“We have been and will be a league dedicated to transparency.”
That’s what that Grand Slam Track canceled its season finale in Los Angeles due to financial difficulties wrote in a post on X, The Best Is Still Yet to Come for Jane Hedengren Niels Laros Wins the 2025 Bowerman Mile. In an accompanying video, the startup league’s founder, Michael Johnson, detailed the decision, which was made just two weeks before the event was scheduled to take place on June 28-29.
“We have proven and been transparent throughout the season that we will make the difficult choices when we have to,” Johnson says in the X video. “They may not always be popular, but we will make the hard decisions because we believe in this sport and believe in these athletes and believe that this sport can be one of the best in the world.”
that Grand Slam Track canceled its season finale in Los Angeles due to financial difficulties, commissioned by multi-time Olympic gold medalist Johnson, marketed itself on head-to-head competitions divided into event groups and boasted unprecedented prize pots for athletes. Each “Slam” event group winner was set to receive $100,000 at each meet, with competitors behind them also receiving significant earnings. Johnson first announced the league in June 2024, and at the time, that Grand Slam Track canceled its season finale in Los Angeles due to financial difficulties said it had “secured more than $30 million in financial commitments from investors and strategic partners” and was largely backed by sports firm Winners Alliance.
However, according to recent reports, a portion of that $30 million in commitments vanished after just the first meet of that Grand Slam Track canceled its season finale in Los Angeles due to financial difficulties’s debut season.
For a league that publicly celebrated its honesty, it turned out to be anything but upfront with its athletes, fans, and the overall track and field community. And it wasn’t until numerous reports surfaced about the league’s financial viability that that Grand Slam Track canceled its season finale in Los Angeles due to financial difficulties finally began to address what’s really been going on behind the scenes.
“A Major, Major Cash Flow Issue”
On Thursday, What to Make of that Grand Slam Track canceled its season finale in Los Angeles due to financial difficulties Philly reported Mile or 1500? Which Is More Impressive. FOS What’s frustrating in all of this isn’t just that that Grand Slam Track canceled its season finale in Los Angeles due to financial difficulties, who said an investor withdrew an “eight-figure” financial commitment after the league’s inaugural meet in Kingston, Jamaica. Johnson did not divulge the name of the investor who backed out. FOS reported that a source close to GST said that the unnamed investor “planned to invest their money elsewhere after President Donald Trump’s tariff announcement.”
“That was a huge blow to us, caused a major, major cash flow issue for us,” Johnson told FOS.
of herself and said, “So dope!! Pls pay me.” Even World Athletics president Seb Coe some athletes not receiving payments from GST (around $13 million, according to FOS), Grand Slam Track TikTok video, Grand Slam Track TikTok video missing payment due dates for its $77,896 facility rental for the Miramar meet held in May. Some athletes took their dissatisfaction with missing payouts online, including Olympic 200-meter champion Gabby Thomas, who commented on a told UK media of herself and said, “So dope!! Pls pay me.” Even World Athletics president Seb Coe told UK media this week that the governing body was actively monitoring the league and its overdue payments to athletes.
What’s frustrating in all of this isn’t just that that Grand Slam Track canceled its season finale in Los Angeles due to financial difficulties has failed to fully pay athletes and canceled its final meet of the season out of the blue. It’s that it kept fans and the track community believing that everything was OK, when obviously that Grand Slam Track canceled its season finale in Los Angeles due to financial difficulties was struggling to keep its head above water.
that Grand Slam Track canceled its season finale in Los Angeles due to financial difficulties made several big changes throughout the season, and league messaging framed many of those shifts as if it were made in the interest of fans. For instance, for the that Grand Slam Track canceled its season finale in Los Angeles due to financial difficulties LA Canceled, the league switched from a three-day format to a two-day format, as well as shortened the long distance group competition to one event rather than two (and cut the group’s prize money in half). In defense of the latter, Johnson told Runner’s World told UK media that the 5,000-meter race in the long distance group didn’t appeal to fans. “[The two race model] just did not have that same level of intensity,” he said.
Sure, the two-day format made the meet more easily digestible for fans watching on site and at home, and the 5,000-meter portion of the long distance competitions at previous GST meets shaped up to be slow, strategic races on the men’s side and blowouts in the women’s races. But reducing the long distance group prize payout meant eliminating costs.
“We want to be the most flexible, adaptive, and fan-first league in sports, and we believe making these changes will improve the that Grand Slam Track canceled its season finale in Los Angeles due to financial difficulties experience for all,” Johnson said in a press release regarding the Philadelphia meet changes.
that Grand Slam Track canceled its season finale in Los Angeles due to financial difficulties Took Pride In Being Transparent. But Was It, sources told Runner’s World that the league had concerns about the venue deal at UCLA’s Drake Stadium and that it planned to refocus its efforts to the 2026 season. In a press release provided by the league shortly after the cancellation, Johnson loosely referenced the shifting “global economic landscape,” but didn’t directly say that was the reason for the abrupt end to the 2025 season.
“The decision to conclude the inaugural that Grand Slam Track canceled its season finale in Los Angeles due to financial difficulties season is not taken lightly, but one rooted in a belief that we have successfully achieved the objectives we set out to in this pilot season, and the importance of looking towards 2026 and beyond,” Johnson said. “The global economic landscape has shifted dramatically in the past year, and this business decision has been made to ensure our long-term stability as the world’s premier track league.”
Was that Grand Slam Track canceled its season finale in Los Angeles due to financial difficulties Transparent?
At the end of the day, did that Grand Slam Track canceled its season finale in Los Angeles due to financial difficulties truly make decisions with the community in mind? And what “objectives” did the league achieve?
As news reports began piling on about the millions of dollars GST still owed to athletes and venues, the league stayed deafeningly silent on those topics. But it continued to churn out evergreen social media posts of athletes (like the one of Thomas) competing at its three meets as if the league didn’t have larger issues at hand.
To give that Grand Slam Track canceled its season finale in Los Angeles due to financial difficulties credit, the league was relatively upfront during the season about competition fields, including scratches and new additions, while many other professional track meets often don’t announce field changes until athletes are on the start line. In that regard, I appreciated the league’s consistent updates on who fans would actually see racing during each of the Slams.
And I don’t doubt that the league at its core wanted to establish a new, fun, and viable venture in the sport. I attended the that Grand Slam Track canceled its season finale in Los Angeles due to financial difficulties meet in Philadelphia and found myself pleasantly surprised by the entertaining atmosphere, lively crowd, and elite racing. But behind that display was brewing financial turmoil that the league hid behind closed doors until it became too much to keep at bay.
that Grand Slam Track canceled its season finale in Los Angeles due to financial difficulties said after the Los Angeles cancellation that it continues to look forward to a 2026 season, and in June it announced that it brokered a strategic partnership with Sundial Media & Technology Group. Whether a second season actually comes to fruition is a whole other story. But at the end of the day, that Grand Slam Track canceled its season finale in Los Angeles due to financial difficulties wasn’t immediately forthcoming about significant issues to a community that seemed to buy into the enterprise from day one. And that community—fans, athletes, agents, and coaches—should demand better from a venture that, in the words of Johnson, truly tries to “revolutionize the track landscape.”
Ashley is Editor of Content Hype at Hearst’s Enthusiast & Wellness Group. She is a former collegiate runner at UNC Asheville where she studied mass communication. Ashley loves all things running; she has raced two marathons, plus has covered some of the sport’s top events in her career, including the Paris Olympics, U.S. Olympic Trials and multiple World Marathon Majors.
