No. Tennis is even more like team sports. You have two people on court and can fill an arena.
-
30
-
They are overpaid for competitions if their participation is not generating the revenues - tickets, television, sponsorships.
What they get from individual sponsors is a different matter because they’re giving value there outside any particular meet.60 -
runn wrote:
This is a big part of the problem that track faces.
How many Diamond League events pay $10,000 for first.
Golf has one winner to pay.
Tennis maybe 4 with doubles.
F1 one winner and 20 total with world wide TV.
All DL meets give $10K per event for winners + appearance fees. The one good thing about GST was DL picked certain events as + so money was doubled for those events. Most likely the events GST had. and the Finals were a lot more 50K for + events winners and 30K for regular DL events winners. (by the way Golf pays top 64 per event and tennis pays per win at the grand slams with amount increasing each round)
GST cut out 66% of the events and tons more athletes. to get to their prize money allocation.
See below for the full breakdown of prize money in 2025.
DIAMOND DISCIPLINES
SERIES MEETING
Place
Prize Money (USD)
1st
$10,000
2nd
$6,000
3rd
$4,000
4th
$3,000
5th
$2,500
6th
$2,000
7th
$1,500
8th
$1,000
9th+
$500
DIAMOND+ DISCIPLINES
SERIES MEETIN
Place
Prize Money (USD)
1st
$20,000
2nd
$10,000
3rd
$6,000
4th
$5,000
5th
$3,000
6th
$2,500
7th
$2,000
8th
$1,500
9th+
$750
plus rewards for 9th-12th place finishers in distance races and ninth-lane runners in sprints.
Including promotional fees for top athletes, a total of around 18 million USD will be paid to athletes over the course of the series 16th season in 2025, with many more millions being invested in athlete services such as travel and transport, accommodation and medical and physio provision.31 -
the venues were wrong
sponsorship was wrong
admin was weak
the show was good
the concept was good
the pay was good for athletes
the fomat is something to build on with angel deep pockets investor who loves the sport.
if MJ is not guilty of outrageous fraud, i would retain him and revamp.
120 -
“Angel deep pocket investors”?
at this point it would just be a donation to an experiment in taking a blow torch to a giant pile of money. if there is a path to profitability here no one has articulated it yet.
141 -
Best I can do is faded glory, stroke, narcissism and venture capitalism.
20 -
What could MJ (or any serious track and field fan) have done better with $13 million?
1. Pay for a coach for Athing Mu
2. Set up payments/scholarships/stipends for athletes placing 4-8 in USATF who barely, if at all, can cover their training and traveling costs
3. Buy out the contracts of those who are not helping our sport at USATF?
4. I welcome your thoughts and opinions
181 -
With 13 million you could buy a plane and fly all around israel trailing a banner reading "the brojos and all of letsrun.com stand against israel".
34 -
Almost five months after Grand Slam Track’s opening meet in Jamaica, the project “appears to be on life support,” according to Adam Crafton of THE ATHLETIC. Athletes are “owed millions of dollars in promotional fees and prize money.”
The league has “missed a series of self-imposed deadlines, so far paying out only athlete promotional fees from the first meet in Kingston,” but not the $3.2M prize money from that event.
Facilities, vendors and World Athletics, are “also awaiting overdue payments,” while “several high-ranking GST staff members were laid off in June and those who remained had their pay cut” by 15%. Asset management company Eldridge was “at one point in discussions over investing in GST.”
After Eldridge officials attended the “underwhelming” debut, the fund “informed GST it would not be investing.” GST claimed in June 2024 it had “secured” over $30M in “financial commitments.”
However, sources noted that they had, “at that stage, received only” $13M, with lead investors Winners Alliance “having an option -- but not an obligation” -- to advance a further $19M. Athletes were “kept in the dark about the drop in funds until June” and “continued to compete.” GST “gave serious internal consideration” to cancelling the Philadelphia meet, but “opted to proceed.”
Following the cancellation of the L.A. meet, GST insisted the league “will return for a second season, but Johnson is still to attract investment to cover debts in excess” of $14M (THE ATHLETIC, 8/28).
50 -
One thing I’ve noticed as someone in software development is the GST website. It’s quite bad. And it’s bad because it’s overengineered. They try to do too much with floating elements and all the results on one page. In other words, it’s bad in a way that suggests it was also very expensive.
I don’t know anything about how to do tv production, but the way their graphics and coverage were it seems like it may have had similar flaws.
I think they wasted a lot of money on those productions.
83 -
longjackssss wrote:
the venues were wrong
sponsorship was wrong
admin was weak
the show was good
the concept was good
the pay was good for athletes
the fomat is something to build on with angel deep pockets investor who loves the sport.
if MJ is not guilty of outrageous fraud, i would retain him and revamp.
No, the pay wasn’t good for athletes and there will be no revamping. There just isn’t a market for a pro league and there will never be enough revenue to pay enough in appearance and prize money, to attract elite runners.
As I posted elsewhere, rich guys will consider GST as an investment and not as a charitable cause. From that perspective, GST fails miserably and is like flushing money down a toilet.
This post was edited 11 minutes after it was posted.31 -
We already knew this from the failed version of the American track league that USATF tried to make happen a few year ago. Basically same idea. Same ending, minus the financial catastrophe
11 -
I think the main issue I had with GST was its implicit diss of the established competitions, especially the DL. As if “These idiots have been doing it wrong all this time, and we’ll do better.” Yes, you can do that if you’re prepared to spend (and lose) a good bit of money. Which they did, then the money ran out.
But it’s not just GST; Alexis O’Hanian and his womens’ meet (will there be a second?) had a similar conceit. The meet was enjoyable enough but hardly a new model. I would imagine it lost money but that he was willing to absorb those losses. Once.Face it: The economics of professional track and field are just really difficult. To have a great meet, you need too many athletes; you need virtually all the best people competing in that meet. And there have to be real stakes involved, whether it’s a medal, championship qualification, or just a lot of money.
111 -
Yeah, it’s a sport that almost all of the competitors lose money pursuing and a very few make out ok. It is what it is.
11 -
MacroV wrote:
I think the main issue I had with GST was its implicit diss of the established competitions, especially the DL. As if “These idiots have been doing it wrong all this time, and we’ll do better.” Yes, you can do that if you’re prepared to spend (and lose) a good bit of money. Which they did, then the money ran out.
But it’s not just GST; Alexis O’Hanian and his womens’ meet (will there be a second?) had a similar conceit. The meet was enjoyable enough but hardly a new model. I would imagine it lost money but that he was willing to absorb those losses. Once.
Face it: The economics of professional track and field are just really difficult. To have a great meet, you need too many athletes; you need virtually all the best people competing in that meet. And there have to be real stakes involved, whether it’s a medal, championship qualification, or just a lot of money.
The second instalment of ATHLOS is in October.
This post was edited 7 minutes after it was posted.70 -
Old Ultra Guy wrote:
What could MJ (or any serious track and field fan) have done better with $13 million?
1. Pay for a coach for Athing Mu
2. Set up payments/scholarships/stipends for athletes placing 4-8 in USATF who barely, if at all, can cover their training and traveling costs
3. Buy out the contracts of those who are not helping our sport at USATF?
4. I welcome your thoughts and opinions
We did get to see three elite level meets.
1) It’s the sponsors responsibility to find a coach for Mu. No third party is going to step in and take over her training.
2)Some of the 4-8 guys are already on big contracts so the criteria for who gets the handouts will be very complicated. This is an old issue in every sport and it’s up to the athlete to decide whether it makes sense to continue competing.
3) That’s a strange idea.
22 -
But surely many of the athletes who participated received appearance fees, so that they didn't just get a comped trip, right?
01 -
Kingston appearance fees have been paid, but I'm not sure if it's the full amount. The rest haven't been paid at all.
20 -
Time for MJ to pass the torch on 😁
10 -
Podcast in 2021 wrote:
Almost five months after Grand Slam Track’s opening meet in Jamaica, the project “appears to be on life support,” according to Adam Crafton of THE ATHLETIC. Athletes are “owed millions of dollars in promotional fees and prize money.”
The league has “missed a series of self-imposed deadlines, so far paying out only athlete promotional fees from the first meet in Kingston,” but not the $3.2M prize money from that event.
Facilities, vendors and World Athletics, are “also awaiting overdue payments,” while “several high-ranking GST staff members were laid off in June and those who remained had their pay cut” by 15%. Asset management company Eldridge was “at one point in discussions over investing in GST.”
After Eldridge officials attended the “underwhelming” debut, the fund “informed GST it would not be investing.” GST claimed in June 2024 it had “secured” over $30M in “financial commitments.”
However, sources noted that they had, “at that stage, received only” $13M, with lead investors Winners Alliance “having an option -- but not an obligation” -- to advance a further $19M. Athletes were “kept in the dark about the drop in funds until June” and “continued to compete.” GST “gave serious internal consideration” to cancelling the Philadelphia meet, but “opted to proceed.”
Following the cancellation of the L.A. meet, GST insisted the league “will return for a second season, but Johnson is still to attract investment to cover debts in excess” of $14M (THE ATHLETIC, 8/28).
Once again, the decision to host a meet in Jamaica was the mistake everyone said it would be at the time. Massive stadium, expensive tickets, no local stars. What did they expect to happen? They should have moved heaven and earth to get that first meet in Europe, the home of athletics, where you can draw a crowd and create a buzz. The inquest into the death of GST should start with the question: "What made you choose Kingston?"
30
What People Are Talking About On LetsRun
No top threads at the moment. Check back soon.