I’m sorry guys. I can’t watch anymore Grand Slam Track. Here’s what.

as fans we have the best of both worlds right now:
-diamond league for the rabbited paced races

-GSL for head to head match ups among most of the world’s best.

Usually only an handful of athletes are capable of winning diamond leagues.

what day was Dwight Stones Broadcasting? I thought Steven Cram killed it

F1 weekend and it looked like 75% of small stands were empty for the 1500 and the other events? High School meets have 20x more people. If I was attending the F1 race I certainly would have attended this for at least a day. Several Olympians and good racing, I just don't understand the lack of spectators.

It feels like, "The Price is Right" in presentation.

Maybe when MJ lost his virginity, this was on the TV in the background.

This is how it should be. A win is a win. You don't see the Yankees get a better win at 10-0 as opposed to 1-0.

A lot of info here. You clearly know your stuff. I didn't knot much about executive team until your post. Here is an article I found on them

sportico.com

Former NFL, WWE Execs Join Grand Slam Track Leadership Team

ericpaul729

Grand Slam Track, a new global track league founded by Michael Johnson which launches next April, has announced its leadership team.

Open link

So say 15 million in prize money and appearance fees. That's half of the $30 million. Then they've got to put on the meets and as you note, they are working with quality people who aren't going to be cheap. Not sure how you know what creative agencies they are working with. But the visuals on the TV are better than most meets. That's not free.

I think all the $30 million is spent after year 1.. Maybe they're only using 3/4 of the $30 million but more than half is definitely gone. Perhaps the goal was for revenue (tickets and sponsorship) to make up the difference and get them a year 2 on the initial 30 million but we can all agree there isn't money for year 3.

This was max a 2 year investment. Let's hope they can get to year 3. Year 2 should be easier to get a few more athletes to commit as there is no Worlds to worry about at end of year so money will have even more sway.

This thing is LIV Golf but there aren't any negative repercussions for competing (ie being banned from other meets or having to work with the Saudis) except you have to double.

What country are you in? that is surprising as the Day 3 coverage is earlier here and the only one not at midnight in Europe.

It's track on TV- we're going to watch it. Is it perfect? Not even close. I hate their theme music and there is too much downtime.

However- they are clearly listening: the nauseating drone shots from week one? Gone. Interviewing athletes who don't speak English? Gone.

We had WLs, personal bests, stories like Jacory Patterson and, what? we get to see Sydney race?

Arop ran a madly entertaining 800 wire to wire, Nuguse ran a 1:44 800, Kenny B is ON FIRE! There are great races here. Are the ehtiopian men winning in 12:40? No, and the men's long distance has been a little shaky, but this is overall a good product that I only see getting better. There are essntially two races going on at all times- races for place, and races for points. Who doesn't want to be the spoiler that could've taken 50K from Josh Kerr?

I hope it sticks around. I wonder what the experience is like in person; it looks like a blast

I was in-stadium and the energy was incredible

Although at this point it is hard to imagine it lasting this long, I feel like this is a five year project. The Olympics are in LA in 2028, and as we get closer to the Olympics I feel like the media is going to slowly build up the hype for track and field in the USA. If the USA has an amazing performance at the Olympics, perhaps all the hype and media time surrounding the buildup to the Olympics will help build enough interest in GST for it to survive sustainably past the Olympics.

So they've got 4 years to get the formula, production, and marketing right, assuming their investors stay in the game that long. They'll be capitalizing on all the free press track and field will be getting in the leadup to the Olympics, so it would be foolish to let GST die just before the Olympics fever reaches its peak.

Typically venture capital expects at least a 50% ROI within 5 years. So the timing is just about right for that. There's no money in selling seats at the venue, not enough to return 45 million to the 30 million invested. It's all about TV rights and advertising spots during the broadcast. Can the league draw enough eyeballs to keep enough dollars flowing in to cover the league's expenditures and keep the investors in the game through the Olympics? We'll see.

I do think it really is going to come down to how fast they can innovate the product and correct obvious mistakes. While there is plenty to criticize, I think credit hasn't been given for what they've gotten right. They obviously knew the league would be instantly dead in the water if no talent showed up. But they got Hocker, Kerr, and Nuguse racing each other in the normal pre-season, so that's significant.

Boo hoo hoo, it's not prefect for you. Some people would gripe about getting free pizza and piles of cash. T&F has desperately needed to fresh take, especially in the U.S. where effing pickleball is more popular than T&F. Maybe with GST we might just get more viewers than curling. You don't like it. Don't watch. Do whatever it is you do in your spare time. But the rest of us are finding it entertaining.

Paralysis by analysis. This much hand wringing is a tell tale sign this endeavor doesn’t have the legs to last. A lot of capital has to be burned each year just to put it on. The money is gonna run away from it once the business case can’t be proven. That’s coming quicker than you think.

It reminds me of the ITA in the 70s; the same handful of athletes lining up week after week back then, it got stale quick.

OK so I saw Ben Jiphco win the mile and the 2-mile outdoors at BU in Boston in '75, as a high school senior. It was pretty cool to be there in person...

If I see one more criticism of Gland Slam, I’m going to bust heads. They are giving us juicy track action. Be grateful you whiners. Even bad sex is still sex.

I have a hard time seeing GST being sustainable in the long term if it isn't going to gain popularity in Europe, which it won't when it doesn't have field events and the weird doubles gimmick. Athletics is already popular here even with these apparent "flaws" Michael Johnson is trying to fix.

Why would people who aren't interested in track suddenly become interested when these rivalries are promoted with the doubling gimmick, when people who aren't interested don't even know who the athletes are?

What you're left with as the only unique selling point for the GST compared to Diamond League are the prize pools, which means diddly squat for the viewers.

I agree, the hobby jogging 3 laps and sprinting the last lap is why I took a rain check for most of the "Mo Farah" era of track and field. I abhor that style of track and field and I wont' watch it ever. Pointless.

Diamond League = NFL

GST = USLF or XFL? You tell me. A short-lived loser either way.

The drone shots were worse than ever on Day 3 - they kept doing that shot where the drone divebombs the stands - they did it when Fisher was leading, and they did it in the women’s race when you couldn’t even tell that there were runners on the track during the shot.

When i have to look away from the tv because the camera angles are giving me motion sickness, that’s not great.

i would, and do, watch pretty much any track I can - college, pro, indoor, outdoor - but when it’s physically unpleasant to watch the race, why am i bothering?

GST has a lot of problems, many of them fixable, but when it’s unpleasant to look at the races on TV, that seems like a big one.

It really doesn't make sense to me. Especially in light of his dislike of having high schoolers in pro meets because we need to treat the pro meet as if they are true professionals. If that is the case, then why does he require a heat of 100m runners who are not at the pro level (hurdlers running flat)?

I have said from day 1 that the most important thing to grow our sport is exciting well informed announcers. These announcers sound 1/2 dead and only make sense to track enthusiasts. for our sport to bring in big money it has to be exciting with big crowds Didn't sell out??? sell those remaining tickets to school kids for $5, have the athletes meet the kids, make that a requirement of running in this league, run a victory lap with the kids, make 2 or 3 athletes do things completely out of their range, 10k runners doing the 100 meter hurdles would be a blast. Change is needed