Michael Johnson not working for the BBC in Tokyo - more GST fallout

Rojo was ranting about this on the pod yesterday. He seemed very upset. says the bbc gig has nothing to do with Grand Slam. And he doesn't feel bad for the western athletes not getting paid. says it cost them nothing. Says we shouldn't blame Johnson for trying.

Completely missing the point that the money was dried up before the first meet, and then they did 2 more after that!

MJ screwed over a lot of people. He doesn't get to be part of this world anymore. And deservedly so.

Never, ever take Bill Ackman at his word.

He will screw you over and get all the suckers to blame you.

The money just "dried up"! It's not like Ackman promised $30 million and then stiffed you.

This is interesting to me. I wonder if Rojo is the one going around downvoting all the posts about MJ that are negative? Why would he even defend MJ especially in this situation? Rojo doesn’t work for free, but he expects the athletes to? He says it didnt cost them anything? Other than their entire seasons being scheduled around GST and for those who were looking forward to (and possibly needing) that paycheck….. they didn’t lose out on anything?

I see Letsrun is putting ads all over the boards comments now, most recently ones right over the top of certain comments that can’t be closed out. So clearly they are trying to make money. But shouldn’t they just “work for free”? Or is that only for the athletes?

MJ shouldn’t be allowed to ever work in track and field again until those people get paid. He should be social pariah, an outcast, and he should be treated like a leper. Why should he be allowed to work for the BBC and make money when he’s not going to use any of that money gained to pay anyone he owes? He’s just going to line his own pockets, much like he did with GST. MJ is done - legacy ruined. Everyone knows he’s a scammer and a grifter and doesn’t give af about moving the dial in track and field. Him and merber are white collar crooks and don’t deserve a space at all, in this sport any longer.

A lot of people who come from money have no problem taking a gamble, and then just saying "oh woopsie" and filing bankruptcy when things don't work out.

Well, I actually don't have a problem with it either. It encourages innovation. BUT, if you lose your bet and screw over a group of people, you don't get to work with those people anymore.

Find something else to gamble on.

I 100% believe MJ and Merber meant well. When the money didn't come through, they had a choice to either pull the plug, or keep it going while hoping and praying they found another source of revenue to keep their dream alive. Maybe some screwed up logic in their head told them that if the next 2 or 3 meets went well, people would line up to give them money.

Too bad it didn't work out.

These athletes are lucky to have 3, 5, or maybe 10 years of really high level running. Many of them organized their training around the GST concept, instead of putting their full focus into worlds, because the promise of $$ was very enticing.

Some of them may have even developed injuries or peaked too early, which could cost them at worlds. And some of them have also ruined relationships with Diamond League meet organizers, which cost them money this summer, and into the future.

Consequences for MJ

FAFO, as the kids like to say

When you bash Merber, you are making my point for me. Do you really think Kyle Merber with two young kids thought, "I'm going to quit my stable job at Amex and join GST and con a bunch of athletes and then run off into the sunset?" No. Merber took a risk to help the sport. It appears to have failed. Of course, he should be allowed to work in the sport moving forward if he wants to. He was an employee and likely had no idea of the financials.

MJ is different certainly but let me explain my rationale. I think the venom is over the top.

From day 1, many people have viewed me as a critic of GST but the OP is correct - I very much defended Johnson the SC podcast yesterday. Maybe I'm too much of a contrarian, but I've never understood the venom towards MJ (and particularly Kyle).

Johnson's job on the BBC is to analyze track and field. I don't understand how his businesss failure impacts his ability to do that. He's not really interviewing athletes. He can still easily analyze the races.

From day 1, we were told GST was a startup. Guess what - a lot of startups fail.

I guess it depends on how much dishonesty was involved. They were put in a tough spot. They thought they had funding, they didn't and then it became an issue of how can we get it and if not when do we pull the plug? Or do you think all along, they plan was "Let's startup a league, pay ourselves for 6 months and then fleece everyone and ruin our reputations?"

On paper, all of the athletes lost out big. But what I want to know is how much of those losses are real as compared to what they could have earned elsewhere. Most werent' going to be making big $$ anywhere. I'd love to see how much a Josh Kerr or Grant Fisher made from GST this year as to what they could have made on the DL.

The ones I feel for are the likes of Medina Eisa who could have been running road races.

It reminds me of a buddy who back to during the .com bust lost a ton on paper. Right after college, he joined a startup and it's valuation quickly went nort of a billion bucks but before he could sell his shares it crumbled.

Now. I will add one thing. I want 100% total honesty from Johnson moving forward and am not sure if we are getting it.

Like is this statement true? If not, I'm starting to get angry.

If he was pulled from the broadcast at the request of the BBC, then tell us. If he pulled himself as he thinks it's a bad look, then tell us as that will create some good will and sympathy.

I will say at times the difference between PR hype and fraud is a fine line with startrups.

Along those lines, I've said to Weldon and Jonathan privately and maybe on the podcast I did wonder if some of this behavior could be viewed as criminal. They thought that was a crazy statement. So I play it both ways.

But lay off Merber.

Merber is a part of this and having two kids does not mean you get to play pretend like you didn’t know what was going on. Having kids is not the excuse people think it is. I know plenty of people with kids who do really sh*tty things so I’m pushing back on this. What interest do you have in protecting Merber? He’s not some blue eyed rookie guy - he’s educated and is well off enough to quit his job and get involved in GST. It’s very clear neither Merber nor Johnson missed any paychecks coming their way. So like it or not, Merber IS a piece of this and having two kids doesn’t excuse him from any involvement in what is going on and being a piece of the puzzle that screws over athletes. He may not be as many pieces of the puzzle as Johnson but he was still there and actively promoting GST. I didn’t seem him quit after Jamaica when they knew it was going to be a disaster. So please stop making excuses for him like he’s an 18 year old kid with no life experience.

Also just throwing out there, and I sound like a broken record, but MJ and Merber should be transparent- show us what they got paid and how much money they collected along the way. They didn’t miss paychecks clearly because they stuck with the grift and the scam. Why won’t they show us an audit of where all that money went and what it went toward down to the penny.

And the DL increased their prize money this year in direct response to GST.

I feel sorry for him, the GST had some good ideas, including making the 800/1500 double a thing again. And when you miss the entire penultimate lap of the men's 1500m the other day to watch a pole vault failure (and replay!), he had a point about track only too.

I agree with rojo.

I felt the same way about OJ Simpson. Just because he filleted two people with a knife does not mean he can't analyze football. Monday Night Football absolutely should have had him on the sidelines broadcasting. THE GUY KNEW FOOTBALL!

🙄🙄🙄🙄

MJ is a fraud and a crook. There is no other rational way to describe what he did. It was fraud to not have the money guaranteed, instead only promised.

Rojo can’t grasp the athletes had their schedules thrown off by this thing, some more affected than others. I don’t doubt for instance that Yared or Hobbs might be running a bit better if they hadn’t fallen for MJ and his crew’s grift.

I'm sure bbc will replace him with another diversity hire.

I believe you're right about them thinking along those lines.

I also believe that's absolutely delusional.

After the Kingston meet all of our suspicions were confirmed to be true. The entire concept was DOA. No rational actor would ever consider investing after seeing it first hand.

And even though some people had the equivalent of a religious experience when Wanyonyi won that 1500m, it's also the only memorable event from the series.

The way this played out is dumb, even for Johnson. Surely he would not think he could get away with this or keep his reputation (or not lose money over time). If I was a conspiracy theorist I would speculated about how some people high up in WA wanted to see him fail because he was competition and made them look bad. And so they did. What a set-up. Brilliant, if evil.