The problem with Grand Slam is already showing at Meet 1

So Kyle

Do these athletes, that bugged out ,shows up but does not run , runs at a snails pace,- do they not get paid for this event? Sure hope so or they should get Trump to negotiate these contracts with them.

Make it a scored team event. Teams are redrafted each week, with the winners of the 100m, 4oom, 1500m, and 5k as team captains who then draft their rosters by selecting 12 other athletes.

Just wait until Josh Kerr bails.

With GST being his excuse to duck Jakob at both European Indoors and World Indoors, he had better not only show up but win all four GST meets.

I think the steeple is actually interesting. The urgency of the race is a problem as is the temptation to jog some laps. A mile/2K steeple could solve that problem.

Triathlon started a similar series a couple years ago called T100. They contract 16 of the best athletes for the season & pick 4 wild cards for every race. People inevitably miss races & the # of wild cards go up. It's on Grand Slam Track to make sure they have a certain number of races minimum in their contracts & to be able to clawback based on non-performance. It's working in triathlon. You're not required to go to every race but you do have to go to most. The end of season race is stacked, with everyone showing up. But, I generally agree that this isn't fundamentally different from DLs. You get most big names or enough big names plus some domestic runners filling out fields. It's race #1. I still wouldn't be quick to say it's a problem. Track needs something new & competition is good.

The problem with these big track meets is there are so many athletes in so many different events that all need to fly in and all need hotel rooms. Just very hard to make it work financially when it's not the Olympics. You can't charge NFL prices for admission and don't command an NFL audience on TV.

A cool idea would be to take it back to HS dual meet style and having like 20 guys on a team and do three events each on the same day. Force the distance guys to run a mile and a two mile tired and maybe even a relay. No one really wants to watch someone run a track 10K that takes 28 minutes.

I was going to watch on TV, but all this discussion of GST made me go buy tickets for the Miami event. 3 day VIP/finish line tickets for the same price as decent tickets to a Tampa Bay Bucs game.

It sounds like there will be some things to iron out in the first year, but this is a pretty reasonable way to see some of the best T&F stars in the world compete.

I hope the Grand Slam concept succeeds and am supporting it myself by attending the full LA session. That said, my gut says that this is conceptually so divorced from how fans and runners like to operate that it’s going to be hard to sustain. The elitist source of the concept (two guys sitting down at SoHo club, one of whom apparently doesn’t know there is something called the World Championships and something else called the Diamond League) does not boost my confidence:

“Michael Johnson and Steve Gera were having lunch at Soho House in Malibu two years ago, looking out over the Pacific Ocean, when they first sketched out a plan for what would become Grand Slam Track.

“He pitched me this idea,” recalls Gera, a former US Marine who became a coach and sports executive for several NFL teams and FC Barcelona. “I had the ‘aha’ moment of, oh my God, there is actually nothing in between the Olympics that is the best-of-the-best racers on a consistent basis. Yet this sport is so tremendously popular during the Olympics. Like, what happens?!”

GST is to Track and Field as what LIV is to Golf.... just not as much money backing it up to ensure its future (or attract Jakob, Sha'Carri, Noah, etc).

At a time when the sport needs to come together as a whole and get organized so the best compete against the best, GST is doing the exact opposite. GST clearly is diminishing the World Indoors, World Relays and the opening leg of 4 non-European Diamond League meets.

True, the difference being the NFL and MLB are wildly popular sports, not a startup in in a low-visibility sport in its inaugural season.

There absolutely is something wrong with the current format and the sport which you admit in your post. It's not popular in the United States. Seb Coe himself has stated that it's a problem.

This is a fantastic set of ideas. I think you're exactly right on what the series gets right (and so doesn't need to change), and also how to fix the flaws.

Johnson's influence does seem to hang over the format. Everyone doubles? That's what Michael Johnson would have done! Why are there separate 100/200 and 200/400 groups? We have to have the event group best suited for Michael Johnson!

Some tweaks and expansion of your ideas (just spitballing here)

a) Make the long sprint group 300/400/600, or maybe 300/400/500, to reduce overlap with the short sprint group. I could go either way on this, but less overlap means every athlete will have a most natural event group.

b) The distance group can be 3k/5k/10k. But the 10k can have the first 7k set up as a road (or cross country) race outside the stadium. That would be an interesting dynamic, can the aerobic monsters break away during the road portion, or can the kickers hold on until the track? Plus, the TV window can be compressed; start the men's race when the women hit halfway, and there will be about 3-5 minutes between the women's finish and when the men enter the stadium. And by having the race go through the streets, you get some community engagement like for the major marathons.

c) I *love* the one-day, 5 event groups idea. Each race should take 10 or so minutes on average, including short gaps, and so the whole thing would be about an hour and a half. The current series, like most track meets, is too drawn out between events.

d) Three meets could be fine, but if they want to stick with 4, they could do something like the following:

• Short sprints: 150, 100, 200, 100 AND 200
• Long sprints: 400, 300, 600, 400
• Middle distance: 1000, 1200, 800, 1500
• Long distance: 5k, 3k, 5k, 10k
• Hurdles: 100/110h AND 400h, 200h, 400h, 100/110h

The novelty events are more in the start of the series, when the athletes would be sharpening up, and the last couple meets are more focused on the primary events. The hurdlers and short sprinters both get doubles in one meet. The final meet would be a culmination, with short sprinters doubling, 400 runners doing their primary event, distance runners doing their road/track hybrid. And the middle distance finale would be very interesting, with the 1500 specialists needing to push the pace to burn off the 800 specialists.

But long story short, I think you've nailed it.

We don't need yet another entity declaring bankruptcy because of him.

This is a much better idea, honestly.

Only thing I would change is to let the groups meet at a distance, for example long sprint 200-400-800 short distance 800-1500-3000, long 3000-5000-10000.

I am concerned with how everyone wants to accomodate and change the sport for those not really interested, though. I am sure Bob really likes his fotball, with 30 seconds of action before a commercial break, but please don't make track like that. There is something in the investment of watching everything unfold, having suspension and excitement for 20+ minutes before you get the climax in the last few laps.

I truly believe that it could be amazing if they channeled their efforts into enhancing Track & Field. The sport has so much to offer and investing in its development could truly elevate the overall experience for fans and athletes alike. Too many people think gimmicks like adding a mixed 4x400m event may seem like an interesting twist, sometimes simplicity and a focus on the core aspects of the sport can lead to the most memorable and impactful moments. The GST is an expensive and complicated setup with no focus.

I don't agree!

Let's be honest, it's about MONEY! All sports are about money (guaranteed per contract if possible). If you can combine the pay day with a great sports event you've hit the jackpot. You'd be surprised at how a schedule and or season plan can be adjusted or changed to accommodate a large pay day. Once the meets are worked within the yearly schedule, they will be fine. As far as injuries go, yes, Kyle is spot on. You can't predict a last-minute injury, and unfortunately there's not much you can do about it aside from not getting hurt or running through it. I think the biggest concern that GST faces is the quality of the races. Most elite athletes are in the beginning phases of incorporating speed work (speed endurance) into their training plans. For middle/long distance runners, they're not even close to high-end quality speed development, which means the times will be substantially slower than late May/June and the upcoming summer season. The head-to-head concept is great, unfortunately, the times won't be. Once the athletes and coaches figure out the yearly schedule, they'll start to incorporate multiple peaks throughout the season.

Only comment I would have on this is quite simple.

Appreciate Kyle Merber and his "transparency" and hey, he's just doing his job and probably making good cash for it - you do you brother.

This transparency and honesty aren't the issue here or relevant. The issue is the format and realities of this "league". Okay it's great you are more "media friendly" releasing fields 3 months in advance - but what good is that if within those 3 months people are pulling out/changing plans? And this is only the first meet, it's only going to become a bigger issue as we go along.

I know Kyle and everyone are doing their absolute best with the cards they have and will be dealt - but that's not at question. The question is how you remain legitimate and true to this "unique value proposition" of unparalleled racing and "rivalries" and "stories" when the realities of professional track rise to the surface?

Soccer isn't popular in the US either, so the US attempt at fixing it is by making the format worse, which doesn't appeal to fans in the rest of the world.

I just don't see GST being sustainable in the long term, the money has to come from somewhere unless the investors wants to keep tossing money into the fire pit.

I'm interested to see how the GST format works, but I'm worried the format isn't different enough from the typical pro track meet to really move the needle.

I've thought for a while that pro running should adopt more of a combat sport format outside of Olympics and World Champs. Instead of fight night, it's race night.