After Day 1 of Grand Slam Track, It is pretty clear that this league will not succeed.

But you do need Lyles, Kipyegon, Ingebrigtsen, Warholm, Femke, Keely, and the other "best of the best" runners if you want to be able to say you saw the world's best runners.

I agree with you that I don't need all of them every week to be entertained, but if you want it to "mean more" than a normal track meet, you can't not have the top runners in each event.

The real "grand slam" for our sport is winning - indoor world, outdoor world, the Olympics, and the Diamond League. Those four wins are the real thing...

You made some good points but your first one was problematic. If they use small venues and "high schools" then the series will look like a joke. You can't hold the "best golf tournament in the world" at a local municipal golf course. The venue matters.

My kid raced at Hayward today and the music and lights and fans were amped! It felt like a world class event even though only kids were running...

p.s. They brought all the fans down to the track to cheer the final races of the night (elite mile and two mile):

Open image

It's much harder to "mail it in" in field events and protect your 'points'

Racing for points Instead of times is not going to save track... watching a mens 5k a half a lap slower than the women's world record just doesn't do it for me. Only decathletes should get paid for running a 10.39 hundred.

What insightful things did they talk about?

One of the announcers talking about how one of the sprinters who was expected to do better "must be going through his heavy lifting phase" - LOL

Announcers trying to guess times - they must be the same people who post here on LRC about "linear natural progression" - LOL again

They did a decent enough job otherwise (they undoubtedly made other ignorant statements)

The Peacock coverage was the usual UK announcers so at least they were professional and polished.

Maybe if they had an event in Europe it may succeed. Best athletes are based there, fans actually care about it and it fits in better with the schedules.

Athletes make money from sponsorship. They need to win major titles to get on TV advertising some bank or insurance company. They won't fly half way across the world and ruin their chance of winning a world medal for $100k

Yeah, Bislett Games is sold out half a year before the event, while GST can't even fill 1/10th of the stadium. And this is supposed to overtake DL?

More people have turned up for a school Christmas recital than this track event.