Grand Slam Track blew through nearly $18 million without paying a penny in prize money? How?

wejo wrote:

Great article from the Athletic. There’s another thread on this but the league launched with only one major investment of $13 million received.

And yet they spent like drunken sailors, running through close to $18 million without paying a single penny of the $12 million in prize money.

The Athletic wrote:

The league had burned through much of its cash. GST sources say the $18m it received was spent on ambassadorial fees to the small number of racers who took on that status, but also start-up costs to build the league, staffing costs, production, marketing and branding

They’re now $14 million in debt and that means the entire $30 million we thought they had secured would have got them through year 1. But they never had the $30 million and knew that in November.

So my question is how did they run through $5-6 million or so per the 3 meets without paying any prize money? That’s not to mention some of the vendors not being paid.

What do we think travel and production fees were per meet? Then you’ve got marketing and the overhead of all the salaries of the employees. What do we think this was? How many employees were there?

And from the article some of the ambassadors clearly got paid at least some of their fees up front.

Full article:

Link:www.nytimes.com/athletic/6577959/2025/...

In hindsight if the spent like that they should have put on 2 meets as a proof of concept, but the problem is they still would have run out of money. They only put on 3 meets and still haven’t paid $9 million in prize money.

wejo wrote:

Great article from the Athletic. There’s another thread on this but the league launched with only one major investment of $13 million received.

And yet they spent like drunken sailors, running through close to $18 million without paying a single penny of the $12 million in prize money.

The Athletic wrote:

The league had burned through much of its cash. GST sources say the $18m it received was spent on ambassadorial fees to the small number of racers who took on that status, but also start-up costs to build the league, staffing costs, production, marketing and branding

They’re now $14 million in debt and that means the entire $30 million we thought they had secured would have got them through year 1. But they never had the $30 million and knew that in November.

So my question is how did they run through $5-6 million or so per the 3 meets without paying any prize money? That’s not to mention some of the vendors not being paid.

What do we think travel and production fees were per meet? Then you’ve got marketing and the overhead of all the salaries of the employees. What do we think this was? How many employees were there?

And from the article some of the ambassadors clearly got paid at least some of their fees up front.

Full article:

Link:www.nytimes.com/athletic/6577959/2025/...

In hindsight if the spent like that they should have put on 2 meets as a proof of concept, but the problem is they still would have run out of money. They only put on 3 meets and still haven’t paid $9 million in prize money.

wejo wrote:

Great article from the Athletic. There’s another thread on this but the league launched with only one major investment of $13 million received.

And yet they spent like drunken sailors, running through close to $18 million without paying a single penny of the $12 million in prize money.

The Athletic wrote:

The league had burned through much of its cash. GST sources say the $18m it received was spent on ambassadorial fees to the small number of racers who took on that status, but also start-up costs to build the league, staffing costs, production, marketing and branding

They’re now $14 million in debt and that means the entire $30 million we thought they had secured would have got them through year 1. But they never had the $30 million and knew that in November.

So my question is how did they run through $5-6 million or so per the 3 meets without paying any prize money? That’s not to mention some of the vendors not being paid.

What do we think travel and production fees were per meet? Then you’ve got marketing and the overhead of all the salaries of the employees. What do we think this was? How many employees were there?

And from the article some of the ambassadors clearly got paid at least some of their fees up front.

Full article:

Link:www.nytimes.com/athletic/6577959/2025/...

In hindsight if the spent like that they should have put on 2 meets as a proof of concept, but the problem is they still would have run out of money. They only put on 3 meets and still haven’t paid $9 million in prize money.