Idea - on July 1th have the 1st annual Jonathan Gault Mile Race, sponsor by Letsrun. If Jonathan runs a sub 5 minute mile, he get a $1K bonus, live stream it and take donations lol. I would put $20 for that. Probably more views than Grand Slam.
Have it on the downhill SF course and have Rojo run it too. Rojo gets half of Jon's bonus if he can break 5:59.
I consider myself to be a smart person, but I’m not getting how there is even a conversation here. There will be no settlement and no season 2.
On a side note, I’d love to see someone like Phil Knight or Alexis Ohanian make the athletes whole as a charitable sign of good will.
Why?
They were grossly overpaid. Grant Fisher doesn't deserve 100k for losing a 3k on purpose. Luis Grijalva doesn't deserve tens of thousands for not racing. SML is already rich enough.
The Walmart hurdler - sure. Give him his cash.
One of the worst takes I’ve seen on these boards.
1. They weren’t overpaid because these were the terms they signed up for. Furthermore they didn’t even receive all of these “overpaid” funds.
2. This is there job. Running has a relatively short window and almost no one is making enough to set themselves up for life. Someone like Grant Fisher will one day get a “real job” and has effectively set a career back a decade. When he should be in the prime of his money making life, he’ll be starting over.
I’m in favor of runners getting paid as much as possible. Your user name does not check out.
Everyone’s complaining and hating acting like they’d rather USATF held meet. Oh wait, they don’t do anything for the sport or host any regular season meets. At least grand slam track is TRYING to make our sport better
Trying to make the sport better is a fine initiative. What GST actually did:
- exclude all field events and track athletes unable/unwilling to double every meet - make outrageous claims about "saving Track", inferring that it's dying without them - pretend like their prize money and expenses were based on reality - complete (financial) mismanagement of their league - create lots of (global) negative news for the sport
Stating that USATF is bad too isn't erasing any of the bad outcomes resulting from the mismanagement of GST.
I think there is a remote possibility that GST lives on. Here is a scenario that could do it. It looks like GST has about zero in assets relative to its debts. Absent an infusion of cash, whatever you have now is all you are getting (maybe a little less if you received anything within the clawback window). If you are in this group, your only hope of a recovery is for GST to continue. That includes the athletes, who are among the unsecured creditors. So how can GST continue? You need a new investor, and probably new management. But nobody will invest unless the athletes agree to run in an upcoming season. If the creditor's committee can line up an investor lined that is willing to fund a 2026 or 2027 season, it could offer to have the funds owed athletes turned into unsecured notes in the reconstituted league so long as the athlete agreed to participate in the upcoming season. Assuming the league can become profitable, their notes would be paid off, and they would earn additional funds from the upcoming season. Is there an investor? Would enough of the athletes agree to avoid getting essentially nothing from what would be a GST liquidation? I have no idea. But if you want a scenario that keeps GST alive, this could do it.
It's interesting because I never considered that this may have been the long term profitability plan all along. I saw this as the only way GST could survive to season 2 but it's interesting (and frankly disgusting) to think that MJ and his investors really only started GST to have high-profile sports product to wave at the Gulf Investors ahead of LA 2028 and whore out track and field for the blood money. Maybe in a way it's good they couldn't stem the bleeding of cash until it got to that point because imagine our beautiful sport of track and field becoming like LIV golf or that Riyadh comedy festival a few months back. Though I would hope track athletes would have more moral fortitude and backbone than sycophant comedian or golfers (maybe not Fred Kerley, though).
The triathletes have taken to Saudi money like it’s going out of fashion, look at the T100. It’s just some weird survival race where they all run at a snails pace with heat stroke. World triathlon series short stuff too. Sickening.
There has never been a company that declared bankruptcy in their first year that survived. NEVER!
If you think GST, with $7k in “assets” and $30 million in debt, is going to be the first company ever to recover from a first-year bankruptcy, you are delusional.
Wejo hopped on the Zoom for the first federally required creditors' meeting for GST yesterday. It was fascinating. Even though they have only $7,300 of cash on hand and $30 million in debt, they aren't planning on just liquidating. They have 6 employees left (one of whom is Michael Johnson) and have a budget draw up where they are going to drop $400k to sign up racers for 2026.
Bankruptcy is wild if it allows the 2025 racers debts to be wiped out but for the league to come back in 2026. Under what word view does anyone think it's going to be successfuly in 2026 after blowing so much cash in 2025?
It’s over, as it should be. The proverbial chicken with its head cut off. as a business venture, an utter and complete failure.
I hate to think of the retribution from the non-US athlete's military families, tribes, kung-fu societies, religious crack-pots. what sort of operatives do they employ in the usa. when will they visit Michael Johnson, Kyle Merber, Chris Chavez, Wejo, etc.
They were grossly overpaid. Grant Fisher doesn't deserve 100k for losing a 3k on purpose. Luis Grijalva doesn't deserve tens of thousands for not racing. SML is already rich enough.
The Walmart hurdler - sure. Give him his cash.
One of the worst takes I’ve seen on these boards.
1. They weren’t overpaid because these were the terms they signed up for. Furthermore they didn’t even receive all of these “overpaid” funds.
2. This is there job. Running has a relatively short window and almost no one is making enough to set themselves up for life. Someone like Grant Fisher will one day get a “real job” and has effectively set a career back a decade. When he should be in the prime of his money making life, he’ll be starting over.
I’m in favor of runners getting paid as much as possible. Your user name does not check out.
Sure they signed up for these terms. But it makes zero sense for a Phil Knight to step in and honor those terms (which never made financial sense in the first place).
One group that deserves some blame are the athletes' agents. Did any of them say, "show me the money..." Where was the due diligence? In the business world, no one does a handshake, reputation deal with a brand new corporate entity/start up. They demand guarantees, escrow accounts, insurance, etc. A simple, "who's paying for this?" followed up with some simple guarantees would have revealed the money wasn't really there. Someone (MJ) threw around some big numbers and they bit. Shame on them for taking a percentage....
Everyone’s complaining and hating acting like they’d rather USATF held meet. Oh wait, they don’t do anything for the sport or host any regular season meets. At least grand slam track is TRYING to make our sport better
Trying to make the sport better is a fine initiative. What GST actually did:
- exclude all field events and track athletes unable/unwilling to double every meet - make outrageous claims about "saving Track", inferring that it's dying without them - pretend like their prize money and expenses were based on reality - complete (financial) mismanagement of their league - create lots of (global) negative news for the sport
Stating that USATF is bad too isn't erasing any of the bad outcomes resulting from the mismanagement of GST.
Don’t worry tho Kyle Merber has a nice smile. He writes cute blogs, everyone “likes” him. He’s coolz used to be friends with Eric Van Igdennn——and he’s the exact person who would sink a ship.
merber is like an MBA. He exists, people like to bring him up cuz he’s cool, he looks good on paper—but at the end of the day he’s and idiot business wise—the kind of MbA to crash a fffing business and lose all the money and then say “they didn’t teach this ish mba school. We learned about top down ffing communicsifik
I hate to think of the retribution from the non-US athlete's military families, tribes, kung-fu societies, religious crack-pots. what sort of operatives do they employ in the usa. when will they visit Michael Johnson, Kyle Merber, Chris Chavez, Wejo, etc.
It just kills me—because Kyle Merber is such a dude to be a part of this. A happy go lucky dude who seems pseudo smart in the running world—b it anyone in an executive Pepsi on would never let that man be director of any company—-and you let him lose millions. This isn’t ffffing highschool Xac olay date. This is the real world. I hate how arrogant and dumb runnners are—and like he was the “best” we had. Everyone thinks merger is a genus ha bs be works a normal ffing job
The correct, competent people could have made an incredible meet (maybe a league) with the amount of money invested. Cannot be overstated how badly MJ managed this.
dude Mj is old. Merber is fffiy. 35 and in his intellectual prime—wtf was he doing sucking mi? Like bro I don’t care who Mj is—in running world oh wowowo who—in real work—I would tell Mj to sit the f down and stfu. Merber too.
my Pr might only be 4:21 in the Mile but the difference between me and merber is I own a multimillion business. He looks good on paper and doesn’t get drunk or do drugs and comment crazy stuff on message boards—-but someone like me creates leverage and actually gets business done and deal closed. Merber drinks IPA beers and never does anything wrong….until wvduksnsheke
Unfortunately We seen this opera before. I wish NOT, but expect we should start seeing mysterious accidents befall CC, KM, MJ, Rojo, Flo Track, associates, conspirators, etc. Like robbed on the street stabbed, and bled to death. drowned in the swimming pool, pushed down the stairs, fell off the 10th story balcony, arsenic food poisoning, etc. Judgement Day has Arrived.
I’ll tell in the most plain terms why GST isn’t holding another meet (that no one is discussing):
It is January 17 and there is NOTHING on the schedule. They held meets in late spring/early summer last year. 3-4 months from now. Crickets. Too many conflicts later in the summer or early Fall. GST is dead.
Grand Slam Track's $2.35 mil Chapter 11 financing has been approved by the bankruptcy judge. $1 million has already been transferred. GST is scheduled to file its plan of reorganization Feb 6