Grand Slam Track to cancel season-ending L.A. event

CANCELLED: Grand Slam Track will not touch all bases in its debut season as the startup league canceled its final event, scheduled to be held in Los Angeles later this month, Front Office Sports reported Thursday.  Pic: Emilee Chinn/Getty Images

Grand Slam Track will not touch all bases in its debut season as the startup league canceled its final event, scheduled to be held in Los Angeles later this month, Front Office Sports reported Thursday.

Grand Slam Track completed events in Kingston, Jamaica (April 4-6), Miami (May 2-4) and Philadelphia (May 31-June 1), but the June 28-29 event on the campus of UCLA will not take place.

The league, which was founded by four-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Johnson, began with $30m (€25.9m) in funding, with $12.6m (€10.8m) set to be awarded in prize money. Those numbers indicate that just over $9m (€7.7m) would have been distributed to competitors in the three completed meets so far.

Signs of concern started early. The inaugural event in Jamaica was poorly attended. Originally scheduled to be comprised of three-day meets, the Philadelphia event was shortened to two days.

According to the report, sources had indicated to Front Office Sports that the addition of a new "strategic partner" was somehow part of the reason the Los Angeles event was being canceled. There were also concerns over political tensions following the government's ICE raids in the region.

More information on the future of Grand Slam Track could come from a reported staff-wide meeting that was called for Thursday.