This thread was started about an emergency meeting being called by Michael Johnson with the contracted racers of Grand Slam Track today. Matt Lawton of the Times of London then reported on the emergency meeting being called here (story updated to reflect the LA meet has been cancelled)
And Front Office Sports was the first to report The Grand Slam Track LA meet has been cancelled. Story here.
Tens of thousands of people will be bowling tonight in America.
How many of them have spent one dollar to watch professional bowling in person.???
Jogging a 10k in Central Park or bowling a 150 have essentially nothing to do with the professional side of the sport.
Track isn't unique in this regard.
Wow, so many butt hurt losers in this thread upset that their sport is not popular. No one cares about pro track and field. The athletes don’t put eyes in front of the screen or asses in seats. It’s not a real professional sport. Sorry.
Another VERY stupid post.
🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡
I don't actually care one iota if pro track is "popular" on the level of major league sports; I am stating the obvious fact that many people watch track in person and TV.
Sure, it's not baseball/basketball/football with millions of drooler philistines like you tuned in for 100+ games per year.
The only way I see this succeeding is to get rid of the doubles and cut down the format to 1 day with the premier events.
100M, 200M, 400M, 800M, 1500M
Great post.
Michael J:
- Make each stop a one-day meet. That is plenty for fans who aren't already dedicated to track, who we need in the stands.
- Make a single points standing for each event or event group, without doubling in a given meet. (Like you might have the 100m at one meet, and the 200m at the next one, and they both go toward standings in "short sprints.")
- Make each category have a winner in each meet, and a series winner at the end of the season. Get away from the idea you can lose the second race in the meet, or even lose both, and still be a "slam winner."
So I watched the "explanation" from Johnson. This venture is cooked.
I can not believe (and I say this figuratively because sadly I can believe it) that he said things like "we achieved everything we set out to do" and "this was a great success" - f-ing unbelievable.
My dude, not only did you have to abbreviate one of your meetings, you had to entirely cancel one. How exactly is that a success? This was what you set out to do? When your Olympic hero, founder, CEO can't even stand up there and take any ownership for the situation - you are f-ed.
If he had said something to the effect of "hey look we are a startup, I think we did a lot of things right but also a lot of things wrong - things I as the founder take responsibility for because the buck stops with me" etc etc, I would have said yeah - this guy can be humble and can learn something. That? No chance.
The "we love the hear feedback and we take it all seriously" - that literally made me laugh. There might not be one person in the entire track and field world that I don't think could care less about any feedback, constructive or not, than Michael Johnson. Classic HR 101 blabbage.
Thanks for the memories Michael - hope you can pay some of those bills because I am hearing as of today basically nobody has been paid. Good luck with that.
You think you're going to get Noah, Fred, Kishane, and Trayvon to show up for $5k appearance and a $50,000 1st place ?
Not how our sport works.
Should Trayvon be linked with this? He shows up to these Pure Florida meets for free it seems. Agree on Noah and Kishane, but I doubt Fred is getting much in terms of appearance fees stateside now. They probably should punt on the idea of getting the superstars with challenger spots. That's OK.
Would be great if Citius actually reported on what’s going on but of course they won’t. I like them and think they are a net positive for the sport but what they do is not journalism.
Would be great if Citius actually reported on what’s going on but of course they won’t. I like them and think they are a net positive for the sport but what they do is not journalism.
Totally agree. They are the mouthpiece of whoever is paying them.
So I watched the "explanation" from Johnson. This venture is cooked.
I can not believe (and I say this figuratively because sadly I can believe it) that he said things like "we achieved everything we set out to do" and "this was a great success" - f-ing unbelievable.
My dude, not only did you have to abbreviate one of your meetings, you had to entirely cancel one. How exactly is that a success? This was what you set out to do? When your Olympic hero, founder, CEO can't even stand up there and take any ownership for the situation - you are f-ed.
If he had said something to the effect of "hey look we are a startup, I think we did a lot of things right but also a lot of things wrong - things I as the founder take responsibility for because the buck stops with me" etc etc, I would have said yeah - this guy can be humble and can learn something. That? No chance.
The "we love the hear feedback and we take it all seriously" - that literally made me laugh. There might not be one person in the entire track and field world that I don't think could care less about any feedback, constructive or not, than Michael Johnson. Classic HR 101 blabbage.
Thanks for the memories Michael - hope you can pay some of those bills because I am hearing as of today basically nobody has been paid. Good luck with that.
100%!!!
What a complete failure this was, aside from a nice pay day for a few athletes this thing never made it off the ground. Hey MJ!!!, you've clearly never run a business or company. How can you say you've achieved everything you set out to do? In the years of planning this debacle did you outline to your investors that you'll start with 4 meets, and then abandon one of the events (distance races in Philly were cut in half, with 50% of the prize money removed), and then completely bail out of the 4th meet which was the ONLY one on the West Coast? Now you sit there and dare to say, "more investors are interested in joining our team"? WTF!!! Please share with us how this venture was "a great success". Maybe for your bank account and a select few of your inner circle. Obvious question, WHAT HAPPENDED? Why would you shut down "a great success"? Something was clearly fu^ked up, and something ain't right with this at all. Do you think people are stupid? You keep comparing GST to being a start-up, athletics has been around a long time, this ain't no "start-up" bro! It's a fu^king track meet for cryin' out loud. It's not new, thousands of track meets are put on every year around the world. Your incompetence is mind blowing, how can someone of your stature in the world of track and field with all of the connections you have, and supposedly all of the money you secured, and you completely sh^t the bed? GST is DONE!!!, and you have the balls to say "Uhhh...oh yeah and we plan on being back next year". Not a chance! Any semi-smart investor would run as fast as they can away from this dog with fleas. I was optimistic about this venture, not anymore. Oh, by the way, I have some bridges I want to sell you. I promise, you won't be sorry.
As Mr. Wonderful on the hit T.V. show Shark Tank would say..."I'M OUT".
I just watched the video and he sounds like every CEO on an all hands zoom call explaining how everything is fine only to declare bankruptcy a few weeks/months down the line
All I want to know now is if those athletes got paid yet or not. If not, GST is 100% done and over
Rumor has it nobody has been paid from the last meet...
It's not just the last meet.
I know that earlier in the week, a number of agents received 40% of their invoices from Kingston, just totally out of the blue. If I was an athlete owed well into the 6 figures, I would be extremely concerned. If I was a challenger waiting on my $2000 appearance fee and whatever I had won, I would be starting to prepare for a reality where I am getting nothing.
Cash wasn't the major problem, it was THE problem.
3) It clearly created a false sense of entitlement within the day to day organization all as some of the rumors I had heard about the travel, accommodation, hospitality etc were of extreme extravagance.
In an extreme sense, this was figuratively like handing a briefcase of 100k to a homeless person and expecting them to invest it and use it to turn their life around. It's so much money they didn't know what to do with it and the spending was so exorbitant that by the time they realized it was close to being all gone, it was too late.
I don't get wasting money on first class travel etc. First class travel for everyone or would you rather have Sha'Carri at one of your meets?
But certain things, spending money on production, PR, etc were good ideas. The DL could learn something. They should have done a lot more to get people in the seats even if that meant giving them away. The only problem is it still might not fill up.
Neither do I. I just know this is what they were doing. One of the odd things about Johnson is that despite the outward confidence and hubris, I think he just craved being liked. He liked all the agents fawning over him (because they thought he going to be their meal ticker for the foreseeable future), he liked the athletes fawning over him for the same reason. I mean if someone was letting me fly business class to run in a track meet I'd think he was the best meet director ever too.