Grand Slam Track Unpaid Payments

At least the swimming version made it through 3 seasons before caving in under debt:

reuters.com

ISL says it will pay debts as suppliers threaten legal action

Alan Baldwin

The professional International Swimming League (ISL) has promised to honour financial obligations and improve processes as some unpaid suppliers threaten legal action.

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swimmingworldmagazine.com

Report: Athletes Considering Boycott of ISL Playoffs Over Missed Payments

@swimmingworld

Athletes within the International Swimming League (ISL) are considering a boycott of the upcoming playoffs due to missed payments from 2020.

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The biggest problem for GST for 2026 is that they have no proof of concept. Yes, GST put on three track meets, but so what? Putting on a meet isn't that hard. The difficulty has been making that meet profitable. GST didn't manage to show that it could move towards profitability over the next few years. Kingston was a total bust, Miami looked like a bronze label meet, and Philly was only a success in comparison to the other meets. Objectively, Philly was a failure if you compare it to any European DL meets, or even a top tier Golf Label meet like the Paavo Nurmi Games.

So if you're a potential investor, you look at what was achieved this year and ask when could GST possibly be a real, profitable success? With the current model, I'm not sure it could turn a profit even in ten years. The only hope would be that it staggers on until 2028 then catches a potential post-Olympic wind of enthusiasm for track. Investors would come onboard a loss-making entity if they believed it was showing good signs of moving towards eventual profitability. But GST? It only has Philly as a heavily qualified success and what do we think the losses were on that meet? Over $1m? I'm certain that total losses for the three meets exceeds $3m.

I just hope that local suppliers aren't waiting to be paid. The athletes are missing appearance fees and prize money, but they'll have sponsorships. Suppliers are completely on the hook for their losses, low wage jobs depend on them getting paid.

You mean the one that is listed as "Permanently Closed" since 2022, and has an online website that does nothing (or did I miss the sarcasm)?

Grant Fisher did not start in Philly because he knew he would not be paid.

Damn, I figured with all that Twitter and blogging experience, Merber would have be the business guru that Grand Slam needed.

This poster is such a dumb bigot. Pathetic.

Humanity is so strange. The guy lost millions trying to make a track league work when he could’ve sat on his money for the rest of his life. The big risk he took because of his passion came up short for himself, investors and the athletes and now everyone on here celebrates? Acts like he is a bond villain? y’all are the real villains. Sure it had some flaws but 8/10 execution. Bravo MJ, and all the athletes for giving it a shot. All the haters on here, best of luck working your riskless job, running your 20:19 5k, and living paycheck to paycheck check to paycheck

I am guessing that you are trolling but I’ll bite. Do you actually know that he lost his own money or did he lose investors money?
He definitely misled the public because he made it sound like everything was financially taken care of this year and that he was only looking for FUTURE investors. We now know that it was not true but instead he was trying to pay the bills.
Has he paid all of the vendors? NO. Has he paid all of the facilities? NO

Why do you think he backed out of LA? MJ said it was because things went so well in Philly that was a good place to end things. Do you believe that? I don’t and there has been nothing since.

In other words, the athletes will only get paid if MJ can find new sponsors for a 2025 season that has already ended. That’s not going to happen.

As someone who occasionally invests in things I find interesting but know will never make money (and likely lose money) here is my perspective:

Sure, I would be willing to invest in GST knowing I am saving their bacon for ‘25 with a look ahead to ‘26. But I would require a) full transparency into the books, b) a seat on a new board of directors made up of other investors, c) a thorough discussion about flipping the underlying business entity to a 501c3, and d) a say on the new management team.

The third point is huge. GST can continue, but only if there is a path to profitability and real professionals at the helm — not former athletes who clearly can’t write (let alone execute) a sound business plan.

The hallmark of a business con is to assume a bunch of risk, and then push that risk onto creditors who don't know they're taking that much risk. MJ is a con man.

Anyone who has a cursory interest in sport and the structure of successful competitions knew this was going to happen

I mean, if you have no interest in sport, you should've known based on any knowledge of all of these terrible businesses that are pure marketing fluff

Athlos only works cause it's one guy pumping all the money in and he can afford it to be a gimmick once a year

Something isn't right with this. With any business model to this scale, your number one goal is to protect protect liquid assets after generating from your gross product. The fact they cannot pay, means one of two things.

1. They bit off more then they could chew. or 2. Corruption and embelizement with some getting paid more than others.

100%

My hunch is that GST probably paid out the appearance fees to the "Headliner" athletes, including SML, Kenny B, Fisher, etc... I also have a hunch that it was agreed upon contractually that all prize money distribution would be begin after the final GST event in L.A. which was last weekend. When MJ and the GST brain-trust completed the Miami GST event the numbers weren't there, and the panic began. BAILOUT OPTION #1 was to cut out 50% of the distance events with the hope that they can cover some of the loss. When those numbers didn't shake out, BOOM!!!...BAILOUT OPTION #2 was amputation mode and cut the season short. This had to be their worse nightmare, not only were they facing potential delayed payments to ALL the athletes, but also losing major credibility within the track and field world. The "Kiss of Death" was when some of the major players bailed out of GST and then MJ signed on some additional investors at the last minute to save face and project a glimmer of hope that the GST season was a go for 2026.

I agree!!!..Poor execution from the starting gun.

The main (and pretty much only) way sports make money is TV contracts.

There just isn't much money to be made on tickets. For the NFL and NBA ticket revenue is only in the ~20% of total revenue range.

So I don't really care about half empty stadiums, I care about how many people WATCHED.

They had a press release that 250k people watched the first meet. Yes that is decent for track, but pretty bad in the grand scheme of things. That number will be a huge sticking point for future investors.

I've been wondering about this since the debacle was revealed. Better than the injury he mentioned was causing him not to start.

Playing with people's money is a sticking point for me. This series was supposed to be cutting edge because of what it was supposed to do for its athletes. It sounds like they will be getting paid & honoring LA appearance fees but if they have the money then why not pay athletes now (or before now)? He shouldn't be taking a dime until he makes sure everyone else gets paid.

not having money in escrow to pay the athletes, means you have zero financial credibility.

without new financial guys at the helm, with credibility, they are DONE.