Breaking: Grand Slam Track narrowly avoids collapsing - for now. FOS reports they have received some emergency funding

Yeah almost no chance any investors would be liable with respect to athlete payments.

I mentioned earlier if this was just lawyers getting together negotiating and agreeing on a bunch of "exit" numbers and I can't imagine it's not the case. Maybe within the tangle and ambiguity of the term "financial commitment" there is some "reasonable" percentage of an amount that GST could claim constituted a "commitment". I'm sure there is some claim from GST that they created their entire prize money structure and athlete salaries based on the commitment which factors into this. So the investor group were just like "okay fine, whatever" - it's a tax write off for them and they avoid any (even mild) threat of some BS litigation, GST then gets a certain amount of money which they use to pay off the higher profile "racers" that might have the means to challenge them legally (McLaughlin, Fisher, Kerr, Hocker et al) and that's it.

Again I just don't understand in any world why if you had put money into this to begin with why you would ever come up with another dime - only unless there was motivation to do so, and I don't think that motivation would be some kind of that "it's coming back next season and is going to be a rip roaring success".

I believe this is a case of: "I'm gonna take my ball (tennis) and go play somewhere else!" by billionaire Bill Ackman.

The International Tennis Hall of Fame recently turned down a $10 million dollar donation from Ackman after he was highly criticized for "buying" his way into playing in an APT event.

$10 million is chump change to Ackman. He's only half-paying the athletes for a bit of reputation control after taking grief for pulling out of GST, then making a mockery of himself in the tennis world. Only in a sport as desperate as track can paying half of what you owe been seen as "face saving." What would professional athletes in other sports do if they only got half of their contracts?

If MJ wants to save track, have a few M60-65 masters 100 meter races at GST, train Ackman up, and let him win. It worked with a certain unnamed track program and Bill Cosby....

Help we understand, why would anyone invest in the venture at this time?

Well we know Kerr makes 30k a year so I’m guessing they ‘wired’ the athletes about $47 each. 👍🏼

rojo should back off for the moment.

athletes getting paid in part is great progress.

investors might have been looking at a major lawsuit from MJ for eight figures or more, if he has a case against them. as in, what if he was telling the truth, abeit with too much forward thinking.

let it play out.

Women’s college volleyball on Fox on prime time Friday night. Making way more progress than track

Or you could sell your phone or computer or whatever you are posting on and give it to a single struggling to feed her kids. That money will mean a lot more to them than you.

As much as I loved competing, and enjoy watching, track and field is not sustainable as a pro sport.

People keep referring to those that provided/committed money to fund GST as investors, but we do not know the details of all their associations with GST.

Everyone seems to assume that these investors provided money to GST simply seeking some type of financial return, but that may not be the case.

Many wealthy people give money to causes they believe in as donations simply because they can and want to support things. They may not necessarily expect anything in return or even a tax write off.

There are many wealthy philanthropists in the world and maybe some of them liked the concept of GST and wanted to support it.

Some of those may be like many others who enjoyed the races/competition and liked the idea of better compensating track athletes.

Giving a little more money to GST at this time helps partially compensate those athletes.

We should be glad that not everyone interested in track is a poor cheapskate runner leading a meager existence as they selfishly chase their personal running dream.

It was shocking at how badly it stumbled out of the blocks in Jamaica. No priority seemed to be put into filling the stands. With huge (relative to t&f) purses, top athletes, and an exciting format you'd think that the "leadership" would put filling the stands as its top priority. ...No sponsorship or investment dollars are going to come if there isnt at least an appearance of excitement and popularity. Johnson seemed absolutely unfazed or uninterested in this very important factor. Instead it seemed he had a very lazy and lassez-faire attitude of "build it and they will come" which resulted in an immediate face plant.

It's not completely apparent if the format was bad or not. It was definitely apparent that the application and the leadership was horrible. ...If there is any glimmer of chance that it tries again, the first directive of the investors should be to demand that Johnson is removed and a much more vigorous and competent leader is put in place. One that knows that filling the stands is absolutely vital to generating some further investment and ensuring sustainable revenue.

If you think Bill Ackman is paying $10 million to people he doesn’t owe it to, you don’t know Bill Ackman.

Trust in GST is lost.

Weasel words in the statement and lack of clarity add to Trust in GST is lost.

Athletes, if this vague settlement terms requires signing off on any form of future litigation - do not sign.

class Action law suit will uncover and expose all involved, what they have made, taken, paid out to whom and otherwise. Those with reputations to guard are hoping this form of payment will let them off of the hook from litigation.

I can only see this as good news. If everybody gets paid then I honestly wish them the best of success.

My own opinion is they wouldn't have paid anything at all if they don't intend paying the whole lot. Hopefully this will be proven right in time. Fingers crossed, for the athletes' sake.

Salvitore. You are overthinking this one. It's very easy for GST to file for bankruptcy and that's the end of the story.

There's no way any cash at all would have beeen paid yesterday if they wern't fully intent on keeping this thing going. Whether it all works out or not I can't say. But their intentions are pretty clear based on this payment.

I keep forgetting how many boobs there are on this board. Something about old runners.

If he is doing it, it’s for “reputation control.” It’s not about the athletes. It’s about him.

If you trust Bill Ackman, you don't know Bill Ackman

Just to be clear, none of the athletes have gotten paid yet? If that’s the case, how could it possibly exist next year? Nobody in their right mind would sign-up.

wrong on all accounts.

MJ has made personal guarantees and promises as well as receiving money based on those which may turn out to be untrue, which is fraud. therefore MJ and others who acted similarly could be sued.

therefore it is likely that this may just be a settlement attempt as others have said.

so the intentions for this payment are clear as mud.