I won’t. That part is easy. But some rich idiot shouldn’t get millions forgiven so he can try again at his stupid ego project. It’s more government socialism for the rich while poor people starve.
You don't know the facts. MJ is losing money, not getting millions.
If investors stepped up today with enough money to pay every penny owed from 2025 and Michael Johnson remains the CEO, I would say "no deal." Johnson needs to go. He single-handedly ran this into the ground and caused this mess. He knew the company was in serious financial trouble after Miami and yet insisted on having the Philadelphia meet, despite all indicators that it would only add to the financial problem. He even considered hosting the Los Angeles meet! If he would have made the smart business decision to end the series after Miami before the debts got completely out of control, then maybe he could stay on. But his name is now poison in the track world and only reminds athletes/investors/fans of what he did last year. GST will never hold another meet.
Il’l state the obvious: other than the athletes, all of the unsecured creditors will reject the plan. Under federal bankruptcy law, pre-filing money that was paid can be clawed back. I think that will happen and there will be a redistribution. Who in their right mind would consider doing business with MJ after this debacle anyway? Don’t be surprised if the enterprise is forced into a Ch. 13.
1) It's my understanding, they don't have to accept the plan. As long as one class of creditors (the athletes in this case) accepts the plan and everyone else is made better under this plan than if this goes to chapter 7, the judge can "cram down" the plan on everyone.
2) The other creditors can use the threat of lawsuits and the "clawback" angle to try and negotiate a better settlement, which is the most likely scenario. But realistically, if this plan isn't approved, everyone heads to Chapter 7, where the league says recovery is likely $0. The Trustee could sue hundreds of athletes for the 50% they were paid last fall. But that’s a huge legal battle. The league would argue those were athlete payments were essential to the business. Even if the Trustee won, a massive chunk of that clawback cash would go to lawyers and administrative fees first. With no legal fees the best case scenario would them probably getting 25% of what they are owed and the athletes getting 25%.
The 1.5% seems grossly unfair, but bankruptcy law from what I understand isn't about fairness. Is everyone better off than GST disappearing is the question? And they are buying the goodwill of the athletes to try and continue in season 2.
To top off the fairness angle, the entire group that caused this debacle of season 1 would be in charge of season 2. Not "fair" but better than it disappearing is the bar for the court. As Winners Alliance isn't putting in the money unless they and MJ are in charge.
3) As for who would consider doing business with MJ, agents likely will demand the money for each meet to be put in escrow. There are ways around that, but a lot of goodwill is lost.
Do the creditors get a vote equivalent to the unsecured proportion they are owed? If so, the athletes are only approximately 1/3 of the total vote.
The Johnson group must know this will fail but they want to be able to say "look, we proposed a plan to pay the athletes, it's everyone else's fault it didn't pass".
Either that or they are hoping some of the other creditors vote for the plan because those creditors know it's hopeless anyway and don't want the publicity of voting for the athletes NOT to be paid.
I still can't see a legit hope to continuing operations, but if the investors want to transfer some more money to athletes as this winds down, I'm okay with that.
It's my understanding only one group of creditors needs to vote yes and then the plan can be forced on everyone if the judge determines its better than this thing disappearing and everyone getting 0.
If GST are prepared to fund 85% of total money owed to athletes, why not pay the full 100%? Doesn't make sense to me if GST are serioua about holding a second season.
From my understanding legally you don't want to pay one group 100%. If they did that the judge would say "do you really have to pay them 100% and everyone else essentially nothing" .
This makes it look like everyone isn't getting what they want. The lawyers didn't pick these numbers randomly
Do the creditors get a vote equivalent to the unsecured proportion they are owed? If so, the athletes are only approximately 1/3 of the total vote.
The Johnson group must know this will fail but they want to be able to say "look, we proposed a plan to pay the athletes, it's everyone else's fault it didn't pass".
Either that or they are hoping some of the other creditors vote for the plan because those creditors know it's hopeless anyway and don't want the publicity of voting for the athletes NOT to be paid.
I still can't see a legit hope to continuing operations, but if the investors want to transfer some more money to athletes as this winds down, I'm okay with that.
It's my understanding only one group of creditors needs to vote yes and then the plan can be forced on everyone if the judge determines its better than this thing disappearing and everyone getting 0.
The creditors committee needs two things to pass. The majority of the creditors to vote yes and the majority of the debt holders to vote yes. That is over 50% of the voters to vote yes and over 50% of the debt to vote yes. I don’t think this is binding on the judge however if it does not get both votes to pass.
Grand Slam Track filed its reorganization plan Monday.
The plan is to pay $6 million of the $7 million owed to athletes. Everyone else is slated to just get $200,000 total out of the $13 million they are owed.
Michael Johnson would still be CEO and Winners Alliance would be funding this. Then the new entity could try and have a season 2. Final bankruptcy hearing would be mid April.
There will be no 2nd season. GST grabbed a lot of the biggest names in the sport, and then put on a series of absolute snooze-fest meets. After this debacle, they won't have access to the a-list athletes anymore and their concept isn't interesting or unique enough to work on it's own.
There must be something Winners Alliance knows that we don't know, like maybe some of the athletes had a multi-season binding contract and they can't get out of it with 85% pay or something. Winners Alliance isn't just putting up 6.2M for a chance at a season that will probably cost them another 10M or more without (a) good reason(s).
There will be no 2nd season. GST grabbed a lot of the biggest names in the sport, and then put on a series of absolute snooze-fest meets. After this debacle, they won't have access to the a-list athletes anymore and their concept isn't interesting or unique enough to work on it's own.
There must be something Winners Alliance knows that we don't know, like maybe some of the athletes had a multi-season binding contract and they can't get out of it with 85% pay or something. Winners Alliance isn't just putting up 6.2M for a chance at a season that will probably cost them another 10M or more without (a) good reason(s).
I would think if they're ponying up $6 million now to make the athletes more than 90% whole, that they likely have thought about how they would try and pull off a Season 2. But even if Season 2 doesn't come about, the athletes are getting $6 million from this deal, so they most certainly will vote yes.
Winners Alliance or somebody else would then have to put up money for Season 2. But since these payouts aren't dependent on the future revenue of the league, I don't think the league is required to file plans for Season 2 with the bankruptcy court. If the plan was "we'll pay the athletes from season 2 revenue" then I think they'd have to show more details on season 2.
Do the athletes have contracts with GST that would obligate them to run in a second season if GST assumes the contracts? If not, why wouldn't the athletes vote to get 85% of Season 1 money and then refuse to run for GST in Season 2. You would be a chump to run for GST in Season 2 if you weren't contractually obligated. You would just end up going through the same kind of pain again after GST fails during Season 2.
I can't see how any of this works unless someone comes in and throw large amounts of money at GST and guarantees payments without any hope of ever making anything back. GST wasn't a sound business proposition in Season 1 despite all of the hype, hope, and goodwill and it certainly isn't now that it's badly damaged goods. I would love to see a way for track athletes to get more money and eyeballs on them, but GST has already proved that it's not the way.
If GST are prepared to fund 85% of total money owed to athletes, why not pay the full 100%? Doesn't make sense to me if GST are serioua about holding a second season.
My only concern is for the athletes.
They were the “work force” without the athletes no meet or series can have success. Many of the athletes don’t make a lot of money to begin with. Many of the the athletes didn’t have the 2025 season, that they had hoped for, due to the early in the year prep and series of races.
Grand Slam Track filed its reorganization plan Monday.
The plan is to pay $6 million of the $7 million owed to athletes. Everyone else is slated to just get $200,000 total out of the $13 million they are owed.
Then the new entity could try and have a season 2.
If this plan is approved, which is unlikely, then there is a zero percent chance of a second GST season, because all of the non-runners would get totally screwed. There wouldn't be any facilities willing to rent them a track and there wouldn't be any timing companies willing to time the meets either.
say yes. athletes. costs nothing. see what happens. moving forward people can ask for money upfront escrow.
But if there were a second bankruptcy, this money could still be clawed back. There is nothing GST can do to ensure future athletes and other creditors will get paid in a season 2, which is a big reason why there won’t be a season 2.
This post was edited 3 minutes after it was posted.
Hello Waldo, why can't people come to the realistic conclusion that while Michael Johnson was in an outstanding 400 M runner, one of the best ever. He is Dumb as hell.
Grand Slam Track filed its reorganization plan Monday.
The plan is to pay $6 million of the $7 million owed to athletes. Everyone else is slated to just get $200,000 total out of the $13 million they are owed.
Michael Johnson would still be CEO and Winners Alliance would be funding this. Then the new entity could try and have a season 2. Final bankruptcy hearing would be mid April.
