This past November, the MBS Turkey Challenge and Reps Ahead ran a competition at the Stockyards Event Center in Denver, Colorado. This “co-event” was organized by MBS CrossFit, Reps Ahead and apparently Renovo Clinic. Both the MBS Turkey Challenge and Reps Ahead had prize purses available to the winners.
But over two months after the competition, the $32,400 prize purse for the MBS Turkey Challenge has not been paid out.Â
In an email sent to athletes on December 2, the VP of Partnerships for MBS CrossFit/Renovo Clinic, requested bank account information and provided a timeline regarding payments to the athletes.
He also explained that the Reps Ahead and MBS Turkey Challenge prize purse payments would occur at the same time because of “accounting purposes”.Â
The following email was sent on 12/2 to athletes who were on the podium for the MBS Turkey Challenge and were to receive prize money:
Now, this is where it is unclear how all of these organizations are related. It appeared that the MBS Turkey Challenge and Reps Ahead were two separate competitions that were just running their competitions at the same venue. However, that email above was sent by Renovo Clinic’s VP of Partnerships.
Renovo Clinic has been the primary (or only sponsor) of Reps Ahead. But then Reps Ahead was then a sponsor of the MBS Turkey Challenge.
But what about the Renovo Clinic? The CEO of Renovo Clinic is Michael MaiAlley. In addition to being the CEO of Renovo Clinic, he is also the owner of CrossFit Thornton, which is under the MBS CrossFit banner as the two gyms recently merged.
On top of that, MaiAlley is the founder of New You Clinic and the New You Cares Foundation, a non-profit organization. The MBS Turkey Challenge and Reps Ahead made the November competition a “non-profit event that aids the New You Care’s Foundation”.Â
So everything appears to be intermingled, including payouts of the prize money. MBS Turkey Challenge and Reps Ahead co-hosted an event. Renovo Clinic was a sponsor of both competitions. The owner of Renovo Clinic, Michael MaiAlley, is also the owner of the non-profit organization that the competitions partnered with where donations were possibly made.
Ok, back to what has happened since the competition…
After that December 2 email, a month went by before athletes began asking questions. It had now been over 30 days since the competition and no payment had been made.
Well, that is kind of true. The athletes participating in Reps Ahead did receive their payouts in December, approximately 30 days after the competition. The athletes from MBS Turkey Challenge had not even though it was originally communicated that the payouts for both competitions had to be paid at the same time.
When the VP of Partnerships was asked about the missed payment, his answer on January 4 was that there were issues with the bank account due to false charges. This caused the account to be frozen and payments to staff and the prize purse payouts were delayed.
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How does this happen and the Reps Ahead athletes get paid while the MBS Turkey Throwdown athletes don’t? The payments were supposed to be paid at the same time.
But it gets more interesting…hang with me.
The VP of Partnerships then communicated with an athlete via Instagram DMs in mid-January and shared that the “company” was operating on bridge funding, but that funding fell through. This was the reason why payments had been delayed. So was the “freeze” because of fraudulent charges a lie?
He also goes on to say that payroll has been missed the “last 3 periods”, but that there’s a “firm commitment of funding from a private investor…”
Those 14 days have come and gone.
I’ve been told that the VP of Partnerships told another athlete that he was “exiting the company” and that he would provide the CEO’s contact information so that athletes could contact him directly.Â
While the CEO’s email has not yet been provided, one athlete was told the CEO was “Michael”. All signs point to this being Michael MaiAlley. We reached out to MaiAlley regarding this story, but have not received a response.Â
MBS Turkey Challenge was supposed to pay out $5,000 to the top Pro Individuals and Teams along smaller payments to the rest of the podium. RX individuals and teams were also to receive a portion of the prize purse.
Again, it is unclear who is ultimately responsible for paying the athletes. The fact that one entity was responsible for paying athletes for both the MBS Turkey Challenge and Reps Ahead makes it all confusing, especially since the Reps Ahead athletes had money deposited in their accounts one month after the competition.
Did that entity not have enough funding and decide to pay only the pro athletes and leave the MBS Turkey Challenge athletes hanging?
In speaking with several athletes, they have not been told the prize money wouldn’t be paid. However, many are losing hope. “We all feel a bit swindled,” one athlete told me.
Unfortunately, it appears that this might be the latest competition to fall short on paying out a promised prize purse. Other competitions such as European Championships and the CanWest Games failed to honor their commitments in recent years.
Let’s hope that the people responsible for the MBS Turkey Challenge prize purse follow through with their promise and that those big cardboard checks can actually be cashed.
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