With a latest report displaying the failed athletics enterprise Grand Slam Observe is now US$40 million in debt, a Tuesday court docket submitting alleges league founder Michael Johnson paid himself $500,000 with out board approval or justification.
On Tuesday, Entrance Workplace Sports activities revealed an article detailing that a number of Grand Slam Observe distributors requested a chapter court docket on March 9 for approval to sue the four-time U.S. Olympic champion and his main investor, Winners Alliance, for $25 million for fraud.
Three of Grand Slam Observe’s distributors make up the collectors within the court docket submitting: broadcast firm Momentum-CHP Partnership, graphics firm Girraphic Park and the league’s former public relations agency, SRK Methods. They’re owed a mixed $3.9 million from Grand Slam Observe and its entities.
The three distributors allege that Johnson “elected to secretly favor himself over the athletes and different, non-insider collectors,” and dedicated fraud by making a $500,000 cost to himself in June 2025, and that investor Winners Alliance steered the league to its monetary collapse.
Johnson’s cost to himself got here across the identical time the league cancelled its remaining Slam in Los Angeles on June 12. The meet had been scheduled for June 28-29, 2025, at UCLA’s Drake Stadium.
An trade supply advised Canadian Working that athletes have been paid greater than 50 per cent of what they have been owed, however haven’t but acquired the total quantity.
Final week, Grand Slam Observe proposed a plan with athletes repaid 85 per cent of what they’re owed, whereas collectors would obtain simply 1.5 per cent. The proposed reimbursement plan was rejected.
In August, Johnson pointed to the league’s monetary troubles after a key investor pulled out of a deal price “tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars}” simply days after the league’s opening Slam in Jamaica final April.
A letter from Michael Johnson to the observe neighborhood. pic.twitter.com/XfgkDuVc9b
— Grand Slam Observe (@GrandSlamTrack) August 15, 2025
“That was an enormous blow to us,” Johnson stated on the time. “(It) prompted a significant, main cash-flow subject, put us in a tough place, put our athletes in a tough place—however we’re very assured that we’ll pull ourselves out of it.”
Grand Slam Observe launched in 2024 with an unprecedented quantity of prize cashplanning to award $12.6 million in its first season. Slam winners have been every promised $100,000, with money prizes extending all the way down to eighth place. The league claimed $30 million in investor commitments to cowl prize payouts, athlete contracts, look charges and venue leases.
