Why doesn't he just pay out of pocket for this debacle
Is he still wealthy though? He might have earnt a lot during his career, but that doesn't say anything about how much of it he has left. Or that he hasn't already put his own money in.
Even if some wealthy person wanted to underwrite some track meets, there is zero upside in bailing out GST. This isn’t like a sports team: There are no physical assets and no goodwill - no brand, no trademarks, no unique business plan, no tv contracts. GST doesn’t own the scoring system, the prize money system, doesn’t have the athletes under exclusive contract. Maybe there might have been value in having Michael Johnson’s name attached, but probably not now.
If someone wants to underwrite a t&f series, they’re better off just starting with a blank slate rather than an $13 million hole.
Alexis Ohanian could pay the athletes all the prize money they earned and make a big public spectacle out of it and use it to market an actually good meet, with some of the GST athletes, like the last one he threw - that would generate a lot of positive interest in the sport and good will among the athletes
Alexis Ohanian could pay the athletes all the prize money they earned and make a big public spectacle out of it and use it to market an actually good meet, with some of the GST athletes, like the last one he threw - that would generate a lot of positive interest in the sport and good will among the athletes
Why would he want to do that and if he did, why didn’t GST get a real commitment from him at the beginning? If he’s really a good candidate for funds, MJ has probably already contacted him.
If he did do it, GST would be back to square one, he would be out $13M and would have to come up with more funds for next year.
Rather than being downtrodden, the athletes are young people with college degrees that chose to be professional athletes and some are already wealthy. Are they really worthy of receiving charity.
Alexis Ohanian could pay the athletes all the prize money they earned and make a big public spectacle out of it and use it to market an actually good meet, with some of the GST athletes, like the last one he threw - that would generate a lot of positive interest in the sport and good will among the athletes
At this point, if someone has the money to bail out, just start your own track series and let MJ whine in the GST puddle
Not because they expect a profit but just because they're a rich track fan who wants to see great meets? Rich people blow money on entertainment all the time.
Billionaires got that way by making sound decisions. There's no way they would ever support a dumbazz idea like GST. The whims of teenagers and drunk frat boys would never been given a look.
The only really bad idea they made is when Kodak chose not to exploit its digital photography technology, in favor of "protecting" is core film business. So went Kodak, so went Rochester, NY.
i suggest malmo has zero experience in business billionaires. metaphorically runs a 12 minute mile in that domain.
with GST , correct, a billionaire wont hand the financial keys to anyone in that group.
the athletes can chime in on their discipline, and maybe PR, but doubt MJ has any good will left...
Just about everyone knows. He wasn’t legally obligated to do so, so he didn’t. As soon as he wrote check, he would lost almost half of his investment and would have never got it back.
I wouldn't expect a single fan to foot this whole bill, but wouldn't be surprised if track fans could cover a lot of it through a GoFundMe. I'd pony up $100 to help the athletes
I don't think anyone should bail out GST, it's such a mess. They promised money that they didn't have. That reminded me of Valenicia. Isn't there a rich patron who funds the running events there like the Valencia marathon and the world records set on the track there in 2020?
Athlos appears to be doing all the things that GST said it would.
1. Focus the narritive, Women only in this case, track only for GST
2. Pay the Athletes, wasn't it 60k for Athlos, with the Tiaras and First class treatment, beats the Tar out of the empty wallet approach from GST.
3. Start Small and Grow, 5000k in NYC even if not sold out looked great and people seemed to have a great time.
5. Build, they have the team captains element and have stick in a long jump with Tara DW.
Athlos went first, that GST wouldn't look and see and learn is weird..
Nothing assured but hopefully it keeps growing.
5000 isn’t enough to start small. Even if the average ticket sold for $100, the revenue would be $500k compared to about $4M in appearance fees and prize money. The only way a pro track league can be viable is for the athletes to effectively run for free.
People don’t buy tickets or watch, because there are captains and track is an anti-team sport.