Runner Michael Johnson is trying to save his competition series with billionaires.
Runner Michael Johnson’s competition series is in crisis. Aop
Athletic legend Michael Johnson The money of the company responsible for Grand Slam Track, run by the new competition series, is out of money.
The running series, planned for a four -race season of the 2025 season, shrunk to three when the Los Angeles final in the program at the end of June was canceled.
Johnson estimates the expense budget of the event series as about EUR 26 million. According to a variety of US and British media, the Grand Slam Track competition has been a loss of millions of euros.
The prize money was distributed in three races about EUR 8.2 million.
– Sad thing. It was not the first time that these were tried with little success. When creating a new one, there should be financial bangs for at least two years. Now it wasn’t, says Iltalehti’s athletics expert Arto Bryggare.
– If the prizes had been halved, they would still have been tough, he adds.
The competition was held in Jamaican Kingston and the US Philadelphia and Miami.
– The competition places should have been better thought about. Only in Philadelphia it worked reasonably well.
According to Johnson, the biggest problem was the audience’s little interest. In Finland, TV rights in the 2025 season were Warner Bros. Discovery, or races, saw, among other things, the Max streaming service.
– The concept must be based on getting the media interested. Publicity and audience are very important. When they are spinning, many other things start to spin, Bryggare analyzes.
Billionaires to help?
Johnson assured in the release that the competition will continue next season. He mentioned that the cancellation of the Los Angeles event was intended to ensure continuity for the 2026 season.
According to international media sources, Johnson’s boutique “saves” about three million euros, while in California is not competing.
Johnson said in an interview with Sportico that the fundraising of the competition will be expanded to the season 2026. He raised billionaires Richelieuu Dennis and Robert F. Smith.
– If a billionaire joins, of course, he will seek reputation and financial profit. I don’t think there are blissful donors, Bryggare says.
Winners Alliance was the main funding for the competition series in 2025.