USATF board member Jim Estes had a consulting role with Chattanooga, which he disclosed to USATF from the beginning. Even though he informed USATF and recused himself from board discussions around the Marathon Trials, USATF disqualified Chattanooga's bid because of Estes involvement. This seems to fall on USATF for not handling the conflict of interest issue from the start, instead allowing it go on for many months until the point they disqualified the board's favored choice, giving Orlando the Trials by default.