Michael Johnson’s bold attempt to shake up professional track and field is now under serious scrutiny, with mounting financial issues threatening the future of Grand Slam Track, the new high-stakes league he launched just this spring.
According to Forbes, the league has failed to pay a $77,896 rental fee to the City of Miramar for use of the Ansin Sports Complex during its second event, the Miami Slam, held May 2–4.
The city had originally required half the payment by April 2, and the remainder by June 2. Neither payment was made. A new repayment plan required the league make a $30,000 payment on July 18, another $30,000 on Aug. 18, and the final instalment of $17,896 on Sept 18. The League has still not made any payments, according to Forbes.
It’s a concerning red flag, especially considering that the Ansin Sports Complex was the smallest of the four venues Grand Slam Track had planned to use. If GST can’t pay a $78,000 venue bill, how will it come up with the millions it still owes to athletes?
This comes on top of a growing list of missed payments.
Reports from Front Office Sports suggest that GST still owes roughly $10–13 million in unpaid prize money and appearance fees to athletes who competed in its three completed events in Kingston, Miami, and Philadelphia.
The final meet in Los Angeles, originally scheduled for June, was cancelled last month.
So far, only the appearance fees from Kingston (the inaugural meet held April 4–6) have been paid out. Prize money from Kingston and all payments from the Miami and Philadelphia meets remain outstanding.
According to an internal email obtained by FOS, GST told athlete agents: “Our plan is to make payments for Kingston prize money before the end of July and the remaining payments due by the end of September, which includes the honouring of Los Angeles appearance fees.”
World Athletics president Sebastian Coe has now publicly weighed in on the issue.
“It’s not good,” he told The Guardian. “The one thing that World Athletics has always stood strongly behind is the athletes. So yeah, this is not a good situation. It’s a startup, but the athletes do need paying.”
When asked if World Athletics could intervene on behalf of athletes, Coe added, “Well, let’s just watch this space.”
Speaking to The Times, Coe again didn’t sugarcoat the situation. “There is no point in pretending this is a satisfactory situation,” he said. “Conduct in our sport is important to us. And we are following this closely. I’ve had conversations with individual athletes, athlete representatives, even meeting directors on this.”
There are real consequences here.
GST had promised $100,000 payouts to each event winner across eight race categories, plus appearance fees.
But top stars like U.S. Olympic 200m champion Gabby Thomas have taken to social media to express frustration over the delay, while British sprinter Zharnel Hughes told reporters at the London Diamond League this past weekend that he still hadn’t seen any money.
Michael Johnson has previously defended the league’s slow start.
Speaking to The Guardian in April, he acknowledged the challenges of launching a new sports property: “We’re in this for the long haul,” he said. “Startups aren’t profitable in year one. You know, if anybody comes to you with a startup, saying, ‘Hey, we’re going to be profitable in year one,’ run away as fast as you can.”
At the time, that message felt optimistic. Now, it reads more like a warning.
Jon Ridgeon, CEO of World Athletics, told The Times the federation had granted Grand Slam Track strong world ranking points to help legitimize the series.
“We wanted this to be successful,” he said. “Clearly [Johnson] is facing some challenges at the moment, but in Michael’s defence it just shows how hard it is to launch new stuff.”
World Athletics hasn’t ruled out further action if the situation doesn’t improve, and GST has yet to issue a public comment on the missed payments or the cancelled L.A. finale.
For a league that entered the season with $30 million in funding and ambitions to rival the Diamond League, it’s a steep and sudden fall. Whether Johnson can right the ship or whether athletes will be left holding the bag remains the question hanging over the track world this summer.
