The posting has generated over one hundred comments, most of them highly supportive of Bryon, quite negative towards the ski team’s management and also underscoring the meager pay of coaches. After reading that material, and assuming that the numbers cited are true, I couldn’t help but wonder why would the board of directors allow such a disparity. When I examined the roaster of its active members, I concluded that a combination of carelessness, callousness and cowardice from that group might have allowed Marolt to get away with a disproportionate compensation for running USSA's and managing its less-than $40 million budget. There is no question that each board member should be confronted and given the chance to reflect upon the ways in which Bill Marolt’s compensation package was approved. That exercise is required to bring the ski team policies into perspective and – if needed - usher the needed reforms.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Storm over Bill Marolt and the US Ski Team
Around the middle of May, Park City’s US Ski Team skier Bryon Friedman denounced in a blog that a large number of skiers don’t get funded by the team to compete, and contrasted that sad state of affair with the alleged fact that U.S. Ski Team’s CEO Bill Marolt makes one million dollar a year for managing a non-profit organization that can't afford to sufficiently fund its athletes. 
The posting has generated over one hundred comments, most of them highly supportive of Bryon, quite negative towards the ski team’s management and also underscoring the meager pay of coaches. After reading that material, and assuming that the numbers cited are true, I couldn’t help but wonder why would the board of directors allow such a disparity. When I examined the roaster of its active members, I concluded that a combination of carelessness, callousness and cowardice from that group might have allowed Marolt to get away with a disproportionate compensation for running USSA's and managing its less-than $40 million budget. There is no question that each board member should be confronted and given the chance to reflect upon the ways in which Bill Marolt’s compensation package was approved. That exercise is required to bring the ski team policies into perspective and – if needed - usher the needed reforms.
The posting has generated over one hundred comments, most of them highly supportive of Bryon, quite negative towards the ski team’s management and also underscoring the meager pay of coaches. After reading that material, and assuming that the numbers cited are true, I couldn’t help but wonder why would the board of directors allow such a disparity. When I examined the roaster of its active members, I concluded that a combination of carelessness, callousness and cowardice from that group might have allowed Marolt to get away with a disproportionate compensation for running USSA's and managing its less-than $40 million budget. There is no question that each board member should be confronted and given the chance to reflect upon the ways in which Bill Marolt’s compensation package was approved. That exercise is required to bring the ski team policies into perspective and – if needed - usher the needed reforms.
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I did not know of this story regarding the USST. I do know that Bill Marolt's contract has several incentive clauses that reward him for superior performance results of the team such as overall winners, discipline winners, etc. so, it is not like he is taking money that was not intended as his contract is written. I do think it is a shame that funding for team has come up so short of the monies needed to send qualified athletes on the World Cup circuit. There are politics in every sport and often times they over-rule the sport itself. Bill has been a long-time friend of mine and I believe he will work as hard as he can to correct a bad situation. This is not the first time that team members have had differences with the administration and/or coaches and it probably won't be the last.
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