# What can DerbyWheel learn from Johnson’s athletics startup?

*By Simon | April 6, 2025*

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![johnsonomg](https://globalkeirin.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/johnsonomg.jpg)

## 󠀁[What can DerbyWheel learn from Johnson’s athletics startup?](https://globalkeirin.com/2025/04/what-can-derbywheel-learn-from-johnsons-athletics-startup/)󠁿

6 April 2025

We have written
[previously](https://globalkeirin.com/2024/07/athletics-legend-michael-johnson-plans-startup-sports-series/)
about Grand Slam Track, Michael Johnson’s initiative to launch a ‘regular
season’ for top-level athletics, filling the gaps between Olympics. There are
obvious parallels with DerbyWheel’s plans to do likewise for global track
cycling, as DerbyWheel’s CEO James Pope has noted recently on LinkedIn. So what
did _Global Keirin_ spot in the first two days of the new competition?

**Is that a cycling track?**
OK, we’re a cycling operation here, so we got kinda distracted by the first
wide-shot of the stadium in Kingston, Jamaica. Event number one is taking place
over three days at Jamaica’s National Stadium, known as the home of its
consistently overachieving athletics squad. But there’s also a 500 metre
concrete cycling track around the outside of the 400m running track. It clearly
has seen better days, and it’s probably for the best that it’s largely covered
up by advertising.

**It happened.**
Those of us following DerbyWheel know this can’t be taken for granted. A good
proportion of the big names in track competition have signed up to Grand Slam
Track, and were present for this first event. TV contracts were in place, with
races being broadcast around the world with full production values. Their
website has all the results, and there are same-day highlights packages on
YouTube from various sources. They hit the ground running.

**They came to race.**
Credit to the athletes: even this early in the season, they didn’t just show up
to claim a paycheque. The first two days have seen multiple athletes setting new
personal bests – although that may be because the format requires competitors to
participate in events which they might normally avoid. We’ve also noticed
numerous tight battles all the way to the line for minor places, which may have
been because…

**All about the money**
At times, the constant references to prize money made Grand Slam Track feel like
a Mr Beast gameshow. The total prize pool across the season is US$ 12.6 million,
with a minimum US$ 12,000 per competitor, and a maximum US$ 100,000 for the top
performer in each category, each weekend – and the cost of being pipped at the
line is several thousand dollars at least. There was refreshing honesty from
Olympic champion Gabby Thomas, who won the women’s Long Sprints group: ‘I heard
them saying on the home stretch ‘$100K on the line’ and it really, really
motivated me.’

![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/md44KgKPa44/maxresdefault.jpg)

**Empty seats**
There’s no getting away from it: the Kingston stadium looked empty from most
camera angles, with row upon row of unfilled benches. Near-empty arenas aren’t
unfamiliar to gamblers in Japan and Korea; and DerbyWheel events will take place
‘behind closed doors’ by choice, the majority of the time. But it sure makes for
a flat atmosphere – and any attempt to present the racing to a Western audience
must plan for that.

**Vuvuzelas**
Those who were in attendance made plenty of noise, thanks to the monotonous
drone of the vuvuzela – the plastic horns made (in)famous by the 2010 soccer
World Cup in South Africa, and later banned by many sports and stadiums. Turns
out, we didn’t miss them. But a silent stadium would have been worse.

**It’s week one.**
Johnson has wisely been balancing the need to hype up the event, with the
reality that they weren’t going to get everything right at the first attempt,
and that they won’t be profitable for some time.

Presentationally, there’s room for improvement when the series moves to the
United States for its three remaining meets. But the bigger challenge over the
longer term is making the economics work.

Johnson has described the competition’s recipe for success as ‘the stakes, the
stars and the stories’. Grand Slam Track has managed to put two of those three
ingredients together: they now need to develop the narratives, whether that’s
based on sporting endeavour or dollar amounts, to draw and keep people’s
attention.

**Categories:** Original
**Tags:** sportinnovation