This thread was started about an emergency meeting being called by Michael Johnson with the contracted racers of Grand Slam Track today. Matt Lawton of the Times of London then reported on the emergency meeting being called here (story updated to reflect the LA meet has been cancelled)
And Front Office Sports was the first to report The Grand Slam Track LA meet has been cancelled. Story here.
Don't know if you're saying that to agree or not, but it's really weird that some people have criticized the men's distance events for going slow. Isn't that the point of pacemakers--to make the race go fast? And by not having the pacemakers, you're prioritizing tactical racing, which in practice means sit-and-kick. Which is still great racing! But it's like people were expecting Ezekiel Kemboi or John Ngugi to show up and throw in a bunch of crazy surges, and when that didn't happen, it's the athletes' fault for some reason.
'Championship racing' is only good when it's, erm, a championship (i.e. it matters).
It could potentially work with a single race format with large money on the line, you could see more risks taken. The doubling format though is what neuters it, it makes sit and kick inevitable.
Agreed with most of this.
The Diamond League is better because of the tradition of those meets. There is history and prestige associated with Monaco, Zurich, Brussels, etc. People care about those meets and track fans show up for them. It is hard to fake enthusiasm for a meet in Jamaica in front of an empty stadium where Grant Fisher is going to jog for 11 laps and then sprint for some cash. Yawn.
I really don't understand why so many people are so negative about GST.
We got more meets than we would've otherwise and there were a lot of excellent races! Plus no field events to sit through.
800/1500 double was excellent and I'm here for it. I hope they're not done already
because they threw an unsustainable amount of money in it and risked completely breaking the whole sport and artificially inflating the money in it rather than putting that money towards something that could actually grow and have longevity
I really don't understand why so many people are so negative about GST.
We got more meets than we would've otherwise and there were a lot of excellent races! Plus no field events to sit through.
800/1500 double was excellent and I'm here for it. I hope they're not done already
Apart from SML a lot of these athletes would have been on the Diamond League circuit and made the meets so far a lot better. Imagine if Arop was in the 800 at Oslo later, or if any of the 1500 big hitters had been available?
So is the LA meet cancelled or not? The moderator note makes it confusing.
cancelled.
I'd read the rumors that GST was hurting for cash, but I honestly thought they would make it through one season then launch with a scaled down 2nd year or end it .
I thought the Philly and Miami meets were pretty good. I think the 2-3 day lineup hurt GST. People felt they were missing some of the action if they couldn't tune in on one of the days. Maybe they didn't want to pay to watch half a meet. They'd have done better with a one day 2-3 hour window like diamond league.
The different events was a nice idea but they could be grouped as one event at 2 meets and the other event at the other 2.
It was nice as an American to be able to watch track on a legit streaming service at my convenience. Sure, there were some gimicky things, but we saw great races and performances. Hell, MJ even got SML to race- that's a win in and of itself.
This sounds like horrible news. I don’t like the timing of this along with the NCAA House Settlement potentially resulting in college track programs across the nation being cut and it being easier to do because “look, the pro track league with all its stars still folded in months, so how can our college programs with little known names survive”
It was nice as an American to be able to watch track on a legit streaming service at my convenience. S
Ya, it was nice that the times weren't like the middle of the afternoon on a weekday for Americans. I'd love to watch Oslo DL live today, but I'd have to take off work to do so. At least we get Pre, which won't even have pre's event, the men's 5k.
You can still buy tickets on the website as of 10:41am Thursday. Gotta figure these all get refunded?
I think they'll cancel LA, pitch it as "First 3 events were awesome. We're taking some time to further refine GST for 2026. We thank our athletes, fans, and sponsors for a great inaugural year." And then the series ceases to exist in 2026.
As someone who has been to diamond league meets in Europe and GST, it is a night and day difference between the atmosphere.
Several factors to that, certainly. Sadly, I think T&F is simply a great in-person spectator sport, especially at a DL in a European venue IMO, and not sure if the excitement of non-championships will ever translate to a TV audience.
Remember, they cancelled the USATF Los Angeles Grand Prix in order to accommodate Foul Ball Track-Los Angeles. It was originally scheduled for June 8. It was a much bigger meet with better fields and had nearly every event in T&F.
You know what's crazy? That this damn message board has this story before any track and field journalist in the world. it doesn't happen in any other sport that the fans are often more informed than the journalists
It's barely 9:00 on the East coast. The "journalists" here won't wake until close to noon. By then, the thread will have 150 posts. They will then start a new thread with "Breaking News!" about the potential cancellation and delete this thread to make it look like they had a clue.
Are you sure that the original post wasn’t made by one of those “journalists” to begin with? Clown.
I really don't understand why so many people are so negative about GST.
We got more meets than we would've otherwise and there were a lot of excellent races! Plus no field events to sit through.
800/1500 double was excellent and I'm here for it. I hope they're not done already
Apart from SML a lot of these athletes would have been on the Diamond League circuit and made the meets so far a lot better. Imagine if Arop was in the 800 at Oslo later, or if any of the 1500 big hitters had been available?
Quality meets and fields > more meets.
Absolutely right. Diamond League has been a near-perfect product for legitimate T&F fans for years. Nonstop action for an ideal 2-2.5 hour window with field events seamlessly interwoven, consistently great fields and (for the more established European meets at least) great crowds and atmosphere. In my opinion, GST broadcasts and races have been really poor in comparison. Somehow even after condensing to two days, they leave 30-40 minutes on each end of the broadcast window to fill without races, and so many of the races are like, Trey Cunningham running a 10.4 100. Like you said, there’d be no reason to complain if GST wasn’t negatively impacting the DL fields, but it is—like today’s “Dream Mile” not featuring any of the top 6 guys from the Olympic 1500. Track is better off with a consensus 1A circuit, and that circuit is the Diamond League.
Really pathetic for GST not being able to execute its first year, four meet schedule. The lack of intelligent planning is inexcusable, and Michael Johnson should be embarrassed.
'Championship racing' is only good when it's, erm, a championship (i.e. it matters).
It could potentially work with a single race format with large money on the line, you could see more risks taken. The doubling format though is what neuters it, it makes sit and kick inevitable.
Agreed with most of this.
The Diamond League is better because of the tradition of those meets. There is history and prestige associated with Monaco, Zurich, Brussels, etc. People care about those meets and track fans show up for them. It is hard to fake enthusiasm for a meet in Jamaica in front of an empty stadium where Grant Fisher is going to jog for 11 laps and then sprint for some cash. Yawn.
It's somewhat ironic that this is happening on the same day that we'll see a 5000m WR at Oslo DL,
You can’t be giving away millions and millions of dollars in prize money at each meet and paying for all travel/accommodation while having half empty stands and no ad revenue. I am not at all surprised this happened, I’m just surprised it happened this soon.
Hope this isn't the end - but it was obvious from the beginning the prize money was WAY too high to succeed as a business. As a comparison, average Major League Baseball payroll is right around $1 million per game, with an average of 28,000 in attendance PLUS A MASSIVE TV RIGHTS DEAL. With Philly as the model, GST was paying out $1.5 Million per day with maybe $200k in ticket sales, minimal sponsorship deals, and a TV deal where they probably gave the content away for free.
I really don't understand why so many people are so negative about GST.
We got more meets than we would've otherwise and there were a lot of excellent races! Plus no field events to sit through.
800/1500 double was excellent and I'm here for it. I hope they're not done already
^^^^^
This. I'll never understand what makes track fans, or at least the ones on this board, the most cynical, complaining fans of any sport. People here find a way to hate everything that happens, and take glee in any failure. Weird.