Michael Johnson issues letter saying they don’t have the money, no GST2026 unless athletes paid

$13 million would be the total prize pool for all meets, including the LA meet that was canceled, and the original long distance prize pool for Philadelphia.

It seems the 13 million they owe right now is appearance fees for the Miami and Philadelphia meets, and prize money for all three. The only thing that has been paid is appearance fees for Kingston.

In other sports that sort of exclusive all-access relationship would be something media outlets pay leagues for, rather than the other way around.

It may be different for startup leagues though. LIV golf for instance does not receive a rights fee from the CW, and it’s likely GST didn’t either.

Not coming at you here, just opening discussion - but did you really think so?

Yes across 3 meets there were some nice moments on the track - but how could that not happen with the cast of athletes they had? The mens MD group was excellent and had the best races but that's to be expected with a full Olympic podium roster (Hocker, Kerr, Nuguse and Arop from the 8).

But other than that? The next most memorable races were the 3000/5000 debacle from Kingston, I'll never forget Gebrhiwet basically walking up the home straight in 17 seconds to win a pro 3000m "race". I don't think that's a good thing.

The "show" is what I think hurt it so much, and that was linked to Johnsons stupid concept. 8 events per day, across 100 minutes, times three days. If you want to do that you better have some interesting and compelling hosts to keep things going. Instead we had John Anderson playing the wise-crack color guy and he was terrible, they had Centrowitz in for one broadcast, Chavez in for another and Merber in for the third and those guys were put in positions they just weren't ready/able to do. The tried to be innovative (aka just different) with camera shots and this janky drone that was just so amateurish it was cringey, and we were promised all this "never been seen before, unrivaled athlete storytelling" and the only thing I can remember is Jess Hull and her Jamaican potato chips.

So the only thing that held the show up were the events on the track, the problem was there just wasn't enough of them and (shout out to the field eventers who were dismissed by Johnson) no field event action to cut to, reference, or keep the action as a whole moving.

That's just my opinion though - what was it about the show that you thought they did well? Maybe I missed/overlooked stuff.

There were some memorable non-distance moments too. Masai Russell’s AR in the 100m hurdles in Miami was cool. So was Gabby Thomas beating the gold and silver medalists in the 400m in Kingston. Kenny Bednarek being utterly dominant in the men’s short sprints was exciting and surprising.

I thought the broadcast was a bit overdone and they should have had less time between races. They seemingly relied on high-budget gimmicks that didn’t work very well. And did the same with their official website.

$400k for Jefferson and Bednarek was the beginning problem, that's way too much money. $10k-$20k prize money was enough, and the league should've started like that. Is that really a lot of money for somebody like Ackman? I can see the $400k number scaring him, somebody in his circle making a joke; "Haha you''re paying them $400k for 10 seconds of work".

Wait. Naser won that 400m. Thomas only won the “overall event” and the 200m. That stupid format.

Can MJ not just start paying out of pocket? At least in an attempt to save face...

Not a huge fan so I'm not sure what more he has done since retiring from T&F, but if the money struggles continue to GST, couldn't and shouldn't he start offering up some of his millions to settle payments?

The entire conceit was fatally flawed.
—who wants to watch 100/110m hurdlers race slow flat 100s? Is anyone really clamoring to see Keni Harrison run an 11.7 in the 100?

— the organizers promised head to head racing, but in one meet they had Sydney M-L racing the flat 400 in a different race than Gabby Thomas and Pauliño, because they were in different “event groups.” The one matchup you’d want to see — how does SML match up against the Olympic champ in the flat 400? — and we didn’t get it.

—The men’a distance events were brutal, with no pacesetters and no incentives to run fast (say, you have to go through midway under X time if you want the payout). So we saw world-class athletes like Nico Young and Grant Fisher jogging 78-second laps and then racing a 600.

—The broadcast/presentation was also awful: often no clock or lap splits on the screen (maybe because they didn’t want us to know the men ran their opening K in 3:18); absolutely nausea-inducing drone shots (my toddler had a steadier hand holding a camera); too much dead time on air; a very forced/abrupt transition from the “host” commentators (Centro/John Anderson/etc) to the booth announcers (Steve Cram/Carrie Tollefson), so there was no time for the people calling the action to set up the race properly; and then their inability to immediately calculate, “he placed third, so he gets X points and is the overall group winner.” At least they were able to get those oversized cardboard checks to the winners; that’s the closest those athletes will ever get to seeing real money.

I attended the Stockholm Diamond league with my family this year (and then watched the broadcast after the fact) and it was an infinitely better product.

The drone shots were hillarious. "What if you could watch the athletes from even further away, with an added camera shake?"

“You didn’t buy tickets to the Miami stop, but merely tuned in to the CW? We’re going to punish you by making you seasick before the gun goes off, and making it impossible to see who is in what lane. P.S. we spent money that should be going to the facility rental fee, appearance fees, and prize money on this ill-conceived drone. Innovation!!”

Trump destroyed the original USFL and turned it into the laughingstock $3 league, via the remarkable stupidity that he could compete directly with the NFL. It's no different than believing Putin would do anything but laugh at him.

That USFL example is the nearest parallel to Michael Johnson somehow failing to recognize the stature, magnifying terrain, and sensible pay table of the Diamond League, under absurd delusion that he'd attract fans despite no creativity or crossover attachments.

Grand Slam Track could have had a park setting, like those Atlanta City Games. Build a full sized track coinciding with a festival and have one drunk after another racing alongside on the grass, just like those marathon idiots. Social media would have lapped up crap like that. Instead he sticks it in Jamaica and wonders what possibly could go wrong?

To all those who are being critical of the investor who pulled out

First off we Johnson started the Jamaica meet without all the proper funding 100% tied up in written contracts

You(the investor" promised you would invest $30 million but you hadn't signed anything yet and went to Kinston to see the product.

You show up to day 1 and it is obvious the series in a flop and if you invested you would lose all your money and never see any return. You do the smart business move and decide not to invest.

So all of those who are looking to string up the investor you are telling me you would have still invested knowing you were going to lose everything.

The investor is not in the wrong here Johnson was for lying to everyone and trying to keep GST going even after he knew he didn't have the backing he needed to pay his bills.

Oh totally. That's not on the mysterious "investor" on record. Firstly there would have been no verbal promise of money because in some cases a verbal agreement can be binding, and I doubt anyone with that amount of case who has done this before even risks walking that fine line of "promises".

And I even believe Johnson knew full well this funding wasn't guaranteed (because it wasn't) but simply believed due to his own arrogance/hubris/self-belief in his concept that the product would be good enough to ultimately get the sign-off.

To your point, if I, as a non-track person and maybe someone used to investing in other sports like tennis, the NBA, NFL etc, went to that meet calling itself the "Grand Slam" and experienced that meet? No freaking way I'm moving forwards with any money. From a business standpoint that would be absurd.

Ok then why are some people looking to crucify the investor that pulled his money? Yes it put the final nail in the coffin of GST but at the end of the day it was a business

They should have approached Denny’s and asked if they’d like to be a sponsor.

Huh? That's the point I am making - "crucifying the investor" is just a lame and completely obvious smoke and mirror campaign which was probably cooked up by the GST PR team writing all his media releases.

Someone posted that MJ received $500,000 for his "work". If so, he should split that money into equal parts for all the competitors owed money.

Ok so let’s say MJ was paid $500k for his work. Who else got paid-

Centro? Carrie Tollefson? Chavez? Sanya Richards Ross? None of these people have spoken out about not getting paid so I am assuming they were paid upfront as well. Merber was getting paid.

but not venues? Workers? Athletes? The radio silence is such bull. Such cowardly moves.

chavez should give the money back, the slimy smiley little turd