Kyle Merber returns to CITIUS MAG & explains his side

Salvitore Stitchmo wrote:

Not a great excuse wrote:

Yes, people claiming that Merber didn’t have knowledge of things essential to his job duties are indeed opining on things they don’t understand.

This isn't a serious post is it?

Have you have ever had a job where you have been in charge of a budget? Because I have. And I get given that number (the same way my colleagues do) and my job is to plan to appropriate/spend it. I have personally, and never ever seen or heard of a situation in my life where someone has gone back to their boss and asked for some form of financial line list of profit/loss/investment to confirm that this money is actually there to be spent. I don't even know what that document would even look like. Furthermore if I did do that, I would expect to be told to just focus on doing my job or look for another one.

Your contention that in his role Merber would and should have had confirmation of GST's greater finances is just absurd. So he's just figured out his "challenger" field for the womens 3/5000m in Kingston but before confirming anyone he's asking to see the bank account to make sure that the money is physically sitting there? I'm literally shaking my head and laughing at this, you can't be serious.

My god, some people that post on this messageboard - you need to stop and think before you hit that "post reply".

not my real name wrote:

Salvitore Stitchmo wrote:

This isn't a serious post is it?

Have you have ever had a job where you have been in charge of a budget? Because I have. And I get given that number (the same way my colleagues do) and my job is to plan to appropriate/spend it. I have personally, and never ever seen or heard of a situation in my life where someone has gone back to their boss and asked for some form of financial line list of profit/loss/investment to confirm that this money is actually there to be spent. I don't even know what that document would even look like. Furthermore if I did do that, I would expect to be told to just focus on doing my job or look for another one.

Your contention that in his role Merber would and should have had confirmation of GST's greater finances is just absurd. So he's just figured out his "challenger" field for the womens 3/5000m in Kingston but before confirming anyone he's asking to see the bank account to make sure that the money is physically sitting there? I'm literally shaking my head and laughing at this, you can't be serious.

My god, some people that post on this messageboard - you need to stop and think before you hit that "post reply".

The ratio of upvotes to downvotes just confirms that at least 1/3 of all LR posters are morans. Geezus, people. Yes, it's certainly plausible that Merb *suspected* things weren't all pretty but I've been paid 6-9mos later on several occasions and only 1-2 of those were due to doping control holdups (someone testing +, so they used that excuse to hold all 5 $ positions until it was fully adjudicated), so this does indeed happen, even at "reputable" or high profile races. Even at high profile races, it's still very common to not see a check for 1-2mos, so 8-9 weeks is still very much inside the window *before* you start getting worried.

Two things can be true at once, Merber may have suspected all was not perfect, but also had reasonable assurance from MJ and combined that with past experience in receiving slow payments himself in order to conclude that all was most likely ( or, hopefully) in order with GST.

"not a great excuse," you may well be correct but the evidence you keep presenting as concrete proof is beyond circumstantial, especially when you consider how things work in the world of professional athletics. I would suggest you try being a professional athlete and earn a few hundred checks before continuing to comment on this thread.

orsilochus wrote:

What happens next is he asks the controller and Michael Johnson and the C suite where the money is, and they proceed to blow the same smoke to Merber that they've been blowing to everyone else.

He was probably told the money was there or will be there or that it's just an administrative hold up, and to continue doing his job. In most cases if you just stop doing your job, you get fired.

And believe it or not, most CEOs and executives are not really in the habit of being completely transparent or honest with their employees - especially when they're under water.

Don't forget, Merber has a family and had what was presumably a pretty high paying job with Amex before all this. Do you seriously believe that he would have stuck around with GST if he was at all aware of the true extent of financial issues?

franklin jason wrote:

orsilochus wrote:

What happens next is he asks the controller and Michael Johnson and the C suite where the money is, and they proceed to blow the same smoke to Merber that they've been blowing to everyone else.

He was probably told the money was there or will be there or that it's just an administrative hold up, and to continue doing his job. In most cases if you just stop doing your job, you get fired.

And believe it or not, most CEOs and executives are not really in the habit of being completely transparent or honest with their employees - especially when they're under water.

Don't forget, Merber has a family and had what was presumably a pretty high paying job with Amex before all this. Do you seriously believe that he would have stuck around with GST if he was at all aware of the true extent of financial issues?

Come on brother. The Senior Director of Racing doesn't just slink away after getting an answer that his phone is blowing up because of an "administrative hold up". How does that help him?

franklin jason wrote:

orsilochus wrote:

What happens next is he asks the controller and Michael Johnson and the C suite where the money is, and they proceed to blow the same smoke to Merber that they've been blowing to everyone else.

He was probably told the money was there or will be there or that it's just an administrative hold up, and to continue doing his job. In most cases if you just stop doing your job, you get fired.

And believe it or not, most CEOs and executives are not really in the habit of being completely transparent or honest with their employees - especially when they're under water.

Don't forget, Merber has a family and had what was presumably a pretty high paying job with Amex before all this. Do you seriously believe that he would have stuck around with GST if he was at all aware of the true extent of financial issues?

Come on brother. The Senior Director of Racing doesn't just slink away after getting an answer that his phone is blowing up because of an "administrative hold up". How does that help him?

orsilochus wrote:

franklin jason wrote:

Come on brother. The Senior Director of Racing doesn't just slink away after getting an answer that his phone is blowing up because of an "administrative hold up". How does that help him?

You idiots seem really hung up on the "Senior Director" thing. Its a made up title. Just because it has "Senior" and "Director" in it doesn't mean he had any real leadership position beyond signing athletes.

He never would have handled money. He never would have seen payment methods. He would not have had any real control over the money itself other than pushing numbers around on a spreadsheet and allocating the budget that MJ told him he had. That is just not how these things work.

Timeline is also important here. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the very first payment deadline for prize money was set for July - wellafter the Philadelphia meet happened and the LA meet was cancelled. Meaning, every athlete that raced or would have raced had already been signed. So Merber's job was a pretty much fulfilled before any sign of immediate trouble had cropped up. So it's entirely misrepresenting the timeline to insinutate that Merber was aware of the financial issues and kept signing new athletes anyway.

If you are really committed to hating this guy, go ahead. I just don't see the point.

Roger Biebert wrote:

The news about athletes not being paid came out fairly early right? Are we sure they were calling Merber much earlier than 2 days in advance before the news of them not being paid yet came out?

When LA was cancelled, I remember there was some sort of call with all athletes to discuss. Payments must have been discussed right? Are we sure it was on Merber to communicate the status of payments given the other conference calls with athletes that seemed to have been happening? My point is, I'm not sure that Merber had any more insider knowledge than someone like Fisher or Kerr had at any time, or was that Merber was the one being called.

That said - the reason GST failed was a failure to secure the initial investing cash and future TV contracts. He must take some blame right? Why weren't there more Jamaicans at the GST Jamaica meet? Why were so many races sort of boring? Why were hurdlers making up 1/3 of the athletes (if you aren't having field events to the lack of appeal, the answer is to have a ton of hurdlers and them running half their races without hurdles)? You'd think he would have a high level of influence on any of these decisions - a lot of which made a lot of fans question the whole thing. Living halfway between NY and Philly, I'd be the first person buying tickets to Milrose, but would have no interest in making a trip for ONE day at GST Philly, never mind 2 or 3. And from a tv perspective, even as a huge track fan I'm not spending 9 hours of a weekend watching the racing product they put out - and that would be on the director of racing.

In all, I don't think Merber is a scammer and I dont think should be criticized as one. I do think he was unsuccessful in his role - but it was definitely a difficult role and probably not one he was suited for. I'm not sure why they wouldn't have hired a meet director with proven success.