GST financial update: GST still hasn't paid Miramar for stadium, MJ says they had cash crunch after key investor pulled out after going to Jamaica event
That said, the events themselves, I really enjoy, and totally support the concept, under new business management, the operations crew does have potential.
Does the concept still work (as well) though without the enormous prize money and, as a consequence, without most of the big stars ?
I don’t think Merber has a lot of blame for the organizing/planning, but I do not respect the CYA silence he is employing at the moment. I know you will tell me it is damage control and lawsuit concerns but I think it is cowardly and unprofessional.
What do you expect him to answer questions he can't answer? You guys are looking for someone to blame. It's the investor 🤣 The athletes didn't pull out. Michael Johnson didn't pull out. Kyle merber didn't pull out. Just two entities pulled out the investor and Jamaica 🤣🤣
Kyle Merber needs to see the inside of a PRISON CELL.
What do you expect him to answer questions he can't answer? You guys are looking for someone to blame. It's the investor 🤣 The athletes didn't pull out. Michael Johnson didn't pull out. Kyle merber didn't pull out. Just two entities pulled out the investor and Jamaica 🤣🤣
Surely the investor was sold a bill of goods and told many things by MJ that were just not true (like he has done all along). Once the big money bailed MJ should have pulled the plug on the entire thing instead of defrauding everyone, especially the athletes
The x factor was the fans...and the haters they succeeded. If so many people watch the Olympics you'd think we could get a sliver of that audience but everyone complains......Well enjoy peak track in 2028
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I don’t think Merber has a lot of blame for the organizing/planning, but I do not respect the CYA silence he is employing at the moment. I know you will tell me it is damage control and lawsuit concerns but I think it is cowardly and unprofessional.
What do you expect him to answer questions he can't answer?
That said, the events themselves, I really enjoy, and totally support the concept, under new business management, the operations crew does have potential.
Support the concept? Watching 100-meter hurdler women run 11.4 for the flat 100 is not scintillating. Have any track fans (or potential new track fans) been clamoring to see Trey Cunningham run a flat 100? They had SML run a flat 400, but not against Gabby Thomas or Paulino, because they were in different “event groups.” So the one potentially good head to head matchup race didn’t happen with their format. And I’m a distance geek who will watch a 25-minute video of a Grant Fisher training session, but who wants to watch these guys jog 74-second laps for 13 minutes before sprinting a 600? The concept itself was fatally flawed.
He could but he shouldn't. Anything he says will be used against him when the lawsuits start.
As I said in my last post, “I do not respect the CYA silence he is employing at the moment. I know you will tell me it is damage control and lawsuit concerns but I think it is cowardly and unprofessional.”
The question MJ needs to answer is: 'Once you knew the investor had pulled out and you didn't have the funds to cover prize money and facilities costs, why did you continue with further GST meets?'
Yeah choosing Kingston as the first meet was totally bizarre and doomed this thing from the start. If you've ever watched the Jamaican trials, the stands are almost totally empty. I have no idea why they thought they could succeed there. I thought the Philly meet went quite well and probably would not have led to investor pull-outs if they started there.
Also, clearly something was going on behind the scenes between jamaican athletes/agents and GST because none of them raced the Kingston meet, despite the much higher (promised) payouts and appearance fees. Some of them were running in random meets halfway across the world that same day, it never made any sense.
It really was crazy how they went to Jamaica as the first meet without the Jamaican stars signed up.
Since mj doesn't understand what cash flow is, why would someone invest in him?
There is definitely a market here. It's just about finding the right invester. Maybe we can't pay people 100K for winning right now that's ok. I'll be honest. I think they could find the investors. Track just needs to be covered perfectly to start matching the levels of some of these team sports.
Maybe a crowd funded lRC league 😭😂
Only half joking. Id support that too honestly
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The fundamental problem (other than a failure to guarantee the money) was thinking that GST could buy prestige. The major events in all sports are prestigious on their own terms and not because of the prize money involved. In tennis and golf, the money followed the prestige of the majors. GST was doing it backwards: everything was about how much money they were handing out. The message to fans was: you should care because look at this pile of cash!
A lesson could have been learned from LIV golf. It has so much money behind it, but none of its tournaments will ever be as important to the players as any of the four majors. You can't buy prestige, you can only acquire it with time. GST tried to reinvent track, but there's only so much you can do with a sport that is just running around in circles for different lengths of time
Now look at some of the start lists for GST. You have guys who are literally filler in their event group who I've never heard of getting paid 20x what the same place gets in the DL ($10k v $500).
Given how uncompetitive some of the event groups were, it's crazy to think how much money they were spending on athletes who were there just to make up the numbers. Last place getting more than winning a DL!