Why Aren't Track Meets Paying Athletes On Time? More On The Economics Of Prize Money

Forbes

20 hours ago

When it first appeared Grand Slam Track was having serious money problems in July, with outstanding prize and appearance fee payments in the amount of nearly $13 million still due from its meets, the response was immediate.
Social media stirred into a frenzy.
'Fyre Festival Track Edition,' one Instagram user wrote in response to a post on the league's missed payments.
But not everyone jumped to conclusions. There was Carl Lewis, arguably the most decorated Olympic champion in United States history, who deterred. 'Diamond League takes longer,' the University of Houston head coach wrote in a response to a post on Instagram. 'Stop hating.'
Many others came to the first-year league's defense, including the likes of Caleb Dean, a recent NCAA champion who turned professional in 2024 (he was also one of the league's showcase 'racers' in Kingston, Miami and Philadelphia), and Reggie Jager III, the 2025 U.S. champion in the discus.
Grand Slam Track founder Michael Johnson, meanwhile, appeared twice to confront those issues on live shows and podcasts, including most recently on Justin Gatlin's 'Ready Set Go.'
The track league, which boasted $30 million in 'financial commitments' when it was announced in June 2024, initially set a deadline for the first installment of its payment plan to athletes by 'late July,' but, according to Dennis Young of Front Office Sports, it missed the mark on the heels of the USATF Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon. With athletes still waiting for their paydays, the topic remains a core issue.
While there are no answers yet, Lewis' statement did prompt valid questions about the delivery of payments to athletes in the sport. Is this issue bigger than Grand Slam Track? Just how long does it take to issue prize money won during major competitions, and what are normal roadblocks which prevent professional athletes from receiving their earnings?
We spoke with two U.S.-based agents to learn more about the process, including American Track League founder Paul Doyle.
When Athletes Typically Earn Prize Money
The simplest answer as to why earnings are often held up is anti-doping control. For major competitions like the Wanda Diamond League, which requires event operators to run drug screening processes in line with global standards, an athlete must first pass anti-doping testing before prize money is released. Sometimes, that 'pass' could take 30 days or more. Using the 2025 Diamond League schedule as an example, there is merit to the idea of delayed payments.
Doyle sent us clearance notices – information gathered by the Athletics Integrity Unit, which is then sent to the Association of Athletic Managers, and then to the managers themselves – for nine Diamond League events.
Here's the breakdown of how long it took for anti-doping to clear athletes from the conclusion of each meet:
According to this sample size, the longest delay was just over a month. In Monaco, where event operations are among the best in the sport, it took less than three weeks. Based on this data, athletes weren't waiting very long – at least in theory – for money to hit their bank accounts. One agent we spoke to said the process to transfer prize money to an athlete is typically prompt, too.
'As soon as we receive a payment,' one prominent agent said, 'we let them (the athlete) know. We send them a statement and tell them, 'Here's how much from this amount is deducted for our commission.' Here's what we will send you. That's the way we operate.'
It should be said, too, that around $9.2 million in prize money is being handed out across 15 Diamond League events in 2025, while another roughly $9 million will cover promotional fees. Winners of most Diamond League events are netting $30,000, while in Diamond+ Disciplines athletes can garner as much as $50,000.
At the USATF Outdoor Championships, a total of $1.1 million was earned by athletes, including $8,800 for winners of each event. Like the Diamond League, each has to clear anti-doping protocols before that money finds its way into their hands.
Conversely, it's been 128 days since Grand Slam Track's payment for Kingston, Jamaica; 100 days for Miami, Florida; and 73 days for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The U.S.-based agent told us he feels penalties could be an answer to non-payments. 'There should be consequences,' he said. 'Maybe you lose your status, a certain World Athletics label if you're gold or silver or bronze.'
On a smaller scale, however, payment doesn't always come through promptly. Doyle says he's seen this happen, though prior exemptions aren't dealing with huge sums.
What he's more concerned with, he said, is the flaws in waiting to release money before anti-doping is completed. While it's crucial for the reputation of the sport and to maintain fair play, '98 percent of the time,' he said, 'an athlete comes back clean.'
'I don't think it's a good policy,' he added of holding money. 'You might have a meet where you have 150 athletes competing. And maybe 10 of them get tested. You are really looking at six-to-seven percent of the athletes waiting on doping control results.'
But most meets aren't offering five- or six-figure prize winnings, either.
Sitting At The Doorstep of a Deal
As Johnson revealed recently, Grand Slam Track faced 'major cash flow issues' when an investor pulled an eight-figure term sheet from the books.
But deals falling through the cracks aren't new to track and field.
Meet directors sometimes hinge prize money around the promise of sponsorship dollars. Doyles' own American Track League, which debuted in 2014 and ran consistently through 2024, recently lost Puma as its main sponsor. As a result, the series did not convene a single meet over the 2025 calendar year.
'Meet directors sometimes have to receive funds from their sponsor in order to pay,' said Doyle, who says he's currently in conversations with new sponsors for the track series. 'There are a whole bunch of boxes you need to check in order for the sponsor to justify the payment. If I have a contract for the American Track League, we have to deliver first. Once we deliver, we send the invoice.'
Costs certainly add up for any meet organizer putting on a major competition, too. For a meet to even reach the guidelines of a World Athletics Continental Tour gold-level label, it's minimum doping requirements must include '12 urine tests' at the 'cost borne by Meet Organizer," and have over $200,000 in prize money allocated. Often, the cost of hosting a meet doesn't always secure a return on investment.
There's no doubt Doyle understands the economics of the low-margin business. It sometimes also comes at a personal cost. In 2014, during the first year of his American Track League series, the average expense of each meet was $85,000.
'We had five events that year that I paid out of my pocket,' he said. 'We didn't have any sponsors. I was basically able to pay the first couple of meets, but I had to wait for my company to make more money to pay off the debts.'
Much like Grand Slam Track's issues, Doyle faced his own about a decade ago. But the 52-year-old agent and meet director rebounded and paid those debts. Only, he wasn't wasn't facing millions of dollars due.
On the other side, Doyle says he's also experienced a few meets where one of his athletes wasn't paid by a meet organizer. Nearly two decades ago, Asafa Powell ran at an event in Belgrade, Serbia. He still hasn't been paid for it.
The U.S. agent we spoke to says he's heard of others as well. He said one major U.S. meet which often features the sport's top athletes struggles to pay on time, too—he's aware of that timeline being close to a year even.
Bearing a Force Majeure – a God-like event preventing an event from happening – contracts are explicitly written for meets to be held accountable for their liabilities. Most track meets can handle a small hiccup.
The difference with Grand Slam Track is a matter of scale.
'You often deal with delays,' the agent said. 'It's not $100,000, though. It's usually a maximum of $10,000 or a lot less.'