Wow well at least now it makes sense why they still haven't paid any of the athletes...cuz they literally blew through all their funding before paying anything to the athletes. Turns out GST was more of a failure than we could have imagined. I wonder if the athletes who competed will ever see any of the money they are owed.
What a shame. It was an interesting attempt to spice up Track but now not only has it turned into a failure, it's also turned into financial fraud!
The reality is Track & Field (Athletics) is a small sport with very little money swirling around, that just so happens to get loads of attention every year because of the Olympics. People want to know who can run the fastest, jump the furthest, etc. But they won't buy into it like they might with Tennis where they will watch the ATP/WTA Tours.
the reason Football/Soccer has so much money is because people will pay to go and watch games. They'll buy TV subscriptions. They'll pay through the nose for merchandise & shirts. They have a deep emotional feeling with their team either through geography or family reasons. Brazil at the world cup is life/death, it's not really the same if they have a 100m hurdler who might make the semi finals, maybe.
Some of that is just that you need to build up the history and importance. See the slow growth of the wnba and mls over the past 25 years to see how long it can take.
There is probably some way to leverage the HS interest to help build up pro meets but who knows exactly how to do it.
Here’s something that is rarely understood: pro track is not popular in Jamaica. The high school champs—super popular. But the only time pro track on Jamaican soil was big was a meet or two in the Powell/Bolt heyday.
I've always said that. The idea that Kenya and Jamaica are good at track because the sport is super popular is laughable to me.
I'd be curious what a business plan with say 10 million could do by buying existing Diamond league meetings. We know London lost money every year but as soon as London Marathon and great Run got involved it got a major sponsor (albeit with a bunch of other stuff) and is now profitable.
We are over thinking this.
Somehow London -- which gets like 50,000 fans every year - still loses money and it offers $500,000 in prize money. GST was offering over $3 million.
So the thing was bound to lose at least $2.5 million per meet. Now, what's interesting is GST lost actually $6 million per meet without even paying out prize money (but those checks to SML and JK were high). That's impressive.
This post was edited 19 minutes after it was posted.
"Grand Slam Track CEO Michael Johnson admitted Friday that the league cannot currently pay its athletes for the 2025 season..." - Weldon Johnson, 8/15/25
Ha. I guess I had it right when I wrote that. Sometimes I see Steve Gera referred to as CEO and Michael the Commissioner. But the Athletics refers to Johnson as CEO/Founder and I see Gera's linked in refers to himself as the COO.
Gera is the COO/President. That's even stated in the Athletic article you linked. Reading this article was actually the first time I even heard about this guy.
Don't confuse President with CEO. Obviously Johnson bares the most amount of responsibility out of those involved.
You know what else it proves? That amazing as the likes of Sydney McLaughlin, Gabby Thomas, Josh Kerr, and others are, they are overpaid. A superstar sells tickets. How many people bought a ticket to see SML or Thomas?
I was at Hayward for Nationals. Everyone who is anyone in American track and field was there. In a competition that is a lot more consequential than GST. And it was a great meet. Yet on its best day it attracted 7,000 people.
Another big difference with soccer or any team sport: You don’t need that many athletes to have an event, and you don’t need every big name - sometimes you don’t need ANY big name.
Soccer is 11 v. 11 - 22 people on the field and a few reserves. A track meet needs at least a dozen events, at least eight people in each. So at least 96 athletes, maybe more. Even modest expenditures for athlete expenses, appearance fees, and prize money add up. And in a team sport, people are cheering for their team. In track if you have a womens 400H without SML, or a mens 400H without all of Benjamin, Warholm, and Dos Santos - it’s second best.
And I don’t know the going rates for appearance fees, but say Noah Lyles gets $100k for a DL race. He runs for 10-20 seconds. An NBA player gets $100k and plays a two-hour game.
Another big difference with soccer or any team sport: You don’t need that many athletes to have an event, and you don’t need every big name - sometimes you don’t need ANY big name.
Soccer is 11 v. 11 - 22 people on the field and a few reserves. A track meet needs at least a dozen events, at least eight people in each. So at least 96 athletes, maybe more. Even modest expenditures for athlete expenses, appearance fees, and prize money add up. And in a team sport, people are cheering for their team. In track if you have a womens 400H without SML, or a mens 400H without all of Benjamin, Warholm, and Dos Santos - it’s second best.
And I don’t know the going rates for appearance fees, but say Noah Lyles gets $100k for a DL race. He runs for 10-20 seconds. An NBA player gets $100k and plays a two-hour game.
Tennis essentially has the same format as distance running and is very popular. From the pics I’ve seen from people I know at the U.S. Open, on multiple days, the place is packed.
There’s no need to over complicate it, running is just a sh💩 spectator sport.
Another big difference with soccer or any team sport: You don’t need that many athletes to have an event, and you don’t need every big name - sometimes you don’t need ANY big name.
Soccer is 11 v. 11 - 22 people on the field and a few reserves. A track meet needs at least a dozen events, at least eight people in each. So at least 96 athletes, maybe more. Even modest expenditures for athlete expenses, appearance fees, and prize money add up. And in a team sport, people are cheering for their team. In track if you have a womens 400H without SML, or a mens 400H without all of Benjamin, Warholm, and Dos Santos - it’s second best.
And I don’t know the going rates for appearance fees, but say Noah Lyles gets $100k for a DL race. He runs for 10-20 seconds. An NBA player gets $100k and plays a two-hour game.
Tennis essentially has the same format as distance running and is very popular. From the pics I’ve seen from people I know at the U.S. Open, on multiple days, the place is packed.
There’s no need to over complicate it, running is just a sh💩 spectator sport.
Here’s something that is rarely understood: pro track is not popular in Jamaica. The high school champs—super popular. But the only time pro track on Jamaican soil was big was a meet or two in the Powell/Bolt heyday.
I've always said that. The idea that Kenya and Jamaica are good at track because the sport is super popular is laughable to me.
I'd be curious what a business plan with say 10 million could do by buying existing Diamond league meetings. We know London lost money every year but as soon as London Marathon and great Run got involved it got a major sponsor (albeit with a bunch of other stuff) and is now profitable.
We are over thinking this.
Somehow London -- which gets like 50,000 fans every year - still loses money and it offers $500,000 in prize money. GST was offering over $3 million.
So the thing was bound to lose at least $2.5 million per meet. Now, what's interesting is GST lost actually $6 million per meet without even paying out prize money (but those checks to SML and JK were high). That's impressive.
London doesn't lose money anymore. LME and Great Run have made it financially viable because they know how to run events and attract sponsors
Did Michael Johnson or any other GST officer/employee have skin-in-the-game (i.e. personal investment) in GST?
I would love the see GST’s balance sheet and income statement (if they even have financial statements)! 🧐
Yes, on Gatlin’s podcast, MJ claimed he had personally invested in the league but didn’t say how much $, and they didn’t follow up.
I would love to know.
Michael Johnson obviously had to invest SOME money in Grand Slam Track, otherwise potential investors would ask, "If this is such a great idea, why aren't you investing in it?"
However, I bet that Michael Johnson made sure that the amount of money he was paid as the CEO of Grand Slam Track was more than he invested. There is no way he was going to risk losing money.
Another big difference with soccer or any team sport: You don’t need that many athletes to have an event, and you don’t need every big name - sometimes you don’t need ANY big name.
Soccer is 11 v. 11 - 22 people on the field and a few reserves. A track meet needs at least a dozen events, at least eight people in each. So at least 96 athletes, maybe more. Even modest expenditures for athlete expenses, appearance fees, and prize money add up. And in a team sport, people are cheering for their team. In track if you have a womens 400H without SML, or a mens 400H without all of Benjamin, Warholm, and Dos Santos - it’s second best.
And I don’t know the going rates for appearance fees, but say Noah Lyles gets $100k for a DL race. He runs for 10-20 seconds. An NBA player gets $100k and plays a two-hour game.
This is something a lot of people completely miss
It takes A LOT of athletes to run a track meet and keep people entertained for 2-3 hours.
It's actually why the field events are helpful. They fill a lot of time for the same price as one race.
Tennis essentially has the same format as distance running and is very popular. From the pics I’ve seen from people I know at the U.S. Open, on multiple days, the place is packed.
There’s no need to over complicate it, running is just a sh💩 spectator sport.
Essentially? In what way exactly?
They are very different.
It’s an individual sport. They don’t have a season like the major events. It’s a series of individual events played for prize money. Golf is similar as well.
Another big difference with soccer or any team sport: You don’t need that many athletes to have an event, and you don’t need every big name - sometimes you don’t need ANY big name.
Soccer is 11 v. 11 - 22 people on the field and a few reserves. A track meet needs at least a dozen events, at least eight people in each. So at least 96 athletes, maybe more. Even modest expenditures for athlete expenses, appearance fees, and prize money add up. And in a team sport, people are cheering for their team. In track if you have a womens 400H without SML, or a mens 400H without all of Benjamin, Warholm, and Dos Santos - it’s second best.
And I don’t know the going rates for appearance fees, but say Noah Lyles gets $100k for a DL race. He runs for 10-20 seconds. An NBA player gets $100k and plays a two-hour game.
This is something a lot of people completely miss
It takes A LOT of athletes to run a track meet and keep people entertained for 2-3 hours.
It's actually why the field events are helpful. They fill a lot of time for the same price as one race.
This is another reason why it’s a bad spectator sport.
In boxing, mma or even pro wrestling you have preliminary events of the same sport or in the case of pro wrestling, the same entertainment genre.
In track you have events in other sports that are even less popular than the main ones.
You know what else it proves? That amazing as the likes of Sydney McLaughlin, Gabby Thomas, Josh Kerr, and others are, they are overpaid. A superstar sells tickets. How many people bought a ticket to see SML or Thomas?
I was at Hayward for Nationals. Everyone who is anyone in American track and field was there. In a competition that is a lot more consequential than GST. And it was a great meet. Yet on its best day it attracted 7,000 people.
Well no.
Track is different than most sports in that a brand sponsor is the main salary. (Prize money and appearance fees are currently the 'base pay', but it's tiny compared to other sports)
In team sports the team pays the big salary for how many fans will watch on TV, attend games and buy merchandise.
The brand sponsors pay on top of the base salary for the use of athlete's NIL to sell their stuff.
No one in track is overpaid since brands are happy to sponsor athletes and pay. If athletes were overpaid, sponsors would simply reduce or eliminate the deals.
What 'pro track' is trying to do is give athletes a meaningful salary/income stream in addition to their sponsor money. So far this has been difficult to achieve.