Latest news with #MiamiSlam
Forbes
15-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
With Deadline Approaching, Grand Slam Track Still Owes Facility Rental Fee For Miami Meet
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).
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Grand Slam Track changes schedule for Philadelphia event
Changes are coming to the Grand Slam Track event in Philadelphia. Founder and commissioner Michael Johnson announced on Thursday that the original three-day schedule for the professional track league event will be condensed to two days of competition. The Philadelphia Slam will now begin on Saturday, May 31 and wrap up on Sunday, June 1 at Franklin Field. "Coming off an amazing sold-out Miami Slam, we've taken time to celebrate the successes we've achieved in our inaugural season, but also have looked for ways to improve Grand Slam Track in real time," Johnson said in a release. "We've said all along we want to listen to our fans, athletes, and coaches, and having heard feedback from various key stakeholders, we've made the decision to condense our schedule in Philadelphia into two, high-octane, and intense days of combat racing. We want to be the most flexible, adaptive, and fan-first league in sports, and we believe making these changes will improve the Grand Slam Track experience for all." The move to a two-day event results in a significant change to the long distance category. The three-day competition window had allowed for a day of rest for the athletes between their 3,000-metre and 5,000m events, but now they will compete in a single 3,000m race in Philadelphia. That change also comes with an altered prize pool for long distance athletes, with winners taking home $50,000 US instead of the $100,000 previously up for grabs. WATCH | Track's new pro league, the Grand Slam of Track, explained: The final stop of the Grand Slam Track season is in Los Angeles from June 27-29. All Grand Slam Track events will be streamed live on and on CBC Gem. For a full broadcast schedule of athletics events this season, .
BBC News
25-04-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Azu, Duplantis, Kipyegon in action at Diamond League opener
The 16th Diamond League season begins in Xiamen, China on Saturday as athletics' Olympic stars begin to build towards their shot at world glory in 2025, live on the BBC. The series will see athletes compete for points in 32 disciplines across 14 meetings in a bid to qualify for the winner-takes-all two-day finals in Zurich in takes place just over two weeks before the start of the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan in is also the first year in which the Diamond League must compete with Michael Johnson's new Grand Slam Track for athletes' the three remaining Grand Slam Track events, only one clashes directly with Diamond League competition - with the Miami Slam on 2–4 May taking place at the same time as the meet in Keqiao, China on 3 Diamond League has increased its prize money to the highest level in its history, with a total prize pot of $9.24m (£6.95m) on offer across the includes $500,000 (£375,000) at each of the 14 series meetings, and $2.2m (£1.7m) at the Diamond League the Diamond League action on the BBC Red Button, BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app from 12:00 to 14:00 BST on Saturday. Who to watch out for in Xiamen After winning the first global title of his career with world indoor 60m gold in March, Great Britain's Jeremiah Azu begins his push for outdoor 23-year-old will have Olympic 200m champion Letsile Tebogo, American Christian Coleman and South Africa's Akani Simbine for company in a stacked pole vault star Armand 'Mondo' Duplantis competes in the men's pole vault after breaking the men's world record for an 11th time in Xiamen one year ago, Duplantis posted the earliest world record in a Diamond League season before going on to win a fourth announced this week that in June she will attempt to become the first woman to run a sub-four minute mile, three-time Olympic 1500m champion Faith Kipyegon will contest the women's 1,000m in Kenyan, whose personal best is just 0.17 seconds slower than the world record of two minutes and 28.98 seconds, is joined in that race by Olympic 800m silver medallist Tsige Duguma and GB's Erin Britain's Amy Hunt lines up in the women's 200m against Jamaica's two-time world champion in the event Shericka Jackson, while Morgan Lake competes against Ukraine's Olympic high jump champion Yaroslava inaugural Diamond League men's 300m hurdles features the event's world record holder Karsten Warholm, while four-time global champion Grant Holloway goes in the men's 110m hurdles. Key Diamond League timings 10:15 BST - Women's high jump featuring GB's Morgan Lake and Olympic champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh10:35 BST - Men's pole vault featuring world record holder Mondo Duplantis11:40 BST - Men's 110m hurdles featuring Olympic champion Grant Holloway11:50 BST - Women's 200m featuring GB's Amy Hunt and Jamaica's two-time world champion Shericka Jackson 12:01 BST - Men's 100m featuring GB's Jeremiah Azu and Olympic 200m champion Letsile Tebogo12:10 BST - Women's 1,000m featuring three-time Olympic gold medallist Faith Kipyegon and GB's Erin Wallace12:52 BST - Men's 300m hurdles featuring Norway's world record holder Karsten Warholm How does the Diamond League work? Athletes will compete for points at the 14 regular series meetings from April to August. Points are awarded on a scale from eight for first place to one for eighth place. After the 14th meeting in Brussels, the top six ranked athletes in the field events, the top eight in track events from 100m up to 800m, and the top 10 in the distances from 1500m upwards qualify for the final. The two-day finals are a winner-takes-all competition to be crowned Diamond League champion in each event. Diamond League calendar 2025 26 April - Xiamen, China03 May - Keqiao, China16 May - Doha, Qatar25 May - Rabat, Morocco06 June - Rome, Italy12 June - Oslo, Norway15 June -Stockholm, Sweden20 June - Paris, France05 July - Eugene, USA11 July - Monaco19 July - London, England16 August - Silesia, Poland20 August - Lausanne, Switzerland22 August - Brussels, Belgium27-28 August - Zurich, Switzerland
