USA Boxing's executive director, 6 others depart

Poor sponsorship sales have forced Jim Millman out as USA Boxing's executive director, and the Colorado Springs-based national governing body has gutted its marketing and media and public relations departments in its latest shake-up.

The seventh executive director in the past eight years, Millman, 58, left Tuesday under a "mutual agreement" with a 10-person board chaired by Navy senior associate athletic director Tom Virgets. He was replaced Wednesday on an interim basis by Mike Martino, coach of Nevada's club boxing team.

Six other USA Boxing employees were laid off - Jessica Cross, marketing manager; Pam Crowley, marketing coordinator; Julie Goldsticker, media and public relations director; Michelle Nadeau, broadcast and digital media manager; Suzanne Grassel, digital and publications manager; and Karen Chapman, data entry clerk, according to Millman. Their names are no longer on USA Boxing's Web site.

Seven staffers remain at USA Boxing headquarters at the Olympic Training Center, most notably high performance director Patrick Borkowski. There are a handful of finalists to succeed national team coach Dan Campbell, who resigned in September after the U.S. won one medal (a bronze by Deontay Wilder) in its worst showing in Olympic history.

USA Boxing closed 2007 with $1.3 million in total assets, according to its latest tax returns, but it's now probably nowhere near that mark because of an economic downturn that has made companies less willing to spend money on Olympic sponsorships.

The NGB boasts Everlast and XP Apparel as its only corporate partners since United Airlines has yet to renew - far from enough sponsors to support 35,000 members and stage a dozen national events, despite $1 million in U.S. Olympic Committee funding and a $200,000 grant from the Daniels Fund last year.

"For an organization to grow and market itself, we needed fresh revenue," said Millman, who became executive director in May 2007, with an annual compensation of $125,118. "When you have economic conditions like this, the organizations that are the most challenged are the ones that are going to have the toughest road."

Millman said the biggest problem was "finding new companies. We spoke to a lot of companies, and the primary feedback we received is that those companies are looking to protect the programs they have in place and are not looking to add new things."

Former Fort Carson boxing coach Jose Santiago insists USA Boxing must start over.

"When you do what you've always done, you will get what you've always got," he said. "If you don't try to clean it up from the ground up, it will never change."