Grand Slam Track misses July 31 deadline to pay Kingston prize money

What investor would plug this Year 1 hole ?

Yikes. Sounds like nobody is gonna get paid. Super sad.

The check is in the mail

Someone who thinks that GST is a good medium term investment. $3m to clear athlete payments isn't that much in the world of elite sport, and it means that the GST racers can't say that their contracts have been breached. And given that they are all supposedly signed 2-year deals, they would be obliged to return next year. Meaning GST still has a product.

I personally think it's a terrible investment and wouldn't go near it, but if MJ has found investors who believe in GST, then $3m to keep the racers tied to their contracts - and as a signal to future challengers that they will be paid - is actually worthwhile. Remember, with elite sport, the product is primarily the athletes.

13M I believe is the figure due to athletes

Posing as an expert here !

All that's missing is the expert opinion

but we are talking about running, not elite sport

I'd be very surprised if athletes would be tied into contracts by a 3M payment now

I don't think anyone will believe this is a good investment at this point. Even before this absolute amateur hour disaster, making a big-time profit from a track meet is hard to imagine. I'm surprised Michael Johnson had significant investors even nominally interested. Who would want to be associated with Grand Slam Track now?

Here's the thing about this "potential investment." It's not just that an investor needs to provide $3M or even $13M. For this to be viable, GST at this point needs enough cash to pay ALL the costs associated with Year 1, on-going operating costs, PLUS all the costs for Year 2 because everyone is going to want their money upfront. Even if they lower payouts a little and cut some costs, this has got to be in the neighborhood of a $50M ask.

I just don't see how ANY investor would see that as a good investment. Given the risk profile you'd have to believe that GST could turn into AT LEAST a $250M business given typical investor metrics and I just don't see the revenue potential here that would support that. Investments in sports are hot right now in the investor community but this one would be a real stretch.

In my opinion, the best hope for the athletes is that existing investors see enough reputational risk in not paying athletes that they effectively fork over the money knowing that they aren't getting anything back. I've seen that happen, this isn't such a large amount of money that a big fund couldn't do that, but it won't be because GST has a sustainable future.

Agreed. Was shocked from the beginning that there were investors interested.

I'm surprised that they also seem to be signaling that there's going to be a second year at this point, talking about restructuring the company and knowing what to change moving forward. But I guess that they need to try to dupe someone into investing now so that they can pay off their first-year debts! Then when no athletes want to come and no one wants to watch, they can turn back to the investor and go, "oops! welp, you knew it was a risky investment. sorry bud."

They don't have the funds to pay for the first meet, so they're gonna have to go through this 2 more times! Plus they probably also need MORE funds for the Miami and Philly appearance fees.

COME ON!

who the hell is buying this without some very specific information

I'll give it to MJ that he went and sat on a very friendly podcast for 90 minutes the other day. not sure his motivation if he doesn't intend to make good. His biggest motivating factor at this point has to be that track is his entire life. I think he genuinely loves it, and he doesn't want to spend the rest of his life as a PARIAH in this world.

The second half of that sentence is so laughable that I can't take the rest of this statement seriously. They're really highlighting direct deposit processing rates when these payments are months overdue?

This is bad and only going to get worse. Remember, this is *Kingston* money. We're not even talking about Miami or Philadelphia yet. And once Worlds is over there is nothing on the calendar to distract everyone's attention. Things are about to get ugly.

Nike Beaverton should pay what they owe us and stop hiding behind shills like MJ400.

The prize money pool is 100k + 50k + 30k + 25k + 20k + 15k + 12.5k + 10k, which sums to $262,500 per event group per meet. Twelve event groups, three meets, minus the halved prize money for the long distance group in Philly.

They owe a little over nine million, possibly plus interest. It would have been 13 million if they had held all four meets as scheduled.

probably still over 10 million since im sure the appearance fees for the last two meets also havent been paid

When you were a kid, did you ever take something that belonged to your parents and then it got damaged or you lost it, but instead of just telling them what happened, you try to come up with some elaborate story and plan about how you're going to get it back. Everybody in the room knows there's no chance that's happening, but you're just so scared to face the music, so you just keep trying to stall and postpone judgment day.

Of all the mistakes that MJ has made, his biggest and most basic mistake is this: over-promising and under-delivering. That's it, that is what is making this so much worse than it needs to be.

Also, to go on a (kind of) random sprinter's podcast to address the public and the athletes just seems like the worst way to issue a statement. He gave everyone 90 minutes of excuses to dissect. I think he thought he would come off as just a good guy that is trying to do the right thing, but trying to sound transparent and actually being transparent are two different things.

^^^^
This isn’t an investment opportunity anymore. It’s a heavily indebted, horribly damaged brand, run by incompetent management. Oh, and the league never had a business model to begin with. Overpay the biggest athletes to do doubles, and lavish them with luxury based on flimsy, non-binding commitments, is not a business model. It’s an ill advised boondoggle. Now that you’ve missed the payment deadline, you’ll never get those athletes again. There’s nothing left to invest in anymore.

What is Michael Johnson’s net worth? At some point doesn’t he just pay himself to mitigate the shame?