But the plan never was to have a profitable business. The plan was to generate enough buzz and television ratings to generate interest from sovereign wealth funds (probably the Saudis but maybe Qatar) that want to invest in American sports as part of a PR campaign.
Can you explain this to me? Why does Saudi want to invest in American golf? I don't get how killing off the PGA Tour makes me have good will towards Saudi Arabia. Even if they didn't kill off PGA Tours, I don't get how taking a pro golfers salary from $30 milltion to $100 million is going to make me think, "Yea Saudi Arabia. I love them"
I consider myself to be a smart person, but I’m not getting how there is even a conversation here. There will be no settlement and no season 2.
On a side note, I’d love to see someone like Phil Knight or Alexis Ohanian make the athletes whole as a charitable sign of good will.
Why?
They were grossly overpaid. Grant Fisher doesn't deserve 100k for losing a 3k on purpose. Luis Grijalva doesn't deserve tens of thousands for not racing. SML is already rich enough.
I consider myself to be a smart person, but I’m not getting how there is even a conversation here. There will be no settlement and no season 2.
On a side note, I’d love to see someone like Phil Knight or Alexis Ohanian make the athletes whole as a charitable sign of good will.
Why?
They were grossly overpaid. Grant Fisher doesn't deserve 100k for losing a 3k on purpose. Luis Grijalva doesn't deserve tens of thousands for not racing. SML is already rich enough.
The Walmart hurdler - sure. Give him his cash.
Yes, the payments were far too high relative to the actual value of those performances, but a deal is a deal (unless it’s with Michael Johnson) and those athletes should be paid based on their agreements.
The unmuted zoom call guy that laughed at the budget for 2026 athletes… I’m surprised the entire call didn’t go off in hysterics.
Also, not answering the Michael Johnson compensation question is just plain evil. If that guy is still taking any amount of money, it might explain why he is still blabbering on about the future of GST.
But the plan never was to have a profitable business. The plan was to generate enough buzz and television ratings to generate interest from sovereign wealth funds (probably the Saudis but maybe Qatar) that want to invest in American sports as part of a PR campaign.
Can you explain this to me? Why does Saudi want to invest in American golf? I don't get how killing off the PGA Tour makes me have good will towards Saudi Arabia. Even if they didn't kill off PGA Tours, I don't get how taking a pro golfers salary from $30 milltion to $100 million is going to make me think, "Yea Saudi Arabia. I love them"
im drunk but you live under a rock if u cant see the business angle here
But the plan never was to have a profitable business. The plan was to generate enough buzz and television ratings to generate interest from sovereign wealth funds (probably the Saudis but maybe Qatar) that want to invest in American sports as part of a PR campaign.
Can you explain this to me? Why does Saudi want to invest in American golf? I don't get how killing off the PGA Tour makes me have good will towards Saudi Arabia. Even if they didn't kill off PGA Tours, I don't get how taking a pro golfers salary from $30 milltion to $100 million is going to make me think, "Yea Saudi Arabia. I love them"
you genuinely dont beleive or understand that oil rich human rights abusing states have billions to invest in sports washing?
The correct, competent people could have made an incredible meet (maybe a league) with the amount of money invested. Cannot be overstated how badly MJ managed this.
Who would run for them? Their only hope would be to get people who won't make money otherwise in the hope that this succeeds. No names aren't going to make this a success.
I haven't read all the details of what's going on but, I just don't see how MJ can think that moving forward after screwing over some of the biggest names in the sport can work.
But the plan never was to have a profitable business. The plan was to generate enough buzz and television ratings to generate interest from sovereign wealth funds (probably the Saudis but maybe Qatar) that want to invest in American sports as part of a PR campaign.
Can you explain this to me? Why does Saudi want to invest in American golf? I don't get how killing off the PGA Tour makes me have good will towards Saudi Arabia. Even if they didn't kill off PGA Tours, I don't get how taking a pro golfers salary from $30 milltion to $100 million is going to make me think, "Yea Saudi Arabia. I love them"
"At the international level, it is believed that sportswashing has been used to direct attention away from poor human rights records and corruption scandals."
Sportswashing is a term used to describe the practice of governments, individuals, corporations, or other groups using sports to improve reputations tarnished by wrongdoing. A form of propaganda, sportswashing can be accompli...
Reputation laundering occurs when a person or an organization conceals unethical, corrupt, or criminal behavior or other forms of controversy by performing highly visible positive actions with the intent to improve their reputation and obscure their history."
Reputation laundering occurs when a person or an organization conceals unethical, corrupt, or criminal behavior or other forms of controversy by performing highly visible positive actions with the intent to improve their repu...
In other words, it can be a distraction and not full rebrand. If nothing else, you're talking about and associating them with golf and not human rights violations and genocide?
Also it's more blatant/recent with the LIV golf thing. It's probably been way more successful with foreign governments' involvement in international soccer and Formula 1.
But the plan never was to have a profitable business. The plan was to generate enough buzz and television ratings to generate interest from sovereign wealth funds (probably the Saudis but maybe Qatar) that want to invest in American sports as part of a PR campaign.
Can you explain this to me? Why does Saudi want to invest in American golf? I don't get how killing off the PGA Tour makes me have good will towards Saudi Arabia. Even if they didn't kill off PGA Tours, I don't get how taking a pro golfers salary from $30 milltion to $100 million is going to make me think, "Yea Saudi Arabia. I love them"
rojo is out of the loop.
these saudis are mad men born of billions, coked out of their mind, with brothels a plenty, private jets, bugattis,
your version of logic is useless here. completely.
this is not diatribe. this is out of your realm.
cutting through the chase, this Winners Alliance group
do these people have a track record of success in business of a similar nature.
if so, sit back and watch, letsrunners are ill equipped to analyze, well, maybe a few are,
with Angel dust investors, ie Saudis, no harm in them sponsoring a track meet or two, their boxing events are spectacular, despite my criticisms above.
thank MJ and Grand Slam Track for something to chat about on these slow news days.
So to recap: Johnson lied about the funding he secured in Season 1 when in fact he didn’t have the money even though the was a new and interesting business idea. Now that Season 1 was a spectacular failure, and GST has filed bk, they are somehow going to be able to find financing for Season 2, convince vendors who were shafted previously to continue to participate (or find new ones who will take the bait), and convince athletes who were shafted in Season 1 to come back (or find new ones who will take the bait), all while keeping to r same management team in place from Season 1?
Also, not answering the Michael Johnson compensation question is just plain evil. If that guy is still taking any amount of money, it might explain why he is still blabbering on about the future of GST.
It wasn’t evil. That number will come out. The guy overseeing the bankruptcy did t have it in front of him but pretty sure that will come out by Jan 31.
He should have started smaller with just a single 3-day proof-of-concept meet, rather than launching into a full 'league'. He made the mistake of thinking we could all see his vision, when it was quite poorly explained. Not that anything they did differently would make up for the spending issues.
Idea - on July 1th have the 1st annual Jonathan Gault Mile Race, sponsor by Letsrun. If Jonathan runs a sub 5 minute mile, he get a $1K bonus, live stream it and take donations lol. I would put $20 for that. Probably more views than Grand Slam.
Can you explain this to me? Why does Saudi want to invest in American golf? I don't get how killing off the PGA Tour makes me have good will towards Saudi Arabia. Even if they didn't kill off PGA Tours, I don't get how taking a pro golfers salary from $30 milltion to $100 million is going to make me think, "Yea Saudi Arabia. I love them"
"At the international level, it is believed that sportswashing has been used to direct attention away from poor human rights records and corruption scandals."
Reputation laundering occurs when a person or an organization conceals unethical, corrupt, or criminal behavior or other forms of controversy by performing highly visible positive actions with the intent to improve their reputation and obscure their history."
In other words, it can be a distraction and not full rebrand. If nothing else, you're talking about and associating them with golf and not human rights violations and genocide?
It's interesting because I never considered that this may have been the long term profitability plan all along. I saw this as the only way GST could survive to season 2 but it's interesting (and frankly disgusting) to think that MJ and his investors really only started GST to have high-profile sports product to wave at the Gulf Investors ahead of LA 2028 and whore out track and field for the blood money. Maybe in a way it's good they couldn't stem the bleeding of cash until it got to that point because imagine our beautiful sport of track and field becoming like LIV golf or that Riyadh comedy festival a few months back. Though I would hope track athletes would have more moral fortitude and backbone than sycophant comedian or golfers (maybe not Fred Kerley, though).
He should have started smaller with just a single 3-day proof-of-concept meet, rather than launching into a full 'league'. He made the mistake of thinking we could all see his vision, when it was quite poorly explained. Not that anything they did differently would make up for the spending issues.
Johnson's mistake was starting in Jamaica. The visual of a 90% empty stadium was terrible and the costs must have been huge. He should have started in Miami or waited to start in Philly.
Everyone’s complaining and hating acting like they’d rather USATF held meet. Oh wait, they don’t do anything for the sport or host any regular season meets. At least grand slam track is TRYING to make our sport better
