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Grand Slam Track boss Michael Johnson gave more insights on the expectations and measures of success he has set out, the challenges of getting athletes to sign, securing TV rights, and meeting up with the anticipation of the league being profitable in its first season.
As the inaugural season of Grand Slam Track approaches in Kingston, Jamaica, Michael Johnson has given more details on the business model of the league in its first year and what plans are in place for sustaining its future success.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Chris Chavez for Citius Mag, the American Olympic legend gave more insights on the expectations and measures of success he has set out and meeting up with the anticipation of the league being profitable in its first season.
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"We've completed the year one already. I've been on this since the fall of 2023, it was when I decided that I'm going to launch a new league. The first thing I had to do was to go and get money, and that's not easy," said the four-time Olympic gold medallist.
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11:46 - 18.03.2025
'When we build it, they'll come' - Michael Johnson's final reaction on Noah Lyles and Sha'Carri Richardson making future appearances at GST League
Grand Slam Track boss Michael Johnson is convinced once there's a high success rate in the first season of the GST League, more top athletes will join.
"I've raised money for start-ups before, It's never easy. And you have to go out there and convince investors to part with their money to allow you to do this, and they have to believe in the business model. So to the question of not being profitable in year one, I've started companies and I've made them successful, and not a single one of them was profitable in year one.
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"So no investor is gonna believe in you if you tell them you're going to be profitable in year one....The first step was raising the money which I did," he added.
Johnson further revealed his biggest challenge was getting to convince athletes to believe in the league's vision.
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15:36 - 14.03.2025
Be Unique: Michael Johnson highlights how Noah Lyles and Sha'Carri Richardson can transcend the sport to lasting stardom
Michael Johnson believes the present generation of American athletes such as Noah Lyles and Sha'Carri Richardson aren't in the elite league yet of transcending track and field.
"The next step was the biggest challenge I knew we were going to have, two biggest challenges obviously was getting athletes on board to approach their sport in a different way."
Expantiantiating on what it took to get the athletes sign ahead, Johnson said he had to make them feel valued and offer freedom with regards to working with their schedule.
"One of the things we forget is that we think about track athletes as undervalued and they are, and marginalized and in many ways and they are. Again two things can be true. Those things are true but what is also true is the athletes in this sport enjoy more freedom to compete and do whatever they want, whenever they want than any other sport.
"They don't have to abide by any sort of schedule. They can sign up to a meet, they can decide well I'm not going to run that meeting anymore because it just doesn't work in my training schedule anymore and there's little penalty for that.
"So convincing the athletes that said sign up in advance to compete against your major rivals four times a year. We convinced them in 2023 to do this in the spring summer of 2024 and they said yes. So that was obviously a major challenge, that was a huge hurdle to overcome and a huge success," he said.
After signing some of the fastest athletes in the world to its league, Johnson announced its next big move to set itself up for success in its inaugural season. The revolutionary track slams will be broadcasted on The CW and streamed on Peacock for its 2025 season.
Other live coverage platforms are: Warner Bros. Discovery and Grand Slam Track have announced a multi-year partnership with live coverage coming to WBD Sports’ channels and platforms across Europe and Asia beginning in April with live exclusivity in 40+ territories. Eurosport (Europe and Asia) and TNT Sports (UK and Ireland) will offer live linear coverage, while every event on the 2025 calendar will be available to stream live and on-demand on Max and discovery+**.
The dates and locations for each Slam will be Kingston, Jamaica, from April 4th to 6th; Miami, Florida, from May 2nd to May 4th; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 30th to June 1st; and Los Angeles, California, from June 27th to 29th. The first day of each Slam will only be streamed on Peacock, while the final two days of each Slam will be streamed on Peacock and broadcast on The CW.
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