Grand Slam Track is out of touch with who track fans are

I think he’s doing the best he can with what he’s got. He signed Sydney which is great as she is one of the most high profile athletes. But based on what we know about Sidney, can he count on her to barnstorm online for Grand Slam Track? Sidney just doesn’t seem like that kind of personality.

I very much hope his idea works out. Anything to help track become more popular.

According to Kyle Merber they have a very spread out and lengthy marketing build up meaning despite having commitments and contracts in place for many athletes they can't/won't be promoting them or using them in place of Michael Johnson until that time comes.

Michael Johnson is just a placeholder. having Syd and Kerr are good and all, but you can't really make a meal out of it until you have their competitors, the field, and the rivalry.

Its their decision not to shoot all their shots now and be out of ammo come 2025.

Find yourself someone that loves you as much as Michael Johnson loves Michael Johnson.

Maybe people who know who MJ is is their target audience. Track fans who will spend money on track are gonna be 40 and up

My concern is this. They are focused on some combined scoring that no one cares about. So Grant Fisher would be their distance king since he won two medals in the Olympics?

I haven't been paying attention to their marketing, but I much of my junior year in college to analyzing the 1994 TX governor's race and the whole thesis of my paper was that in politics, "You must talk about what you are going to do the in the future. The electorate does not care about what you did in the past. That's over."

That probably applies to athletics as well so that would support your vibe if true.

They’re still signing athletes. The athletes will be the focus and big deal if the league once the league gets closer to its kickoff date.

but until then, it kinda makes sense that MJ is shown in everything. GST can’t show the top athletes in the world as promotional material for the benefit of the league unless if there is an actual contract and payment agreed upon and set up with that athlete first

they signed a few, but had to wait for the Olympics to play out and wrap up to have an idea of who the rest would be

The odds on this were similar to Duplantis in the pole vault

It’s a good point that Michael Johnson’s brand loyalty does not translate to today’s athletes.

He’s the voice of BBC athletics coverage though, so as a comparison would you be more receptive if it were Ato Bolden? He’s the MJ equivalent for US broadcasts.

He's not 'the voice' of BBC athletics. He's 'a voice' every time there's a global championship.

true, why was the 1500 Paris a duel Ingebritsen/Kerr, because people were curious who would win.

Same with Fischer: would he win.

Why is storytelling a factor (not the only factor), because you can determine who you're gonna root for during the race.

After the race is over, often the first question for athletes (which they often hate) is: what's next.

So please GST: sign those athletes, make them public so we can anticipate on the next (big) match-ups. I'm looking forward to Lausanne, because there is a race!

I'm just confused why we only know two athletes so far. Since the big announcement and immediate signing/publicity of two high profile athletes, I assumed we would be getting a new person announced every week or two for the next year until the first comp (48 competitors, right? so you could reveal one/week over the course of a year).

Instead, coverage (and my interest in it) has just kind of waned and died. I hope it succeeds, I hope it grows the sport and builds new track fans, but what gets me excited is who will actually be racing (or even announcing more venues). It feels like there was a very big "look at this new shiny thing" right before the US Trials, and basically nothing has happened or changed since then. At the very least, I thought they'd announce a couple more around or during the Olympics, but it's still complete silence.

Because all the big names declined lol.

You may be right. Honestly, I am paying attention to Grand Slam Track mostly because Michael Johnson is out there hawking it, and I remember exactly where I was when he won the 200m at the 1996 Olympics. I understand younger fans, probably don’t have that same association. But for me, his name alone was enough to get me to pay attention.

we need a savior it after the wc 22, la gp, eug dl 24, ny gp, etc jokes. the usa is unable to fire max sigel, ttusa, citius mag, runnerspace, and other train wrecks. but unlike europe the usa at least can have entrepreneurs try new meetings. european track families own the olys, DL, etc and won't allow new meeting organizations. i hope mj, ohanian, ATL, jesse williams, and others can make our sport huge.

All we know so far is they have 1 city as a host they have not even laid out where these meets will be. Before you want anyone to care how about giving us locations.

Too much money to sign the wrong people and have a negative outlook by eventual champions and public. Be patient, it'll work out. People are still celebrating the Olympic efforts so its too soon to get jacked up for next season. Your angst is a form of post partem reaction which is normal for the high you recieved from Paris. 4 years is forever and a blink of an eye at the same time. Next year will be here before you know it. Have to let the rest of this season play out. These one attempt DL meets make for great performances after Olympic/WC meets. Look at what happened last year. The athletes are ready. Let them play hard and jockey for those contracts now.

Michael Johnson is what Max Siegle wishes he could be

I think your title is very good and right on the money - I'm not sure what the "market fit" is with this concept and racing setup.

I've worked in the corporate world from a sporting angle for many years now and the most liberally tossed around catchphrase is always "storytelling" - it's always about the "story", what the "story" is but almost nobody really knows what that is and how it apply to a product (be it physical or in this case visual) and so when I read that grand slam track is all about "head to head storytelling" I honestly kind of cringe.

Because the best stories told always involve characters who are either protagonists or antagonists and they need to be relatable to audience - often having deliberately extreme traits, both positive and negative that we see in ourselves. The problem is that in this particular setting the way we ultimately see the "story" play out is in an athletic endeavour because ultimately that is the product you are selling - track races from 100 to 3000m. This "rivalry" thing? Well the Grand Slam Track is never going to be the pinnacle of it - that is and will always be the World Champs and the Olympics and that is never changing. At best your "rivalry" story plays third fiddle to those events? This is where understanding your consumer and being "in touch with who track fans are" as you said, matters and just isn't there.

Your highest profile athlete so far, Sydney McLaughlin is honestly to me, as interesting as a wet towel in my bathroom hamper. I respect her ability and talent - but there is nothing compelling personality wise on or off the track for me and I hate to say this but having worked very closely with athletes in this sport for years now and being involved in the sport - I wouldn't say track is a hotbed for relatable personalities and sadly most of the best personalities with the best "stories" in the sport aren't the ones who will be invited to these events.

This is all on the side of even the logistical stuff I don't get. 24 races across 3 days. No athletic endeavours in between track races (aka field events) which I don't think we will realize how much we miss them until they are gone. You want to presumably get large crowds into big venues for 3 straight days with an average of 4 mens and 4 womens races a day (there are 24 total events across mens and womens per "slam" right?).

The last thing I've noticed as you did too - the current website is more like an ode to Michael Johnson vs anything else. If your unique value proposition is "storytelling" of your athletes why is 75% of the website devoted to the story of the founder of this concept? I haven't seen this ever before. Yes I know that not all the athletes have been announced yet etc etc, but you don't undercut them all before you have even started by having such a focus on a guy who isn't even competing. It seems like a promotion for Johnson who by the way is a notoriously narcissistic in the sport and because of that isn't the most liked guy in the sport either.

So I am totally with you in your feelings - I think a four meet "super" circuit of track and field with elevated money to compliment the DL is a great idea - I am very very skeptical of the proposed execution logistically and its mission/purpose.

Any time you create a product for which there is no obvious "need," then you have to manufacture excitement and create the demand artificially.

A year ago, zero people were saying, "the problem with track is that we don't have any big meets." We already have a track league of the best athletes in the most historic venues. It is called the Diamond League. Pre, Oslo, London, Paris, Monaco, Berlin, Zurich, etc... And every year should also have either an Olympics, World Champs, World XC, Indoor Worlds, or a Euros/US Championships. That should be enough "grand slams" for most athletes.

The problem was that the Diamond League has grown to 14 meets and about 7 of them aren't really "Diamond worthy." That watered down the fields. And then, to make it worse, the $$$ was spread out too much over those meets as well.

But really what nobody wanted was more, new meets over three days with a curated group of invited athletes who get paid no matter how well they run.

Grand Slam Track is the solution that nobody asked for to a problem we didn't have.

p.s. The money was the problem. If you finish 193rd in the PGA you still make a million bucks. If you win the 1500m Olympic Gold you get $10,000. That is just the elephant in the room about our sport.