I've got nothing against Johnson personally. It's just that, throughout the 90s, we had a lot of big names in meaningless events, and I don't think the fans enjoy that. They'd much rather watch athletes competing hard and racing hard in races that actually mean something. If Johnson was running a straight 400m I'd be more inclined to bring out the cheque-book. You could line him up against Iwan Thomas and Daniel Caines and get a really good race on.
Big races are what it's all about.
If it means spending all your cash on getting together a top field for the mile, El Guerrouj against Noah Ngeny for example, so be it - it would make the meet. Imagine having Maurice Greene and Ato Bolden taking on Dwain Chambers, Mark Lewis-Francis and Darren Campbell. That would be a hundred times better than having three stars in different events trotting round to a result that everyone expected. Or imagine getting Marion Jones against Cathy Freeman over 400m. Or Maria Mutola against Stephanie Graf - something with a bit of spice.