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
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.
MJ thought he was more important in T&F than he actually is and thought his name would have investors throwing at him. Such a big ego
Big red flag the Jamaican stars were willing to go run in Fla for free when GST was in Kingston
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?'
That's where potential fraud charges come into play. Telling people and facilities you're going to pay them when you know you don't have any money to pay them is fraud. If you write a check for a million dollars when you have no money in your bank account you'll get arrested.
Can someone please tell me how tariffs would impact a pro sports league?
Sports leagues rely on sponsors. Tariffs suppress the economy, reducing sales. Rising sponsor costs force budget cuts. Less sales, and increased costs for sponsors means sponsoring sports leagues is no longer profitable.
Wild unpredictable swings in tariffs mean all bets are off with future economic decision making.
It really was crazy how they went to Jamaica as the first meet without the Jamaican stars signed up.
MJ thought he was more important in T&F than he actually is and thought his name would have investors throwing at him. Such a big ego
Big red flag the Jamaican stars were willing to go run in Fla for free when GST was in Kingston
Nike will convince some other hasbeen to drill a big hole in the hull of the Diamond League and World Athletics ship. Nike sank USATF and replaced old time staff with nunpaid children Beaverton execs and relocated USATF to Track Town USA. DL and WA are next to be nationalized by Nike.
This is on the organizers of GST. Knowing how important it is to make a strong first impression, why on earth did they go to Kingston? There are some proven venues where there's a built in audience. As an example, they could have tried to piggy back on to Penn Relays or Drake Relays. Or they could have tried in a locale like London that draws big crowds. Or even Hayward.
because the meet was in April. Jamaica should be guaranteed warm enough for then, imo, why diamond league does stops in Qatar, China, etc. early in the season. Can't go somewhere where there's a chance of freezing temperatures in April and expect a good meet. And probably why the next meet was Miami.
Investor went to Jamaica and saw no-one was there. Like me, he or she must have been stunned by how few people were there.
Immediately decided to cut bait and not dump more money into venture. Investor (or GST), like many in the country. tries to blame it on Trump. Can someone please tell me how tariffs would impact a pro sports league?
PS. Here is the link to Young's actual article which I have added to the first post.
Also Corey Mull has a tweet out about how they haven't paid Miramar:
Your lemming colors are showing. Pathetically carrying water for the capriciousness of the petulant short fingered vulgarian in the White House. Whatever VC backed out surely has money in many things that were impacted or the markets felt would be impacted based on the nonsensical announcements made by the prez. Of course, would it be today, as the markets have learned of the TACO of it all, perhaps it’d be different. Don’t blame them for being scared off by the empty stands at the first meet. Not surprised scummy capitalists back out and look for excuses. Just wait to see how the Epstein bff excuses the failings of his “policies” in the coming months.
Imagine investing in track and field thinking you're gonna make money off of it. Probably why the head of Diamond League knew it was a joke and everyone else for that matter.
I’m not a lawyer, but I believe fraud only comes into play if MJ and crew were providing false financial information or omitting key facts in the contract negotiations with venues, athletes, and others. If they truly entered into these contracts in “good faith” (even if naively), I don’t think that reaches the threshold of fraud.
One element in line with this: what were the agents told? This whole fiasco (depending on what the agents were told) is kind of an indictment of the level of value agents provide in Track & Field. Did they do zero diligence? Were they lied to? I can’t imagine an NBA or NFL player would ever find themselves in a situation like this with the agents and lawyers they have representing them, and it does some like all of this risk would have revealed itself very quickly with minimal diligence on the agents’ part, assuming they weren’t lied to.
I’m not a lawyer, but I believe fraud only comes into play if MJ and crew were providing false financial information or omitting key facts in the contract negotiations with venues, athletes, and others. If they truly entered into these contracts in “good faith” (even if naively), I don’t think that reaches the threshold of fraud.
One element in line with this: what were the agents told? This whole fiasco (depending on what the agents were told) is kind of an indictment of the level of value agents provide in Track & Field. Did they do zero diligence? Were they lied to? I can’t imagine an NBA or NFL player would ever find themselves in a situation like this with the agents and lawyers they have representing them, and it does some like all of this risk would have revealed itself very quickly with minimal diligence on the agents’ part, assuming they weren’t lied to.
Even if MJ & DM were criminal, Nike Beaverton would manipulate the DA in some way to pass on filing charges.
Watch "The Godfather". The mafia never starts crooked ventures by filing with their own companies. They always use cronies. Apparently from social media, this is how Nike Beaverton has manipulated our sport from preps to so-called professionals.
Back in day it took a battalion of FBI agents to unravel the web of shadow firms, judges, cops, politicians, businessmen involved with the mafia. Now it takes one Indian gig worker at $2 per hour using Deep Seek to find the crooks.
Investor went to Jamaica and saw no-one was there. Like me, he or she must have been stunned by how few people were there.
Immediately decided to cut bait and not dump more money into venture. Investor (or GST), like many in the country. tries to blame it on Trump. Can someone please tell me how tariffs would impact a pro sports league?
PS. Here is the link to Young's actual article which I have added to the first post.
Also Corey Mull has a tweet out about how they haven't paid Miramar:
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?'
That's where potential fraud charges come into play. Telling people and facilities you're going to pay them when you know you don't have any money to pay them is fraud. If you write a check for a million dollars when you have no money in your bank account you'll get arrested.
Again this simply isn’t true in business. Almost every business signs contracts to pay without having the money to pay it. Think of every lease. You sign a 10 year lease on a building for your business. You almost never have that money. You assume your business will make the money to pay it. As for writing a bad check. Yes it’s technically fraud. If you have run a business that’s ever taken a bad check you know it’s almost impossible to get a DA to do anything about it. Most DAs have all sorts of rules that aren’t part of the law as a condition to taking a bad check case. A common one is we only take bad checks that have a fingerprint on it. A real ink pad fingerprint not just from handling the check. Almost everyone knows dozens of people who have written bad checks. Almost no one knows any one arrested for it. The banks estimate 500 million bad checks are written each year.
This post was edited 1 minute after it was posted.
You take the money in escrow for year 1, and deal per contracts.
Starting in Jamaica, was a very bad idea, as Bolt, Powell et.al. never came close to filling the stadium back in the day, and attendance for nationals sucks ALWAYS.
MJ however needs an audit, to see if he pocketed any money, in this bankruptcy situation.
A SCAM is the only thing that makes "sense" here, given that no competent business man would run such a shiitshow.
That said, the events themselves, I really enjoy, and totally support the concept, under new business management, the operations crew does have potential.
The concept was stupid and the whole thing was a joke