Doug Logan

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Doug Logan
Nationality	Cuban

Douglas G. Logan, the former Commissioner, President and CEO of Major League Soccer (MLS), is now CEO of USATF. A bilingual sports and entertainment leader with a proven track record of generating long-term sponsor partnerships, television outreach and high fan attendance, Logan and MLS in 1996 were named Sports Industrialist of the Year by Sports Business Daily.

Prior career

Logan fought with the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam, where he was decorated with two Bronze Stars. Logan drove a taxicab in New York City for three years and began his career in the entertainment business as a beer vendor in Yankee Stadium while attending Manhattan College. Logan served as the General Manager of the Rockford (Ill.) MetroCentre from 1979 to 1985, where he was the promoter of the first commercial Arena Football League game in 1985. He was a founder, regent and lecturer at the Public Assembly Facility Management School in Oglebay, WV.

He was Senior Vice President of Ogden Entertainment Services from 1985 to 1993. From 1993 until 1995 Logan served as Director General of OCESA, SA, the largest concert promotion company in Mexico.

Logan led MLS during its enormously successful 1995 start-up through 1999. He orchestrated the launch of the league's inaugural season, averaging attendances of over 17,000 per game, highlighted by two single-game attendance figures over 85,000. With an annual budget of $90 million, MLS under Logan's leadership generated $120 million in multiple-year sponsorship commitments from Nike, AT&T, adidas, Puma, Umbro, Honda, MasterCard, PepsiCo, Anheuser-Busch and Bic.

Considered the country's highest-ranking Hispanic-American in sports management, Logan transformed MLS television contracts from a time-buy to co-ventures, negotiating five-year broadcasting agreements with ABC, ESPN and Univision that more than doubled the number of national MLS games on the air. He also directed the expansion of the league in 1998, increasing the asset value of the league from $5 million per team to $20 million per team. During Logan's last year at MLS, the league lost $34 million.^[1] MLS was reported to have lost $250 million in its first five years under Logan.^[2]

Since leaving MLS, Logan has run Empresario, LLC of New York, a sports consulting and entrepreneurial firm that in 2001 was a consultant in the creation of the National Rugby League. Logan also serves as Chairman and CEO of Face_iT Technologies, Inc., a company devoted to exploiting innovative facial animation technologies for the film and gaming industries.

Logan also has been a member of U.S. delegations to many international sporting events, including the [[1996 Summer Olympics, 1998 FIFA World Cup and the FIFA Copa Confederaciones in Mexico in 1999. He was a former District Vice President of the International Association of Assembly Managers (IAAM). In July, 2008, the IAAM honored Logan with its Presidential Citation, which recognizes the extraordinary contributions of individuals who have brought great distinction to that industry.

USATF CEO

Logan was selected unanimously by USATF's CEO Selection Committee after a three-month search that narrowed a potential candidate list of 100 down to a semi-final list of 23. Through interviews and a winnowing process, Logan emerged as the clear choice to lead USATF as it undergoes a restructuring of its board and seeks to expand on the tremendous growth and television programming expansion of the last decade. Logan took office on July 21, 2008.

Logan grew up in Cuba, and Spanish is his native language. He has been a lifelong competitive road runner at distances from 10 km to the marathon, where he has clocked a personal best under 4 hours. A Vietnam veteran twice decorated with the bronze star, he replaces Craig Masback at USATF, who resigned in January 2008 after 10 years as CEO.

References

1. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Garber Retrieved 2008-11-17.
2. ↑ Eligon, John. "For M.L.S., the Sport's Future Is in the Eye of the Beholder", New York Times, November 11, 2005. Retrieved on 2008-11-17.