So What's Going On With Grand Slam Track?

I mean, I'm basing my opinion on the fact that he's doing London. I have a hard time imagining he would be super competitive over 3k/5k with his current training block.

I don't get the Long Hurdles format...so there is a 400m race for 'normal' 400m sprinters, and a different 400m 'flat' race only for 400m hurdlers? Therefore, SML and Paulino/Naser are running in separate 400m races...like...WHAT THE?!

I don't get SML, she'll literally be dominating the same pretenders she always does across 2x races. Why not challenge herself for a change?

Categories
Short Sprints (100m and 200m)
Long Sprints (200m and 400m)
Short Hurdles (Men: 110m H and 100m flat / Women: 100m H and 100m flat)
Long Hurdles (400m H and 400m flat)
Short Distance (800m and 1,500m)
Long Distance (3,000m and 5,000m)

Up for that. Thinking about it too.

This league is destined to fail. Doubt it even lasts until LA28.

Will it be coming to Historic Hayward Field? Need the elite track fans of Eugene to be an elite track league.

Giving broadcast rights to NBC was like signing its own death warrant though. We won't have any elite track leagues until NBC goes away.

If it has no field events, I want this new league to succeed. It must succeed. Field events must go away

Things I agree with:

1. Trying to have the best athletes in the world competing at every meet.

2. Focussing on racing rather than times.

3 Dropping field events (I didn't agree with this at first, but having thought more about it, I do) and steeple.

Things I don't agree with:

1. The dual-distance thing.

2. Having a multi-day meet.

If I was charged with saving track, what I would do is aim to have a meet be two hours long and fit in as many races as possible in those two hours. I would invest into the operational side of it to ensure that races go off as fast as possible after each other. I also don't think there is a need for a 5000m race. It's too long to keep casual fans interested. The world's best distance runners can race each other over 3000m.

MJ is saving track and field, yes, by cutting the baby in half he will save the baby. Kerr, Sydney and a couple of others will always smile as they look back on the giant six figure pay days they got in 2025; before the baby died. We're going to see some very mediocre "B race" times and competitions. I love the 110H; but have no interest in seeing them run at 100 meters. Sydney is going to win a 400 against a field who can't even beat her 400h time in the open four. The distance B races will all be "jog, slog, kick" affairs with no record challenges. Meanwhile most of the instadia world record breakers of the last couple of years; Mondo, Crouser, Alekna, Mahuchikh, Rojas plus athletes like Tara Davis and Valerie Allman all sit at home.

GST asked for media folks and got so many wannabe inquiries they decided not to pay any money thus it's all volunteer like all track meets normally are. All footage, recording, flash quotes, articles, etc. is the property, all rights to MJ400.

I think this is pretty spot on, as well as earlier comments regarding the meet being stretched over 3 days.

I really cannot see how they can sustain this. At least with the Athlos meet, the 'other' venture into trying something new, it was all done in one evening.

I look forward to seeing who scratches from the upcoming meets and their second races in a weekend.

I subscribed to their email updates. Among their marketing goals are “more representation, more personality, more attitude, more access.”

I’m curious about a couple of things. One is what does more “representation mean”? Who’s representing whom and how?

More generally it would be good to know if there are specific action plans designed to obtain these goals. Does more access meet fans can meet athletes during downtime over the three days? How will we see personality and attitude expressed and in greater measure than…what? The Diamond League?

I don’t believe track needs saving and I have my doubts about this program. But I do believe it would be bad for the sport for this to fail and I genuinely would like for it to succeed. I just hope they have good plans in place for the non-event portions of these days as well and they they’ll do what they say they will do. That’s critical for success for this program.

I'm thinking that something ridiculous is going to need to happen for Grand Slam to pick up some steam and keep kicking.

I'm talking like somebody doubles 1:41.x and 3:32, or a 400m hurdler runs 43 high in the open 4.

If something happens that the old heads will remember in 20 years, like when Rooks got his steeple silver, or Jingy's 2 mile record, then I'm betting enough articles and clips of the meet will get out for people to start attending more.

Without a breakthrough moment, like a crazy time, a comeback, or similar, I'm thinking that the league will start to decline after this very first meet, and shut down in 2-3 years.

Cram lead play by play which is great. Tollefson good too as distance analyst (though I really like Rowbury too)

I would really like Centro to nerd out on the tactical side of things and get the whiteboard out in the studio. He can also speak well to the mental side of things.

EDIT: The TV product race coverage-wise will be really good (graphics and such can help), for the studio I just hope it's a little "Inside the NBA" style (yes this is a cliche), but give space to Centro, Sanya etc to have some lively debate, hot takes etc.

sh*t I hate Carrie Tollefson

Randy stop.

They have Steve Cram as an announcer. He doesn't show up for free:)

There are too many hurdlers period. 32 of the 96 athletes are hurdlers!

Sydney and Kersee wouldn't have agreed for Sydney to compete in the Grand Slam meets if Sydney had to face Paulino and Nasser.

This is a solid broadcast crew. Anderson is great, but the one thing that sometimes bothers me with him is that if he is in the booth, he will ask softball questions to the analyst/commentator in a way as if he has no idea, when its clearly a question he would know the answer to given his experience (something to the effect of "Carrie, do distance runners use different strategies of pacing when starting a race?"). I suppose that is the responsibility of the job, taking the perspective of a first time viewer of track and field, but by doing so I feel it lessens the perceived clout of the event. Of course, Play by play announcers of mainstream sports prompt their commentators/analyst to give their opinions, but usually in a manner that it doesn't make themselves seem entirely uninformed. The prompt I used in the example above could be better worded as "Carrie, what pacing strategies we can expect from this field?". You don't have to tell the viewer that their are different pacing strategies in distance running... it's implied if you are speaking about them. He is great as the post race athlete interviewer however.

I hope the broadcast team assumes the viewer at least knows something about the sport. You don't have the announcers of grand slam tennis explaining to viewers what they mean by "love" every match.