The statement from Michael Johnson is total nonsense. He's acting as if he is the one who decided not to have a 2026 season until everyone gets paid.
The reality is that without getting paid for the 2025 season, no faculty will rent him their track. No timing companies would agree to do their meets. And no athletes would agree to run.
Who does he think he's fooling?
Maybe he should rent a facility from the owner and not from teachers.
This grand slam thing was a failure from the start. Track and field has always been a somewhat niche sport and the thing holding it together has been diamond league. When Usain Bolt left it decreased in popularity fast. People just want to see world records broken and then the world record holders to stand by their titles at Championships. I don’t get what grand slam brought to the sport as it has always been a simple sport of the fastest man or woman going from point A to B. Grand slam gave high school meet varsity kind of vibes. It didn’t revolutionize the sport because the sport succeeds in its simplest terms : minimal drug testing to help athletes run the fastest times possible in their best event and cash to motivate them.
Can you prove there's been any drop in popularity since Bolt left?
If anything, I would say the sport is increasing in popularity, just not in the US
Look at the last few major championships: Paris Olympics, Budapest Worlds, Apeldoorn Indoors, and Birmingham Commonwealth Games were all sold out evening sessions and more than half full morning sessions
Almost all European Diamond Leagues are sold out. Ostrava, Melbourne, Hengelo and Turku Gold Meets were also sold out. There's major new investment from Asia, Africa and Middle East with chances for athletes to earn money in DLs there. Africa wants another DL. Next year the Ultimate Championships will be live on mainstream TV in all European countries during prime time and likely be sold out, as well as paying athletes good money.
World record books are getting rewritten in all the events.
The only things that don't seem to be working are US based. GST. Eugene Worlds. World Road Running. Eugene Diamond League has one of the smallest crowds. All Gold meets in the US have been cancelled (LA, NY).
Seems odd to put the line “that is success to me.” before getting into the lack of payment. A successful meet includes compensation…
anyway, it truly seems Johnson—and by that, I mean, his legal folks and other advisors—somehow made a massive error and mistook the promise of funding for actual money. Okay, maybe MJ didn’t read the fine details, but the legal team either messed up bad, or understood it perfectly well and kept it from him (doubtful), or MJ knew the whole time that this was on shaky ground. Regardless, it’s on MJ.
How are they going to make sure this never happens again? Surely that starts with a new legal team and set of advisors right
The problem is that there is no way a professional track League can be viable in the U.S. and it wasn’t even close. The failure of GST was not due to its legal team and advisors. They couldn’t pull money out of a hat to pay the athletes. The massive error was trying to start a league in the first place.
The high probability of investors losing 100% of their contributions, will prevent another pro track league ever being launched again.
The high probability of investors losing 100% of their contributions, will prevent another pro track league ever being launched again.
There is no way to make a US track league lucrative enough to attract investors who want to make a profit.
The only way a pro track league can be successful on the scale of Grand Slam Track is if a rich guy, like Phil Knight, decided to put money into it and he didn't care if he made a profit.
I must be missing something. Is there more to the letter after "That is success to me."? If so, how do I read it? If not, how do you get "we have no money" etc. from what is written?
Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Foundation, through its involvement with Winners Alliance, was part of a $30 million commitment to Grand Slam Track, a new track and field league founded by Michael Johnson. This pledge was announced in 2024, with Winners Alliance, chaired by Ackman, described as the lead investor and operating partner. The funding was intended to support the league’s launch in 2025, which aimed to offer athletes a base salary and significant prize money, with events planned across the U.S. and internationally.
Grok gives lots of excuses for Ackman but, if asked if the only possible scenario for the lack of funds was Ackman not giving the money, it says yes
Thank Bill Ackman for pledging $30 million and then stiffing GST.
MJ never should have trusted that guy
watching Rae's Take, he insinuated that the 30m pledge from whoever was contingent on GST first raising something like 10 million dollars, or some other mystery number, from other sources. They didn't raise anything, so the 30 didn't happen.
watching Rae's Take, he insinuated that the 30m pledge from whoever was contingent on GST first raising something like 10 million dollars, or some other mystery number, from other sources. They didn't raise anything, so the 30 didn't happen.
Does he have any evidence for this? The official story is that $39 million was pledged, with $30 million from Ackman. I am pretty sure GST raised some money. Didn't they pay the three sites where the meets were held? The vendors?
The statement from Michael Johnson is total nonsense. He's acting as if he is the one who decided not to have a 2026 season until everyone gets paid.
The reality is that without getting paid for the 2025 season, no faculty will rent him their track. No timing companies would agree to do their meets. And no athletes would agree to run.
Who does he think he's fooling?
The end of the first page in particular is really something. Basically “a bunch of people believed me when I lied to them. That is success to me.”
I must be missing something. Is there more to the letter after "That is success to me."? If so, how do I read it? If not, how do you get "we have no money" etc. from what is written?
There are 2 more pages. Swipe the arrow on the first page to get the other 2.
I think I'm nearing the end of my GST commentary - and it's fading into oblivion once the season is over anyway.
He just can't do it can he? He seems to creep closer and closer to just saying "I had good intentions but this ultimately was way beyond my capabilities" (which is the simple truth at play) - but he can't. And just like his press conference post the LA meet cancellation, these press releases are just PR team verbiage and faff that he himself hasn't written and I can only imagine serve as some kind of mental gymnastic to soften the blow on his ego.
This series isn't happening next season, it's not getting sponsors and backers and the athletes are never getting paid. It's ultimately an embarrassment for a sport that at the pro level is continuing to struggle financially.
Many of the athletes will be fine. I don't really feel bad for the SML, Gabby Thomas, Josh Kerr, Cole Hockers etc of the world - it sucks but they will be fine. I really feel bad for the fringe athletes without big contracts and auto DL starts for which even a 2k appearance fee means a lot to their season. I hope if anyone gets any money out of what's left it's them first, though I suspect this won't be the case.
Not that he was overly relevant before (because he wasn't other than as a failed agent and boring BBC "talking head"), but Michael Johnson took enough from the sport as an athlete, like his league he can just fade away now into full obscurity and that would be just fine too.