Grand Slam Track misses July 31 deadline to pay Kingston prize money

Look. You can criticize Michael for putting on the meets without the money secured, and giving the impression this was funded.

That create a lot of problems one being now to attract investors they're going to have to get them to payoff the debts they've already incurred.

But don't accuse him of "pocketing millions of the investor funds for himself too". That isn't what happened here that Michael siphoned off some money for himself.

nobody knows that. He could be paying himself a yearly salary of 1 or 2 or 3 million. he could be doing it for free.

And if he doesn't want there to be any question, he can lay out every penny they've received and where it's gone.

Do we really know that? Has MJ disclosed how much he paid himself? I'm guessing $3 million. For all we know the investors might have pulled out mainly because MJ was spending their money like a drunken sailor.

We don't know how much Johnson has already paid himself. But he most likely has paid himself something because if he hadn't paid himself anything he would have already said that.

Despite my previous post saying don't accuse MIchael of pocketing millions for himself, I am fine with this line of criticism with the caveat I have no idea if he could be in legal trouble.

But now they haven't even paid the money for the 1st meet. So do we think they even had 1/2 or 1/3 the money they implied secured? But putting this thing on with it hinging on a successful meet in Jamaica wasn't very smart.

Have they blown through $10 million already and not been able to pay out the first meet?

And as others have said they were way overpaying for talent. They perhaps could have gone the "Saudi" route if they have the money secured for 2 years but if they didn't have the funds, 1) they shouldhn't have put on the first meet and 2) tried to do everything on a much smaller budget. They were overpaying for backup 400 Hurdles but underpaying for Sha'Carri and Noah. Instead of 3 million a meet, put on a meet for $1.5.

But who knows the money being paid out was the almost the entire marketing during the meet.

With all the ill will towards him right now, if MJ ran GST for free, or a low number, he surely would have disclosed that already and would have repeated it over and over again. I bet he paid himself quite well.

I agree that there is no evidence of embezzling funds but I think the poster you quoted is correct in saying that the admin people probably drew salaries. I would not be surprised at all if the entity “Grand Slam Track” is paying the individual Michael Johnson a decent salary to be the CEO or whatever his title is.

I’m not a lawyer, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if the athletes end up not getting paid, that Michael Johnson is subject to liability for fraudulent misrepresentation. I know the rules are complicated for personal liability when you are acting as the agent of a corporation— but there are circumstances where the individual can be liable.

This could provide compensation (albeit limited) for the athletes, from Johnson’s bank accounts, even if GST has no money.

The lawyers will have to try to get money from Johnson personally because I don't think Johnson will be able to convince an investor to give Grand Slam Track the $10 million that he needs to pay everyone.

I don't know if the lawyers will be successful or not going after Johnson personally, but they're at least going try. There's no point trying to get money from Grand Slam Track if Grand Slam Track has no money.

This the absurdity of this all.

Like what's the pitch here?

"Hey so we need you to invest 5 million dollars. For that 5 million you are going to pay off the first meet of the series from our first season that we had to cut short because our business fundamentals weren't there to begin with and your remaining 2 million will help set us up for a blockbuster second season"?

He only got any sort of capital the first year because his first crew of investors trusted and believed that an "Olympic hero" on the track must by default be able to translate his ability from that to a business involving track (absurd and lazy logic but the one at play). That smokescreen is well and truly cleared now.

Final thought on the "deadline" - why did he even give one? Just another idiotic move. He set himself up to reinforce that it's really a dumpster fire. He's so effing stupid it's absolutely painful.

What I have been wondering is: How did they go ahead with the meets without the required cash in hand? And how does an “eight-figure sponsor” pull out AFTER the meets have been run? And has that sponsor obtained anything of value from this first season? Sign boards, logos on display, etc?

I was always dubious about GST simply because the economics of track-and-field are really difficult. You can put on a tennis exhibition and all you need are two players and a crowd paying for tickets. A track meet needs dozens of athletes, and many of them are running for a very short amount of time. What do you fill the rest of the time with?

Does anybody have any concrete info if any athlete has been paid these last few days? Please update a GST thread to let us know?

His actions all along here provide an insight into his likely mindset when competing re:doping

Nike makes $Billions in net profits. Nike should pay the Nike Grand Slam bills Nike promised.

It seems like there's a possible opportunity here for a win-win if Nike stepped in and paid the athletes

There is zero chance any one is going to invest in this. Want to put money into track? Better off starting from scratch and avoiding the tainted brand. Over paying like GST did only works if you have Saudi money and willing to lose it over years…

Why would Nike step in ? To pay the face of GST, Sydney, 250.000 in prize money while she's also the face of New Balance ? Fat chance.

Have heard many athletes and coaches complain how they can't get sponsors. Besides a shoe or apparel company what would my firm get out of sponsoring an athlete? It's not like cycling where my logo is front and center on your uniform. So if I am a bank let's say, how would I benefit from sponsoring a runner?

Pretty much the same thing with sinking big bucks into GST at this point (since it seems it has already failed) what exactly would my company get out of this? What return on investment would we get?

So MJ thinks investors are going to pump cash into a venture that has already failed? If he couldn't secure the cash beforehand when there was a chance of success, why would he be able to get it now?

"Don't worry, Titanic passengers. Now that the ship is at the bottom of the ocean, we'll be soliciting new investment funds to fully refund your fare!"

3mil for a track meet??? LOL

Nobody GAF about running, there’s not $30k in a track meet. Dumb idea and *everyone* involved obviously has delusions of grandeur.

Most of those guys would have run for $100 anyway.