MJ is compared to Bernie Madoff: orchestrator of largest Ponzi scheme in history, 57 billion owed to thousands of defrauded investors, no legitimate investments, 11 felonies, imprisonment (had a release date of 2137).
O-K.
Yes. Madoff went into that as a scammer looking to rip people off and got caught.
MJ sincerely wanted this to work. As I understand an investor pulled out?
But yes there were ill advised moves - the location of the first meet was a mistake.
They should have filled smallish stadiums with free tickets if they had to.
But, apparently it was doomed to fail because it was too ambitious financially.
The people I feel bad for are the runners who didn't get paid.
The full story of how Grand Slam Track burned through roughly $22 million in funding, but still owes roughly $13 million to vendors and $7 million to athletes while putting on only three track meets, is yet to be told.
But these filings make one thing abundantly clear. Michael Johnson did not profit from the league. In fact, he appears to have lost more than any individual as it seems like he was the backstop that allowed the Philadelphia meet to take place.
This was not a grift. It is a tale of ambition and overconfidence, and a cost structure that was far removed from reality before a single ticket was sold.
Does this make you think differently about the demise of the league?
I love running and have been a runner for nearly 45 years and I commend him for trying to make Grand Slam successful in the sport we all love. But just not a good investment at all. I saw this coming like many of us from the beginning
I like the way the sarcasm was missed. Much of the Madoff and his family and associates made was of course never recovered or accounted for, and some false claims about taking funds etc from the family were made by the govt in order to save face. Just like the claims being made now to attempt to help MJ save face.
The full story of how Grand Slam Track burned through roughly $22 million in funding, but still owes roughly $13 million to vendors and $7 million to athletes while putting on only three track meets, is yet to be told.
But these filings make one thing abundantly clear. Michael Johnson did not profit from the league. In fact, he appears to have lost more than any individual as it seems like he was the backstop that allowed the Philadelphia meet to take place.
This was not a grift. It is a tale of ambition and overconfidence, and a cost structure that was far removed from reality before a single ticket was sold.
Does this make you think differently about the demise of the league?
Saying he's the biggest loser by being owed 2.2 million dollars without knowing what he has taken over the full 2 years is half-baked. He paid himself at a salary of $250,000 and $300,000 a year in 2025 and we don't know how much he took in 2024. We don't know what expenses of his were being covered. We also don't know what associated business interests profited from GST. For example, Breakaway Data, Gera's company, was paid over 100K in 2025.
I don't think he was planning on scamming people - I think he bought his own BS and his hubris put him into this position. So, zero difference in the thought of the demise of the league. The league was rushed into, poorly planned, poorly executed and run without a sense of reality surrounding itself. It was a passion project whose aim was to be viewed as a savior of the sport so the team could pat themselves on the back. Instead, they have done tremendous harm to the future growth of the sport by making it even more unattractive for any would be investors.
Good to hear, only appropriate that he lose at least as much relatively as the athletes and vendors.
Vendors may have lost out - not so sure about athletes if you compare it to the alternatives.
I had a TOP agent last week tell me that ALL of his athletes made more via GST - even with the 50% payments - than what they would have made had they done the Diamond League.
This post was edited 58 minutes after it was posted.
Good to hear, only appropriate that he lose at least as much relatively as the athletes and vendors.
Vendors may have lost out.
I had a TOP agent last week tell me that ALL of his athletes made more via GST - even with the 50% payments - than what they would have made had they done the Diamond League.
The full story of how Grand Slam Track burned through roughly $22 million in funding, but still owes roughly $13 million to vendors and $7 million to athletes while putting on only three track meets, is yet to be told.
But these filings make one thing abundantly clear. Michael Johnson did not profit from the league. In fact, he appears to have lost more than any individual as it seems like he was the backstop that allowed the Philadelphia meet to take place.
This was not a grift. It is a tale of ambition and overconfidence, and a cost structure that was far removed from reality before a single ticket was sold.
Does this make you think differently about the demise of the league?
First of all, many people would not have used their own money. Form an LLC use your celebrity and use OPM. So im a bit surprised he forked over millions for a track and field venture. Track is track. We love it, nobody else does. You could argue this is a golden age for american track across all events both genders and unlimited exposure, and still nobody cares. I'll take a guy who puts his money up and takes risk. Its better than running your mouth. Please show me how he ran a "scam"?
I love running and have been a runner for nearly 45 years and I commend him for trying to make Grand Slam successful in the sport we all love. But just not a good investment at all. I saw this coming like many of us from the beginning
It sounded good actually. But no way could it work if it costs 15 mill per meet. That's insane for a track meet. Just the worst business plan ever.
No. He lied and deceived to attempt to save his own *ss. This makes it worse
I like thinkers. Interesting thought. Kind of like a pump and dump in the stock market?
When Weldon told me MJ invested and I saw the details, your thought did cross my mind. And then he immediately got 500k back which seemed a bit odd.
But without knowing all the details, I’ll admit that the fact he personally has a lot of skin in the game made me feel better about the whole thing but 10% of me was and still is wondering along your line of thinking.
No. He lied and deceived to attempt to save his own *ss. This makes it worse
I like thinkers. Interesting thought. Kind of like a pump and dump in the stock market?
When Weldon told me MJ invested and I saw the details, your thought did cross my mind. And then he immediately got 500k back which seemed a bit odd.
But without knowing all the details, I’ll admit that the fact he personally has a lot of skin in the game made me feel better about the whole thing but 10% of me was and still is wondering along your line of thinking.
Do we know his salary for Grand Slam? If it was more than $2 million he didn't really invest, he just threw money back on the fire in hope of keeping the long con going.
Good to hear, only appropriate that he lose at least as much relatively as the athletes and vendors.
Vendors may have lost out - not so sure about athletes if you compare it to the alternatives.
I had a TOP agent last week tell me that ALL of his athletes made more via GST - even with the 50% payments - than what they would have made had they done the Diamond League.
Prize money sure. But bonus money for say winning a World Championship or even making a World's Team (Kerr, Neguse, who both had seasons impacted negatively by GST) questionable.
There's plenty who did grand slam and made teams, won titles, etc: Hocker, SML, MJW, Bednarek, Paulino, Wanyonyi, Richards.
Kerr got hurt at worlds several months after competing at grand slam. I don't see the correlation there.
Nuguse not making the team is more due to questionable tactics that backfired. He won Silesia DL after USA. His season best was at Zurich after USA. He was in shape.
I never believed Johnson set out to scam money from anyone - I also never believed that he started this track league for any other reason than his own ego and long term financial incentive.
aka "saving track" was just an empty league "mantra" - "making myself famous and rich" would have been a better one.
And it's quite simple, when you do things for the wrong reasons, it's funny how they invariably end in disaster. Like Grand Slam Track did.
For the record, if you want to criticize Grand Slam Track, here is where you go
1) What were they telling everyone when they couldn't pay? If they weren't honest here, blast away. 2) Implying they had a lot more money than they did. 3) Lack of transparency 4) Hubris 5) spending like drunken sailors. I just don't see how they spent so much before the first meet. Doesn't give me a lot of confidence in the team.
1) Yes. Remember, they initially said they accomplished everything they wanted and blamed Donald Trump's tarffs.
2/3) This was also bad. Is anyone surprised there isn't some overly aggressive prosecutor looking into this?
4) The arrogance was huge. Remember how they reacted angrily when Jonathan asked them before the first meet how they'd make money? Also someone told me that when GST was announced a top meet in Europe or meet director put out a feeler to them wto see if they should work together. They were arrogantly rebuffed and said they'd go alone and didn't even talk to them (I never confirmed this story but seems so foolish in hindsight although hindsight is always 20-20).
5) I still have zero idea what the game plan was. I mean you are spending 40 million but you decide to hold the opening meet in Jamaica, don't get any of the top Jamaicans, and you tarp off the seats and hold it during Jamaican rush hour on a Friday?
This makes Micheal Johnson look better for sure. You don’t throw $2M in if you think it is going to fail. It is funny all the revisionist history by posters here that now say they never thought he was intentionally acting in bad faith.
If anything this saga has shown the average person has no idea how companies work. So many threads hating on Kyle as if he was the CFO.
I never believed Johnson set out to scam money from anyone - I also never believed that he started this track league for any other reason than his own ego and long term financial incentive.
aka "saving track" was just an empty league "mantra" - "making myself famous and rich" would have been a better one.
And it's quite simple, when you do things for the wrong reasons, it's funny how they invariably end in disaster. Like Grand Slam Track did.
Nonsense. Johnson was already famous and rich enough to loan the league over $2 million.
For the record, if you want to criticize Grand Slam Track, here is where you go
1) What were they telling everyone when they couldn't pay? If they weren't honest here, blast away. 2) Implying they had a lot more money than they did. 3) Lack of transparency 4) Hubris 5) spending like drunken sailors. I just don't see how they spent so much before the first meet. Doesn't give me a lot of confidence in the team.
1) Yes. Remember, they initially said they accomplished everything they wanted and blamed Donald Trump's tarffs.
2/3) This was also bad. Is anyone surprised there isn't some overly aggressive prosecutor looking into this?
4) The arrogance was huge. Remember how they reacted angrily when Jonathan asked them before the first meet how they'd make money? Also someone told me that when GST was announced a top meet in Europe or meet director put out a feeler to them wto see if they should work together. They were arrogantly rebuffed and said they'd go alone and didn't even talk to them (I never confirmed this story but seems so foolish in hindsight although hindsight is always 20-20).
5) I still have zero idea what the game plan was. I mean you are spending 40 million but you decide to hold the opening meet in Jamaica, don't get any of the top Jamaicans, and you tarp off the seats and hold it during Jamaican rush hour on a Friday?
I think it's been discussed to death how and why GST didn't and was never going to work. I mean there were many many threads back long before the gun even went off in the first ever GST race that pointed out the lack of market fit/feasibility with a 3 day, 8 event per day track only athletic meeting that was going to somehow pay athletes 10X + more prize money (and appearance) than the DL does.
There are so many layers to this one and we are kind of getting to the core here - was this a conspiracy/pre-meditated plan to embezzle money by Johnson? I don't think so. This was classic "competency transference" - and former athletes are terrible at it. They believe their competency at sports simply transfers over to every other aspect or vocation in life - in this case running a very challenging athletics league (3 days is no joke) with no prior infrastructure at any of the meets (this wasn't Zurich, Brussels, Oslo and Berlin rekindling the Golden 4). It doesn't help that of any former athlete that could possibly attempt to do this, Johnson would be the last guy I would imagine to be open to feedback/advice on anything that deviated from his POV.
I never believed Johnson set out to scam money from anyone - I also never believed that he started this track league for any other reason than his own ego and long term financial incentive.
aka "saving track" was just an empty league "mantra" - "making myself famous and rich" would have been a better one.
And it's quite simple, when you do things for the wrong reasons, it's funny how they invariably end in disaster. Like Grand Slam Track did.
Nonsense. Johnson was already famous and rich enough to loan the league over $2 million.
Have you ever met a rich person before pal? Clearly you haven't. Goodbye.
I think it largely came from boredom. His previous company Michael Johnson Performance went under. He decided to try this. It's one of those things I don't think he set out to scam anyone. It was a really bad idea though.
For the record, if you want to criticize Grand Slam Track, here is where you go
1) What were they telling everyone when they couldn't pay? If they weren't honest here, blast away. 2) Implying they had a lot more money than they did. 3) Lack of transparency 4) Hubris 5) spending like drunken sailors. I just don't see how they spent so much before the first meet. Doesn't give me a lot of confidence in the team.
1) Yes. Remember, they initially said they accomplished everything they wanted and blamed Donald Trump's tarffs.
2/3) This was also bad. Is anyone surprised there isn't some overly aggressive prosecutor looking into this?
4) The arrogance was huge. Remember how they reacted angrily when Jonathan asked them before the first meet how they'd make money? Also someone told me that when GST was announced a top meet in Europe or meet director put out a feeler to them wto see if they should work together. They were arrogantly rebuffed and said they'd go alone and didn't even talk to them (I never confirmed this story but seems so foolish in hindsight although hindsight is always 20-20).
5) I still have zero idea what the game plan was. I mean you are spending 40 million but you decide to hold the opening meet in Jamaica, don't get any of the top Jamaicans, and you tarp off the seats and hold it during Jamaican rush hour on a Friday?