With Deadline Approaching, Grand Slam Track Still Owes Facility Rental Fee For Miami Meet

Forbes

15-07-2025

MIRAMAR, FL - MAY 2: Michael Johnson is pictured on the field during Grand Slam Track at Ansin ... More Sports Complex on May 2, 2025 in Miramar, Florida. (Photo by Michael Pimentel/)
Another deadline is fast approaching for Grand Slam Track, and this time it's in the form of an unpaid facility rental fee at the Ansin Sports Complex in Miramar, Florida.
The startup track and field league currently owes the City of Miramar $77,896 for its facility rental from its Miami Slam, which took place from May 2-4 at the complex, I have learned from a public records request, and the first of three payments from the rental agreement is due on July 18.
Originally, the binding terms of the event-host agreement signed on April 10, 2025, by the City of Miramar and Grand Slam Track indicated that one-half payment of the fee was due 30 days before the event on April 2, while the second-half was to be finalized 30 days after the event on June 2.
However, the bill is still unpaid after 72 days.
The City of Miramar rewrote a new payment plan that indicates Grand Slam Track now owes $30,000 on July 18, another $30,000 on August 18 and the third and final payment of $17,896 on September 18.
It marks a stark turn of events for Grand Slam Track, which you could argue had its most successful event in Miramar, hosting a nearly sold-out crowd over three days at the Ansin Sports Complex, filling the 5,000-seat stadium to the brim as an American record went down in the women's 100 meter hurdles and various other world leads took place on one of the nation's fastest tracks.
In this screenshot of the host event agreement between the City of Miramar and Grand Slam Track, the ... More league agreed to pay two installments of its facility rental 30 days before and 30 days after the meet.
Current Concerns Plaguing Grand Slam Track
The news follows concerns indicating cash flow issues with the track league, which canceled its fourth and final meet in Los Angeles on June 28-29 at Drake Stadium, with sources telling Runner's World the league had issues with its venue deal. Grand Slam Track also made adjustments to its race schedule in Philadelphia, eliminating the 5,000 meter race from the schedule entirely and removing one-half of the prize pool for the distance categories – a total of $525,000 between the men's and women's events.
'The decision to conclude the inaugural Grand Slam Track 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,' Johnson said in a release, announcing his league's departure. He did maintain, however, that the organization was looking forward for a return to the track in 2026.
When Grand Slam Track was announced in June 2024, it declared $30 million in 'financial commitments' from strategic partners and touted its partnership with Winner's Alliance, which was the 'lead investor in the first fundraising close for the new venture," an idea that seemed certain to revolutionize the sport and provide long-term growth equity for athletes. But in a search of the SEC's EDGAR database, no filing for Grand Slam Track is available. By season's end, sources told Front Office Sports that the league was considering postponing 'because of a new strategic partnership.'
There are also alleged problems with prize money, with a reported $13 million in race winnings not paid following meets in Jamaica, Miami and Philadelphia.
High-level staffers – Chief Live Event Officer John Porco, Chief Content Officer Rick Qualliotine and Vice President of Live Event Marketing Lou D'Angeli – have also been let go.
Olympic Athletes Are Speaking Up
USA's Gabrielle Thomas of team New Balance crosses the finish line in first place, in the women's ... More 200 meter dash long sprint during the Grand Slam Track competition at the National Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica on April 4, 2025. (Photo by Ricardo Makyn / AFP) (Photo by RICARDO MAKYN/AFP via Getty Images)
2024 Paris Olympian and three-time gold medalist Gabby Thomas, who is one of the league's centerpiece stars and earned $100,000 for her win in the women's long sprints category in Jamaica, along with $50,000 and $30,000 payouts for finishing second and third in the shorts sprints categories in Miami and Philadelphia, replied to a Grand Slam Track social media post on Tik Tok in early July, writing 'So dope!! Pls pay me'.
In June, Norwegian outlet NRK also asked several of the league's athletes if they had been paid following their outings at the Diamond League's Bislett Games in Oslo. Alison dos Santos and Emmanuel Wanyonyi both confirmed they were still without their prize winnings from earlier meets. Forbes also independently verified at least one other account of a GST athlete not being paid.
Grand Slam Track booked the Ansin Sports Complex, which included a 5,000-seat stadium with an FTX Mondo surface, for 14 days (April 22-28 and April 29-May 5), including a 'non-exclusive facility rental fee of $2,400 for seven days' and an 'exclusive facility rental fee of $8,000' for another seven days.
Included within the signed agreement was also a promise by Grand Slam Track to pay ticket surcharge fees owed to the City of Miramar based on escalating ticket prices.
Grand Slam Track owed the city $1.50 for tickets sold between $1 to $19.99; $2.50 for tickets sold from $20 to $29.99; $3.50 for tickets between $30 to $39.99; and $4.50 for tickets secured at $40 and over.
The City of Miramar is owed another $14,928.50, according to public records.
The event host agreement, signed by Grand Slam Track and the City of Miramar, outlets ticket ... More surchases owned by the event provider (Grand Slam Track).