Grand Slam Track Philadelphia's compressed schedule is a compromise that won't skimp on quality

Morgan Campbell · for CBC Sports

· Posted: May 29, 2025 2:02 PM EDT | Last Updated: 23 minutes ago

First let's spare a thought for the losers successful Grand Slam Track's determination to compression this weekend's Philadelphia event, primitively slated to instrumentality spot implicit 3 days, into 2 afternoons.

You person to consciousness for everybody who already bought tickets for time one, anxious to ticker immoderate high-stakes races nether Franklin Field's Friday Night Lights, arsenic good arsenic the homebodies who had planned a play evening astir a Grand Slam Track broadcast. If you're successful Philly, possibly instrumentality the accidental to hike to a cheesesteak spot the locals trust, oregon run the Rocky Stairs similar a existent tourist. I'll astir apt usage those hours to get a belated commencement connected my summertime rootlike garden.

I besides empathize with the hardcore way nerds who had budgeted 9 hours for watching nonrecreational way this weekend. They tin usage that unexpected clip surplus to link with friends and family, oregon absorption connected the NCAA regionals, which are besides underway this weekend. Choose wisely, way fans.

The decision, arsenic we'll sermon later, volition prevention your favourite region runners immoderate carnal deterioration and tear, portion their slope accounts volition besides endure immoderate damage. But it's besides a sensible compromise, and we tin categorize the slimmed-down lawsuit arsenic 1 of the increasing pains a marque caller league volition inevitably suffer.

For each the early-season hiccups, the archetypal 2 GST events person besides delivered immoderate unambiguous victories. High-stakes pro races successful the outpouring utilized to beryllium uncommon successful way and field; present we tin plug them into our calendars. Grand Slam Track has prompted the elusive Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone to contention consistently, and allowed young stars similar Melissa Jefferson-Wooden to drawback the aboriginal play spotlight.

TRACKSIDE | How will McLaughlin-Levrone fare in abbreviated hurdles astatine GST Philadelphia:

If you're invested successful the sport, its semipermanent success, and its quality to pull a broader audience, each those facts matter.

Still, asking casual sports fans, who seldom ticker way and tract extracurricular the Olympics, and who mightiness conflict to sanction 5 way stars adjacent if you spotted them Noah Lyles and Usain Bolt, to ticker way for 3 hours a time for 3 consecutive days, is overly ambitious. A streamlined Philadelphia lawsuit figures to service up a faster-paced broadcast product, amended suited to drive-by fans, and young radical with abbreviated attraction spans.

Will it work? None of america are sure.

But it has a chance, which is much than astir first-year leagues are guaranteed successful a crowded sports broadcast market. 

But the basal premise – satellite people athletes going head-to-head connected a regular docket – remains. Lose that proposition, and you truly hazard alienating existent and imaginable viewers.

As for the timing of these changes?

As adjacent to perfect arsenic possible.

WATCH | De Grasse finishes 4th successful 200m of Grand Slam Track debut successful Miami:

Midway done play 1 you've had a accidental to spot what works (high-level races betwixt motivated competitors) and what doesn't (broadcasts with banks of bare seats successful the background). You're trying to physique involvement and instrumentality loyalty that tin rotation implicit into play two, but the assemblage isn't truthful committed to the format that they can't grip immoderate adjustments.

The challenge, arsenic ever is to pull caller fans without turning disconnected the originals, and it's a hard equilibrium to onslaught for a first-year league successful a niche athletics with mainstream dreams.

But if a caller pro sports outfit is looking for a foothold successful North America generally, and the U.S. specifically, they person to relationship for audiences with a constricted appetite for long, slow-paced broadcasts.

We marque an yearly objection for the Super Bowl (average broadcast time: 3 hours, 37 minutes), which is simply a concert, wrapped successful commercials, strapped to a shot game. And connected a play basis, U.S. assemblage shot (average broadcast length: 3 hours, 24 minutes) succeeds connected TV contempt the bloat built into the viewing experience. But each different athletics is much similar Major League Baseball, which has introduced a bid of regularisation changes aimed astatine juicing the gait of the game, and fitting each contention into a tighter broadcast window.

WATCH | Track's caller pro league, the Grand Slam of Track, explained:

The condensed mentation of Grand Slam Track connected pat this play figures to cheque the aforesaid boxes.

For radical pursuing the event, it means less trips to the website to punctual themselves which 2 of the 3 days each jock is competing. They're each moving erstwhile connected Saturday and again connected Sunday.

Long region radical pays the price

Except the agelong region group. The women tally the 3,000 metres connected Saturday, with the men connected Sunday. No much 5,000. It didn't acceptable wrong the two-day format.

Does the caller docket short-change region runners?

Financially, it doesn't help. As a freelancer who gets paid by the story, I'm beyond acquainted with the headache of recalculating your finances erstwhile an duty vanishes from the calendar. It's not fun.

It's casual for league-level decision-makers to request much output from athletes, careless of optimal, oregon adjacent feasible, turnaround times. The NFL conscionable lengthened its regular play to 17 games, and the league would emotion an 18th. Thursday nights, Christmas afternoon, Black Friday – each successful the docket now, adjacent though abbreviated remainder periods enactment against subordinate information and the prime of the product.

Grand Slam Track really made the tougher decision. Instead of mandating half-hearted races connected back-to-back days, the compressed docket lets region runners ore connected moving their champion race, 1 time.

These athletes mightiness look superhuman, but they're inactive human.

Schedule alteration means compromise. Organizers had the accidental to chopped corners connected prime but opted not to. Doesn't warrant the moves volition win long-term, but they gave themselves a chance.