Why we need USAC

You might find the following surprising. I doubt it.

We need USAC. They are the National Governing Body in the US, and as such, hold the cards in terms of our International Cycling future. They are responsible for National Team projects, World Championships, National Championships, Olympics, etc for the United States. No one else can do what they do. Not to mention that they saved the Cyclocross World Champs this year when nothing else could. USAC does good work.

They also fuck up. But really, everyone does. One of the major issues in the past decade is the slow loss of their understanding of what their true currency is.

USAC seems to have had a culture shift recently, in that the underlying driving force in its practices and policy’s has been to only look at the bottom line, in the sense of $.

This is the mistake, albeit an easy one to make, especially when you look the situation from a traditional business perspective. But USAC should really be in the business of serving its membership.

I would like to argue that USAC needs to refocus on its true currency, which is a total membership numbers and total race days. This is their real job.

It seems apparent that USAC wants to get more races under its umbrella. Recent rule enforcement announcements indicate this. They seem to have focused on their ability to make $, rather than their ability to server their membership and this has caused the route taken to be the incorrect one.

If we can refocus the goal of USAC away from $, and onto increased membership numbers and race days, an easy solution emerges.

Race promoters want to put on events. They also need to have insurance to do so in a responsible manner. USAC provides insurance. But, so do other people.

If USAC wants to be the product of choice for a race promoter, they need to make a product that race promoters want.

I do not know what that product looks like, as I am not a race promoter. However, it seems fairly obvious to me that USAC is not currently providing that product; hence race promoters are going elsewhere to get it.

All USAC has to do, is provide that product.

We need to tell USAC what the product is, and USAC needs to listen.

If USAC becomes the simple, inexpensive, go to choice for a race promoter when they go out and shop for this product, then all the consequential problems that arise from USAC not being utilized go away.

So, if you are a race promoter, tell USAC what you look for in a competitive product. They already know they messed up, so maybe skip that step. No one likes to be reminded of why they are jerks.  Just tell them what they can do to bring you back.  If they actually listen, we may all be able to go back to riding in circles and having a rad time with our friends, and leave all this bullshit behind. That’s what we really all want to do anyways.