Columnist: GST flopped in part because cutting the field events is like cutting the feathers off of chicken

It's an okay take, though I can think of a number of more poignant reasons as to why GST struggled to capture any real attention/imagination.

How about 24 races - across 3 days. The math isn't hard, that is 8 races per 100min "session". Oh and how about this fact - 18 of those 24 races were 2min of less of actual action on the track. Think about how bad was listening to John Anderson, SRR and his rotating crew (Centro, Chavez, Merber) trying to fill in the copious amount of dead time between events and think about what that would have been like in stadia (related to lack of field events, but not the core issue).

How about a format that was supposed to cater to "obsessively" attracting non-track followers, even though that format was incredibly confusing to anyone that didn't follow track? How do you explain an international 3000m race where the winner of the race jogs the last 100m in 17 seconds ton win by 50m from another guy who is just cruising but then there is an all-out finish for 3rd place where the guy who got third then get's paraded as the "Slam winner"?

What about the league mantra of "only the fastest", which was in direct conflict with your other league mantra of pure competition and racing? "Rivalries" which didn't exist? "Storytelling" which didn't exist? These weird scenarios where SML was running a 400m faster in the hurdles group than the 400m in the sprint group. Seeing a 110 hurdler running a 100m 4 tenths of a second slower than a 100m we saw a day earlier and then celebrating because that was enough to win the "slam"?

Honestly the lack of field events is way down the food chart when it came to the problems with Grand Slam Track but I'm glad this guy at least advocated for them.

What a dumb article. It didn’t fail because it cut out field events. It failed because they thought giving excessive prize money would make it more popular. GST essentially accomplished nothing. Anyone with a brain knew it would fail financially

The most glaring problem with the running-only format I found while watching the first Jamaica GST event is that it was outright BORING to sit through 10-15 minutes of intermission between events with absolutely nothing going on. You can only watch so many replays and break down so much about a race before it devolves into pointless yapping to fill airtime.

It failed because they didn't secure the prize money before offering it. From what I can tell, they secured next to no money and took every maybe or small expression of interest as a guaranteed thing.

Offering the prize money did make it more popular among devoted track fans and it did help them get higher talent. But it had the opposite effect on investors - it made them wary.

Wouldn't it be "pluck" the feathers off a chicken?

The field events help to knit the running together even if you're not a fan.

Do you want to watch a few field events or see so and so try Jamaican sweets in a pointless VT? Watch Duplantis in the pole vault or listen to pundits nattering away for 20mins?

I'm guessing nobody watch the Zurich DL but they nailed a lot of the shorter field events, jump after jump, throw after throw, very little downtime.

GST forgot that we actually have quite a few personalities in the fields events at the moment.

They could take a page out of baseball's playbook and speed up the field events. Put a clock in that starts right after the guy before you goes and you have only that much time to get up there and jump or throw.

I love track. Been a runner for over 44 years but this is why it failed. I agree who is asking for this?? Not many look at the stands in the first meet in Kingston Jamaica. EMPTY. Or closer to empty than full. Its a matter of supply and demand. Track is not the NFL, NBA, MLB or even the NHL. Not to be negative but my fiancee who passed away a few years ago told me a funny story when the Principal of the hifh school she attended in the early 90s tried recruiting her to run track. She said I dont take left turns LOL. I think it can be marketed much better than it currently is being marketed, but like the article said "who is asking for this?"

The founders don't even know the name of this website.

No one was asking for the telephone . . . until it was invented.

No one was asking for the television . . . until it was invented.

No one was asking for the mobile cell phone . . . until it was invented.

And, no one was asking for the iPhone . . . until it was invented.

These devices were revolutionary. No one conceived of them except their inventors. Once the public understood their potential, they all became necessities.

MJ wanted to "invent" something revolutionary with GST. However, appears the public has not seen the potential, thus does not deem it a necessity. Investors apparently agree.

Track does not need "saving" which was MJ's stated mission w/GST.

It's professional t&f in the US which needs a boost, both in popularity with the sporting public as well as income for the athletes.

The one entity which now has a proven history of improving the professional US t&f scene is Jesse William's Sound Running company. He stepped in during the C19 years and created The TEN out of nothing. It is now the highest-quality 10,000 meet of the year outside of the Olympics or WCs. That's as close to being "revolutionary" in the sport as one can imagine. And, his spring Track Fest and summer Sunset Tour meets have now become staples on the American circuit, providing high-quality competitions for pros to chase Q's and WA ranking points outside of the college schedule.

Frankly, if MJ wishes to continue his pursuit of "saving" track, he should consult with Jesse Williams to figure out if there is a path forward for him, or maybe both of them, to work on a 2nd iteration of GST. Jesse has the cache of being a successful running entrepreneur who might be able to secure investors which MJ could not.

Most people outside the LRC bubble are just as interested in the field events - at least in Europe. In Sweden, the jumpers and throwers are more well known than the runners. Most people find distance running incredibly boring.

Americans who brag about their superiority over the world have the attention span of drunken goldfish. The reason athletics can't work is Americans have to be spoonfed entertainment like they are 3 years old. Like that 3 year old any upset leads to tantrums. About pointless field events, about cutting away from 28.30 pace 10ks after 3 laps. OMG things are all on at the same time how will we cope!

Civilized Europe is fine I just hope they can keep the US bottom line thinkers from corrupting everything here. Diamond league has good crowds and work, the Worlds and Olympics sort themselves out, the sport is fine. Revolutions are for capitalists who will bleed your sport dry then dump the husk in the nearest river and move onto the next prey.

Bean counters, greed is gooders, pizza advertisers and the various other degenerates see no purpose in sport beyond getting rich, which is who your real God is, Mammon.

The same morons who wanted to expand the goals in the 1994 world cup and end draws because the public are too stupid to enjoy anything that doesn't have a goal every 10 seconds. And without all those young americans watching they won't see all the wonderful pizza commercials designed to make your kids fatter and more corrupt than Henry the VIII.

In the USA sport is the advertisement and the pizza commercial is the real purpose.

With all due respect to your fiance and I'm sorry she passed away, track and field is one of the most popular high school participation sports.

The issue is for USATF/WA to turn them into spectators and fans.

Every kid who plays football, baseball, or basketball in high school knows and follows the stars of their sport.

Most kids on the track team only know the sport for the duration of their practice or meet.

It's a matter of marketing.

Maybe a couple of the runners in GST should have had a actress/singing star girl friend or boyfriend who came to the meets.

It's 'Liew', not 'Lew. He's an award winning sports journalist - British Sports Journalist of the Year a few years ago.

The article is indeed for people who don't know or follow the sport (it's in a national broadsheet), but it's a stretch to suggest (without evidence) that he isn't well informed. Do you struggle with some of the longer words that he uses?

Sports journalist? It's hard to take anything the guy writes seriously.

independent.co.uk

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He doesn't understand the benefits of testosterone or elite performance at all:

Liew didn't even mention that there were proposed meetings of GST in both Birmingham and London in the UK that fell through.

Why doesn't Liew mention any of this if he is so well informed?

Because it’s not particularly relevant to the main point of the article?

Well maybe, but don't mention "A misguided focus on the North American market" in your article without deep diving a bit further as to why that was

It failed because Ackman did not meet the funding he promised