Michael Johnson’s Grand Slam Track raised the track and field bar to a never-seen-before stage. It offered $100,000 for the race winners, the highest ever until World Athletics’ Ultimate Championships topped that figure.  Still, GST seemed like a well-balanced package that had everything— the money, the athletes, the intent. But, one by one, cracks are starting to show.

First, there was a lot of back and forth over finalizing GST’s fourth location. After UK Athletics backed out as host, things were truly looking quite shaky. Then came talks about the meet’s finances, followed by Michael Johnson’s controversial statement raging fury among the fans. But, guess that’s not it. Two track and field veterans have now voiced further concerns surrounding the GST.

Johnson’s track meet isn’t adding up to a winning hand

On the Ready Set Go podcast, Justin Gatlin and Rodney Green discuss a potential loophole in the format of Michael Johnson’s Grand Slam Track. Simply out of curiosity, Gatlin questioned, “What’s the consequence if they [the GST athletes] run the first day and don’t run the second day.” 

As we know by now, Grand Slam Track necessitates each athlete to compete in two events across the two days. The athlete with the best combined performance across their two events wins the category. However, when Gatlin raised the question, Rodney justified with, “Oh it got to be a docker pay…if you are a salaried athlete, yeah yeah yeah, it got to be a docker pay. They ain’t giving away, ain’t nobody giving away free money. That’s not happening.” 

Gatlin further explained how he’d love to know the intricacies of the process. He explained, “Because you know like an athlete can say yeah I’m gonna do the hurdles the first day and then the next day I’m like I don’t know that my hamstring’s ain’t feeling too good to go all out and sprint in the 200 you know.”

But Rodney thinks the system might be feasible to deal with this challenge on its own. He says, “I think that’s why they have it built. Like the salaried athletes cant do that right. The ones who he’s picked the faces of the posters and the ones who he has on salary for the Grand Slam Track, who have exclusive rights. But, for Challengers, I mean you could, Challengers could rotate.”

Notably, the Grand Slam Track has a few fundamental differences between the Racers and Challengers that fuel these concerns. While all athletes are paid to race and are eligible for the GST prize pool, the difference is that the Racers get an annual base compensation to run in all four slams and promote the league. Whereas, the challengers are paid a set per-race appearance fee.

Also, the GST Racers commit to running all 4 slams while the 48 challengers are selected on a Slam-by-Slam basis. Thus, Rodney says that salaried athletes are less likely to not run the second day. Whereas the Challengers could rotate. However, he calls the format ideal for ‘the athletes who don’t have nothing, who hungry enough to come and drop something and walk away with a $100k.’ But can the Grand Slam Track live up to its finances, given its recent concerns?

Are financial troubles looming over Michael Johnson’s GST?

Michael Johnson has been staunch in his belief that the athletes deserve to be compensated well. While his $12.6 million (£9.9 million) prize pool for the Grand Slam Track aligned perfectly with his vision, there’s always a discrepancy between an idea and the reality. This is why, despite the initial funding of $30M, it looks like the GST is falling short of the resources.

As per estimations, the Grand Slam Track’s annual expenses add up to $15.2 million, which includes everything from the prize money to the travel and venue costs. However, the fact that it is 50% of the GST budget, is raising eyebrows now. And the real picture looks even scarier.

The Grand Slam Track is heavy in its reliance on unpredictable revenue sources say the ticket sales or fan engagement, which may go haywire. Plus, with the UKA backing out, they have smaller stadiums in the mix, like the Mirarmar one with a 5000 seating capacity, only capable of producing $250,000 even when sold out. And let’s say all the stadiums record a full booking, that would still bring in just $6.95 million!

The GST of course needs more and one source is sponsorship. Alas, that remains undecided for now too. Given this, do you think the future of the track meet looks concerning? Share your thoughts below.