I have very strong doubts about how successful this will be. Diamond League meets are mostly focused in Europe because the interest for track is bigger here than in the US.
This meet only exists so US based athletes like Kerr and Sydney can get paid without having to travel across the pond.
While I think there is more to it than that, I think it is fair to argue that the biggest niche it so far has filled is facilitating more matchups of US-based stars. But they say more international runners are coming, and we’ll see how the doubling/event groups stuff works out.
The whole doubling thing just doesn't work for events like the 1500 where guys either run 8/15 or 15/5k, but I do like that they have the 3k. I love the 3k and wish it would be ran more often, but not if it comes at the expense of not seeing the 5k guys in the 1500.
I agree with everything else you said but this is incorrect, he ran one shortly after turning pro and won against a field of 800 specialists including Isaiah Harris. I'm taking Nuguse over the other three big names in the 1500 if they all lined up in an 800.
I actually just double checked their 800 PRs. Neither Kerr nor Hocker have broken 1:45. Nuguse hasn't broken 1:46. That's 4-5 seconds shy of world class, given what the top guys were running this year.
I'm really curious who Merber picks for the 1500/800 last slot. Either he picks a world-class 800 runner like Hoppel, Sedjati (highly doubt it), Tual, Wanyonyi, or Arop. Or he goes all in on 1500 guys. If he picks an elite 800 guy, the races will look ridiculous, because those guys are FOUR seconds faster than the 1500 guys in the 800, and the 1500 guys are probably close to EIGHT seconds faster than the 800 guys in the 1500. I mean, maybe Wanyonyi keeps it a bit more competitive in the 1500, but I highly doubt Arop or Hoppel can run sub 3:36.
So either he avoids 800 guys altogether, and the 800s are just a C race. Or he signs on a podium-caliber 800 runner and all the races look ridiculous and non-competitive for the athletes in their second event. It's an impossible conundrum.
In terms of the final product, probably better to just pick Hobbs and go all in on 1500 guys.
Of course in an 8 person 1500/800 they'll have some 800 specialists. Wanyonyi is obviously a guy that would do well as he KILLED Kessler in a road mile. In a non-rabbited series, it wouldn't stunn me (but it would surprsie me) if Wanyonyi won both the 1500 and 800. I think I'd expect him to beat Nuguse - maybe not Hocker and Kerr. We talked about this on an SC podcast I believe a few weeks ago.
I actually just double checked their 800 PRs. Neither Kerr nor Hocker have broken 1:45. Nuguse hasn't broken 1:46. That's 4-5 seconds shy of world class, given what the top guys were running this year.
I'm really curious who Merber picks for the 1500/800 last slot. Either he picks a world-class 800 runner like Hoppel, Sedjati (highly doubt it), Tual, Wanyonyi, or Arop. Or he goes all in on 1500 guys. If he picks an elite 800 guy, the races will look ridiculous, because those guys are FOUR seconds faster than the 1500 guys in the 800, and the 1500 guys are probably close to EIGHT seconds faster than the 800 guys in the 1500. I mean, maybe Wanyonyi keeps it a bit more competitive in the 1500, but I highly doubt Arop or Hoppel can run sub 3:36.
So either he avoids 800 guys altogether, and the 800s are just a C race. Or he signs on a podium-caliber 800 runner and all the races look ridiculous and non-competitive for the athletes in their second event. It's an impossible conundrum.
In terms of the final product, probably better to just pick Hobbs and go all in on 1500 guys.
Of course in an 8 person 1500/800 they'll have some 800 specialists. Wanyonyi is obviously a guy that would do well as he KILLED Kessler in a road mile. In a non-rabbited series, it wouldn't stunn me (but it would surprsie me) if Wanyonyi won both the 1500 and 800. I think I'd expect him to beat Nuguse - maybe not Hocker and Kerr. We talked about this on an SC podcast I believe a few weeks ago.
the 1500 elite dont run the 8 right now
Wanyonyi with a 355 road mile , is not an obvious podium guy
I will watch anything, but I am extremely skeptical of this venture, mostly because of the double race format. There are so few natural rivalries across multiple distances in track. And the few that exist might not come to fruition in this league. I mean, the fact that they set it up so that Jakob & Kerr wouldn’t likely race each other is bonkers. Kerr is a pure 1500/miler, but he’s no Coe or Ovett in the 800. It’s not like he dominated the British 800 trials. Nuguse has literally never run the 800 as a pro. Hocker has never broken 1:44. These guys aren’t elite 800 runners. And watching two 3000s/5000s two days apart is probably going to feel like watching the same race twice. Assuming Jakob is in the same shape next year as this year, he’ll show up at one Grand Slam, dominate the 3000/5000, and make the core group of guys look average. Then there will the 1500s with the 2024 podium, which will be good, followed by the 800s, which will be silly. The thing that sucks is that Kerr, Nuguse, Hocker, Jakob, Laros, and Hobbs will race each other in the 1500 almost never, which is the thing that I think everyone wants to see. But the format of Grand Slam makes it so it will never happen.
No one had the courage to stand up to MJ and say that the double format doesn’t make sense.
They should have just spent the $ to make the key rivalries (Tebogo/Lyles) (Jakob/Kerr/Hocker/Nuguse) (Bol/SmL) (Warhol/Benjamin/Dos Santos) (Alfred/Shacarri) happen as often as possible. Instead they’re paying huge amounts of money to shoehorn people into odd races where they’re not specialists. That’s not going to work.
It's been discussed to death on so many threads:
1) No real market fit for this concept
2) Logistically it is a insane undertaking to try and start a 4 meet circuit basically remotely - especially when each of these meets are multiple days long
3) "Finding a TV provider" is almost the last of his worries - he needs to first have full stadiums (think 4 x Weltklasse Zurich/London Anniversary Games) before this even becomes remotely attractive to sponsors which will then make it attractive to a network
4) The format is going to create an inferior product on the most basic metric - the clock. The casual fan doesn't care about "rivalries" - they relate quality of product to the times being run and this entire format is geared around the complete opposite of that.
What I highlighted from you is so accurate and the problem in a nutshell. I don't think a lot of people really understand the type of person Michael Johnson is. If you really want to get cynical (honest?) this is more about MJ getting back in the spotlight and into relevance again and him undoubtedly making a nice cut of his 30 million in secured sponsorship.
People might say "why do people (like me) have to be such a hater" - easy cop-out. Is every idea a good or even feasible one just for the sake of optimism and positivity? This is the exact same BS that blow up companies and businesses of all sizes and statures. End of the day we are going to find out if the "haters" (pragmatists who might know more than a guy who simply showed up to meets, ran half or a full lap and collected a fat pay check he didn't negotiate) are right or is Michael Johnson.
I disagree on the clock Vs rivalries issue. Competition will always be the key motivator for people watching. They will tune in for a WR attempt, but otherwise, people want a close race.
The other point on finding a TV provider is bang on. Even the successful meets struggle to some degree. The London DL has struggled to find a top title sponsor even though it draws a crowd of 50k. It's always a great event but companies aren't banging on the door to put money into it. It might get better now that UKA is working with London Marathon and Great Run which are both superior commercial players. But getting money into the bank is hard work. For GST, the challenge is even greater because it's going to be built around the US, with primarily American athletes and 2/4 meets in the US. I think they're going to struggle to half-fill those meets and the product is going to look awful on TV, which, in turn, is going to deter sponsors.
Sorry to say, but I think GST will fold after its first round of funding runs out.
Hopefully no tv station picks it up. The grand slam track league is so stupid. The forced doubling is moronic. Ideally it fails and goes away. All it’s going to do this upcoming year is take away from the diamond league which already has very few great races. It’s a gimmick league
Maybe it can grow into an alternative for elite level athletes coming out of HS since the future of college track is tenuous with the antitrust settlement. I would watch.
Maybe it can grow into an alternative for elite level athletes coming out of HS since the future of college track is tenuous with the antitrust settlement. I would watch.
It's not gonna grow into anything. Give 3-4 years tops before the backers get tired of losing money.
Let's look at a silver lining. Maybe most people don't appreciate the different skills and metabolism between distances, and isn't that one thing that makes running interesting to discuss? Maybe multiple distances will help more people get in to the technical aspects of endurance and speed, and that will make the sport more interesting. We're always complaining that our sport isn't covered in a way that respects the fans intelligence like other sports are. Maybe this is the bridge.
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