Wejo hopped on the Zoom for the first federally required creditors' meeting for GST yesterday. It was fascinating. Even though they have only $7,300 of cash on hand and $30 million in debt, they aren't planning on just liquidating. They have 6 employees left (one of whom is Michael Johnson) and have a budget draw up where they are going to drop $400k to sign up racers for 2026.
Bankruptcy is wild if it allows the 2025 racers debts to be wiped out but for the league to come back in 2026. Under what word view does anyone think it's going to be successfuly in 2026 after blowing so much cash in 2025?
The first 3 meets cost over 30 million (way more since that is just the debt, they raised some money) - but they expect to hold what, 1 meet for just 400k?
“Since mid-October, nearly all communication has focused on preserving Grand Slam Track, while the vendors, who carried the operational and reputational risk, were largely ignored,”
This is precisely why I get so frustrated with this rosy optimism MJ keeps pushing about GST needing to fulfill it’s destiny. The athletes and vendors who made the season happen got absolutely shafted and are being disregarded as simply a distraction from the masterful vision of GST’s destiny as the world’s greatest sporting spectacle.
I have a budget where I am going to offer pros $100,000 each to stage a track meet in my backyard. See, it's written right here on this napkin.
Anybody, including GST, can write up a budget anyway they desire. That doesn't mean they are able to fulfill their promises.
GST is done ... there will be no 2026 season. I'm just glad that GST caused the collapse of the American Track League, the New York Grand Prix, and the LA Grand Prix. Now we have zero professional track in the US. We'll, except for Athlos.
He should have started smaller with just a single 3-day proof-of-concept meet, rather than launching into a full 'league'. He made the mistake of thinking we could all see his vision, when it was quite poorly explained. Not that anything they did differently would make up for the spending issues.
How is this a remotely viable business plan? Even assuming the people who got burned last year would have anything to do with GST, surely they would expect cash up front this time around.
Unless someone is willing to throw millions of new money at GST without any real hope of ROI, I don't see how GST continues. Maybe they could rent a high school stadium and get some D-list athletes to show up. They couldn't charge much for tickets and I don't see why anyone would pay for broadcast rights. Where does that get anyone?
The best case scenario is that someone magically comes along and pays the deserving athletes and vendors and then GST goes away.
But people with money donate to charities, not failed businesses ideas led by a man that would rather string this along than admit defeat, so that isn’t going to happen.
I want to watch a Netflix docuseries on the idiot that pours any more money into this dumpster fire. Also- who are these 2026 racers? Definitely not “only the fastest”.
I have a budget where I am going to offer pros $100,000 each to stage a track meet in my backyard. See, it's written right here on this napkin.
Anybody, including GST, can write up a budget anyway they desire. That doesn't mean they are able to fulfill their promises.
GST is done ... there will be no 2026 season. I'm just glad that GST caused the collapse of the American Track League, the New York Grand Prix, and the LA Grand Prix. Now we have zero professional track in the US. We'll, except for Athlos.
Obviously, everything going forward depends on whether Winners Alliance (or someone else) is willing to pony up serious money for a season 2, and whether some kind of settlement can be reached with the season 1 vendors and athletes.
If this thing just shuts down, the season 1 athletes probably get pennies more than what they have already received, so they do have a real incentive to make a deal. There are a lot of hurdles to a 2026 season, but it’s clear they haven’t fully given up. The athletes also have leverage of their own, because they are the product.
We still don’t really know how much money anyone put in besides Winners Alliance. They put in roughly $13 million in equity and about $11.4 million in loans, but past ownership shares haven’t been disclosed. I’d assume MJ himself didn’t put in much cash. Richelieu Dennis also invested at some point, though the size and structure of that investment aren’t clear.
From a fairness standpoint, a lot of people are understandably uncomfortable with the idea of this continuing with largely the same group in place, the main investor from before now effectively in control, and vendors and athletes not being fully paid, especially given how little transparency there was about the financial situation in the past. But realistically, the league continuing in some form may be the only path for people owed money, unless they want to pursue legal routes that likely don’t go very far and are expensive.
All of this also has to be viewed in light of what MJ said publicly in August: "The 2026 season will not happen until those obligations are met — and that is my #1 priority." That statement is hard to square with the realities of how a bankruptcy actually works."
GST is done ... there will be no 2026 season. I'm just glad that GST caused the collapse of the American Track League, the New York Grand Prix, and the LA Grand Prix. Now we have zero professional track in the US. We'll, except for Athlos.
Sounds like you missed the announcement of the USATF Tour. It includes the LA Grand Prix on June 14.
I have a budget where I am going to offer pros $100,000 each to stage a track meet in my backyard. See, it's written right here on this napkin.
Anybody, including GST, can write up a budget anyway they desire. That doesn't mean they are able to fulfill their promises.
GST is done ... there will be no 2026 season. I'm just glad that GST caused the collapse of the American Track League, the New York Grand Prix, and the LA Grand Prix. Now we have zero professional track in the US. We'll, except for Athlos.
Obviously, everything going forward depends on whether Winners Alliance (or someone else) is willing to pony up serious money for a season 2, and whether some kind of settlement can be reached with the season 1 vendors and athletes.
If this thing just shuts down, the season 1 athletes probably get pennies more than what they have already received, so they do have a real incentive to make a deal. There are a lot of hurdles to a 2026 season, but it’s clear they haven’t fully given up. The athletes also have leverage of their own, because they are the product.
We still don’t really know how much money anyone put in besides Winners Alliance. They put in roughly $13 million in equity and about $11.4 million in loans, but past ownership shares haven’t been disclosed. I’d assume MJ himself didn’t put in much cash. Richelieu Dennis also invested at some point, though the size and structure of that investment aren’t clear.
From a fairness standpoint, a lot of people are understandably uncomfortable with the idea of this continuing with largely the same group in place, the main investor from before now effectively in control, and vendors and athletes not being fully paid, especially given how little transparency there was about the financial situation in the past. But realistically, the league continuing in some form may be the only path for people owed money, unless they want to pursue legal routes that likely don’t go very far and are expensive.
All of this also has to be viewed in light of what MJ said publicly in August: "The 2026 season will not happen until those obligations are met — and that is my #1 priority." That statement is hard to square with the realities of how a bankruptcy actually works."
But the plan never was to have a profitable business. The plan was to generate enough buzz and television ratings to generate interest from sovereign wealth funds (probably the Saudis but maybe Qatar) that want to invest in American sports as part of a PR campaign. For the Professional Tennis Players Association, which is who was funding Winners Alliance from my understanding, that was extremely attractive because they could take Saudi or Qatari money without getting into a LIV Golf situation. I don't see why they wouldn't still have that goal. International events may be making achieving that goal less likely or more likely, depends on how some pretty uncertain things shakeout. Makes sense for them to keep the options open.
If you're an unsecured creditor of GST and you want to try for a second season it's because you know nothing about track and field or should I just say in this case just track. It's that ignorance that got you into this mess that saw your investment effectively go to zero.
"Fool me once same on you. Fool me twice shame on me."
GST is done ... there will be no 2026 season. I'm just glad that GST caused the collapse of the American Track League, the New York Grand Prix, and the LA Grand Prix. Now we have zero professional track in the US. We'll, except for Athlos.
Sounds like you missed the announcement of the USATF Tour. It includes the LA Grand Prix on June 14.
Honestly so wild to me that they burned through $30MM.
Like the stream of IamSpeed and Noah Lyles race had more viewers and that cost like nothing.
Heck the Toad Fest had Donavan Brazier return which was more interesting than most of Grand Slam
They owe $30 million now. Considering they had at least $13 million in equity invested by Winners alliance, that means they spent or were obligated to pay back at least $43 million unless my math is off.
Grossly irresponsible in my book to spend 3x what you have. The prize money for all 4 meets was $12 million. Where did the rest of it go?
We still don't know if the big vendors have been paid anything. (if you know email me
If you're an unsecured creditor of GST and you want to try for a second season it's because you know nothing about track and field or should I just say in this case just track. It's that ignorance that got you into this mess that saw your investment effectively go to zero.
"Fool me once same on you. Fool me twice shame on me."
Well obviously 2nd season EVERYONE would demand prepayment.
My biggest beef is they weren't transparent at all with their financing. They said $30 million in financial commitments to start. They didn't have this money.
Some might say they a commitment is different than secured financing. Ok I get that. The first link on their website to external news is to this article "Michael Johnson Secures $30 Million For A New Track And Field League"
Just some honesty with the situation would have helped them a lot. Athletes might have taken a haircut during the League. They'd still have run out of money is the crazy part as they've only paid the athletes half of what they've owed and the vendors are owed even more.
