"hey @MJGold I loved seeing you + @BillAckman fast follow @ATHLOS by launching @GrandSlamTrack (great to see more people investing in athletics!), but it's disappointing you're requiring these women to get permission from you & Bill in order to compete in other leagues. It's not very athlete-friendly."
Hadn't seen this circulating here yet. Is this post petty or does he have a point?
hey @MJGold I loved seeing you + @BillAckman fast follow @ATHLOS by launching @GrandSlamTrack (great to see more people investing in athletics!), but it's disappointing you're requiring these women to get permission from you & Bill in order to compete in other leagues. It's not…
I do to like this from Alexis. Whatever his intent it is negative and divisive. I have not decided if I like the Athlos paradigm because it is divisive without cause. Women do not get paid less nor have less opportunities in our sport, so why create a well paying meet that excludes half the sport? Answer is, it is marketable. Women are marketable, but is it a boon for the sport aka sustainable? Adding on this unnecessary tweet and I am not optimistic. He could have handled this professionally and at the negotiating table.
The sport needs better more formal business acumen, and this is not it. IMO of course. Others may feel otherwise, but something about Athlos and Alexis is not meshing for me.
Weird framing here, but interesting to know. I think it’s funny GST publicly is saying they don’t see themselves as a competitor to the DL when clearly they’re set up as one.
Makes sense from a business perspective though to protect their investments in athletes. Not saying I love the move, but it’s similar in a way the NHL/MLB not letting their players in the Olympics
I do to like this from Alexis. Whatever his intent it is negative and divisive. I have not decided if I like the Athlos paradigm because it is divisive without cause. Women do not get paid less nor have less opportunities in our sport, so why create a well paying meet that excludes half the sport? Answer is, it is marketable. Women are marketable, but is it a boon for the sport aka sustainable? Adding on this unnecessary tweet and I am not optimistic. He could have handled this professionally and at the negotiating table.
The sport needs better more formal business acumen, and this is not it. IMO of course. Others may feel otherwise, but something about Athlos and Alexis is not meshing for me.
I agree, Alexis' tweets are a bad look.
He puts MJ on blast and positions Athlos and GST as rivals.
He makes an unnecessarily big deal about Athlos being launched first. In addition to his "fast follow" remark, he tweeted this comment in one of his replies: "It's been so cool watching his first tweets about GST literally as I was coming off the stage after our Athlos announcement at the Business of Women's Sports Summit. I don't blame him for not wanting to bring us up! No one likes being second." Note: MJ's first tweet about GST was sharing an article that Sports Business Journal published about it that same day.
He tells MJ that GST's policy is "not very athlete-friendly." What does Alexis know about being a professional track athlete?
After watching Athlos and seeing what Alexis has tweeted about it, I also suspect part of his motivation for launching Athlos is to draw attention to himself as a supporter of female athletes. His tweets and the interview he gave during the Athlos broadcast were practically screaming, "Look at me! Look at the good things I'm doing as a girl dad for women in sports!" It's like he's vying for an award. I appreciate his investment in the sport; I'm not a fan of his self-promotion.
Weird framing here, but interesting to know. I think it’s funny GST publicly is saying they don’t see themselves as a competitor to the DL when clearly they’re set up as one.
Makes sense from a business perspective though to protect their investments in athletes. Not saying I love the move, but it’s similar in a way the NHL/MLB not letting their players in the Olympics
This is not good Gst is only 8 dates per year. mlb is 162+ NHL is 82+ where league games have dates that literally conflict with the Olympics on the same day. How can gst sign the worlds fastest if they’re restricting to potentially only running these races?
Could be a reason so few top athletes have signed.
Athlete Exclusivity - good for negotiating media distribution which should trickle down to athlete
Athlete Exclusivity - bad if the field is basically the same and curtails some international competitions for athletes and fans
With DL moving to Flotrack, maybe GST will be on Peacock or some other common/inexpensive platform
For what it's worth, GST doesn't boast about athlete exclusivity on its website. From its FAQ section:
CAN RACERS RACE IN OTHER MEETS? Absolutely, yes. We want racers running globally in as many meets as possible. We want to support the rest of the track ecosystem in a positive way. More racing!
WILL THE LEAGUE SUPPORT OTHER MEETS AND LEAGUES? We will be at all of them supporting GST Racers and scouting for new Challengers, so yes! We support other leagues and meets that don’t compete with our format head to head. We believe in supporting the entire meet ecosystem from Diamond League to global championships and beyond. This is an amazing sport that needs more consistent top notch supply.
IS GRAND SLAM TRACK WORKING WITH OTHER ATHLETICS STAKEHOLDERS? We are working alongside current governing bodies like World Athletics, USA Track and Field, and UK Athletics, plus other stakeholders, to cooperate on the calendar and support the growth of the sport.
"hey @MJGold I loved seeing you + @BillAckman fast follow @ATHLOS by launching @GrandSlamTrack (great to see more people investing in athletics!), but it's disappointing you're requiring these women to get permission from you & Bill in order to compete in other leagues. It's not very athlete-friendly."
Hadn't seen this circulating here yet. Is this post petty or does he have a point?
I don't care about GST one way or the other, but this is a ridiculous cry for attention.
1. GST didn't "fast follow" Athlos. This was in the works long before anyone ever heard of Athlos. I bet MJ has not given Athlos one thought.
2. Weird that he calls them out for requiring exclusivity for "women" when the policies impact both women and men.
Athlos promotes women athletes so it’s their business to care about women athletes. They could’ve tried to book Camacho Quinn and Russell again and were told, I have to ask gst for permission, I’ll get back to you…
this is great. taking a page from ingy & kerr. maybe mj can call him a moron and then everyone will tune in to see whos better. or maybe alexis can get a tennis friend to tweet something like- grand slam of what?!
Front Office Sports has obtained a copy of a Grand Slam Track contract. It doesn't actually prevent an athlete from running Athlos or needing to ask permission to do it. It says they need permission to run any league with more than 2 meets but also specifically says they can run Diamond League
FOS obtained a copy of a contract that Grand Slam offered at least one athlete. The relevant section reads that athletes need to “obtain prior written consent” to “engage in a Competing Sports League’s event.” The contract defines a “Competing Sports League” as any track league with more than two events—excluding the Diamond League—“or other professional sports leagues like the National Football League.” The contract explicitly says that athletes do not need Grand Slam’s permission to race at the Olympics, world or national championships, and “primary sponsor meets and other traditional track meets.”
I don't care about GST one way or the other, but this is a ridiculous cry for attention.
1. GST didn't "fast follow" Athlos. This was in the works long before anyone ever heard of Athlos. I bet MJ has not given Athlos one thought.
2. Weird that he calls them out for requiring exclusivity for "women" when the policies impact both women and men.
Athlos promotes women athletes so it’s their business to care about women athletes. They could’ve tried to book Camacho Quinn and Russell again and were told, I have to ask gst for permission, I’ll get back to you…
Didn't they claim, in the future, they would support men and women in their track meets? Or is it just going to be all-women's meets only?
I don't understand why Ohanian would expect these leagues to be athlete friendly. The PGA Tour most certainly doesn't let it's players play in LIV golf. The NFL would not let Mahomes play in an upstart league either.
What track really needs is for athletes to have no freedom. You run here, you run there. The problem is that wouldn't even work as athletes would simply not try in the early season meets or train through them. So you'd have a bunch of star but everyone would still know it doesnt mean that much. You are watching a pre-season contest. No league or marketing gimmick will ever change that.
If you want regular season track to be very important, the you have to get rid of Worlds. In sports, where there are no playoffs like the Premiere League, the regular season is important.
