medals so whatever support they get there
is probably a remnant of Marty's medals in Sydney. Last
year's Worlds were a disaster so you would have to be
pretty optimistic so see any progress there.

So I hope he brings some $$$ connections with him.

Bob Schwartz [email hidden]

Everything therer will continue to go well, once they call
me and ask me to run the thing...more later, I have to go
sit by the phone and wait for the call.

And in reply to the challenges facing track, they far
exceed money or attention from the fed. The two main
obstacles are the number of tracks that exist ( or lack
thereof) and the fact that the fact that success on the
track requires great specialization. For the most part, if
you didn't learn how to race on hte track as a kid, you
ain't going to be able to succeed at it as an adult. The
pursuit might be one exception to that and they're doing
awaay with that soon enough.

Quoted message said:

"TritonRider" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

A different

Quoted message said:

question to contemplate, though, is what does this mean
for T-town? First a new indoor track is going to open on
the west coast, and now your long-time director is moving
on...will T-town remain an international draw, or will it
simply become just another US track (albeit a very well
run one with excellent facilities at that)? Hopefully the
powers-that-be at T-town are already asking themselves
this question.

Andy Coggan