Each of the past two seasons we’ve had a new track meet, or series of meets to look forward to in the US. Two years ago, it was Athlos, which turned out to be a nice competition, that repeated last year, with a promise to expand this year. Last year, it was Grand Slam Track, which sounded promising, but had lots of questions that were finally answered when it was discovered that the money wasn’t really there. This year, we’re getting the “USATF Tour”, and as with GST, I have thoughts and questions before a single meet is run.
If you haven’t heard, this “Tour” was announced late last year in response to the need for more elite meets in the United States. As with most things USATF, we were told that the details would be forth coming! Shortly before the clock turned twelve on 2025, we began to get those details, sort of.
According to USATF, The Tour is a unified calendar of independently run meets that meet World Athletics bronze/silver/gold label criteria or are seeking those labels. It is designed to reduce schedule fragmentation, boost sponsorship/media value, and improve the athlete and fan experience through standardized support and prize structures.
Again, according to USATF, the meets are as follows:
• The Ten – San Juan Capistrano, CA (March 28, 2026)
• Miramar Invitational – Miramar, FL (early April)
• Oklahoma Throws Series World Invitational – Ramona, OK (mid‑April)
• Mt. SAC Relays – Walnut, CA (April 18, 2026)
• Penn Relays – Philadelphia, PA (April 25, 2026)
• Drake Relays – Des Moines, IA (April 25, 2026)
• LA Track Festival – Los Angeles, CA (May 23, 2026)
• Tucson Elite Throws – Tucson, AZ (May 23, 2026)
• LA Grand Prix meets and LA Distance Classic in June (Los Angeles, CA)
• Iron Wood Classic – Rathdrum, ID (June 20, 2026)
• ATX Classic – Georgetown, TX (June 20, 2026)
• Portland Track Festival – Portland, OR (June 21, 2026)
• LA Throws Cup – Los Angeles, CA (June 27, 2026)
• Sunset Tour – Los Angeles, CA (July 11, 2026)
• Ed Murphey Classic – Memphis, TN (July 11–12, 2026)
As you can see, there are gaps as far as some dates, and a couple of meets are “missing”, so it’s still a work in progress. The announced “Prize Money” is as follows:
USATF will award $50,000 to the top male and top female athlete in the Tour based on World Athletics performance points from their three best scoring meets. Each meet offers ranking points as part of the World Athletics system, which can influence national team selection and lane/heat access at majors.
Further information from USATF regarding the “Tour”:
- USATF is committing operational support (drug testing, officials, sanctioning, some medical and branding/logistics) valued at roughly $15,000–$50,000 per event.
- Many meets will stream on USATF.tv, while those with existing TV/streaming deals remain on their own broadcast partners.
- USATF will prioritize these Tour meets when allocating travel funding for tiered U.S. athletes.
So, those are the “nuts & bolts” that I could pull together regarding the USATF Tour. With that, here are my personal thoughts. For starters, I’m extremely disappointed, but not surprised. A large number of these meets, already existed, so they are not being “added”, but simply being piggy backed onto. That would be fine, if USATF was going to be a value added commodity, and add something substantial, like PRIZE MONEY! Apparently however, prize money is not something that USATF is interested in, given that the only prize money involved is a total of $100K that requires that an athlete competes in at least THREE competitions to be eligible to win! That is pathetic! Frankly, that alone makes this “Tour” a moot point to me!
Putting together a series of meets in the United States should have at least three main focuses. One, to expand the visibility of the sport in the US. Two, to get the sport’s stars in front of the American public. Three, to provide more financial opportunities for American athletes here at home. This “Tour” fails at all of these goals! You can’t piggy back on what already exists, and call it, expansion. You can’t offer a grand total of $100k, and call it financial improvement, and if that’s all you’re offering, that’s not enticing a single “star” to compete in the US!
Everyone was honest about GST, so let’s be honest about this. This “Tour” is a lazy effort at best. Two thirds of these meets were being run before USATF said, can we use YOUR meet! Saying that USATF is going to provide “operational support” is the least they can do! Literally. One of the biggest failings of USATF is its seeming inability to raise money! In one of the wealthiest country’s on the planet, with the greatest Athletics team on the planet, and the largest number of stars in the sport, we look, and act like the paupers of the sport. Individual stars in this sport in America, gather more financial resources by themselves than USATF does as an entity. Gabby Thomas pulled together more resources than USATF with Athlos. That’s a shame.
Say what you want to about Michael Johnson and GST, but he made the attempt, and did raise more money than USATF! He just tried too big and fell short. USATF has to get beyond Nike in the fundraising arena. At the close of the last fiscal year, USATF had a budget deficit of $6.13 million! Having a single large donor killed GST, and it’s killing USATF – it’s just not as public! If we’re going to increase meets in this country, we’ll also need to increase funding. USATF is no different than GST in that regard. Track and field is supposedly a professional sport. We need meets that get people PAID!
In my humble opinion, one of the biggest problems that we have in the US, is that USATF really doesn’t understand the assignment. In order to get this sport more visibility in this country, we need high level meets, in high visibility locations. That means meets in high density markets. In order for the meet to be high level, you need elite athletes competing. Not just based on times and distances, but in terms of crowd appeal, name recognition, and marketability. In order to get this level of athlete to compete, you must pay them a competitive appearance fee, commensurate with what they can earn in Europe or Asia! This requires a significant amount of money. So, expanding track and field, means raising money. That should be the FIRST and primary goal of USATF in my opinion. Piggy backing on these existing meets is worthless, if you can’t pay athletes to come compete! Otherwise it’s just the same meet that was held the year before. Paying for officials, drug testing, and timing does little if you can’t pay Noah Lyles, Sha’Carri Richardson, Melissa Jefferson Wooden, Rai Benjamin, Sydney Mclaughlin Levrone, and other stars to come compete! That’s just a fact! You can’t believe that expanding the visibility of the sport can be done without a significant cost. That’s beyond naive.
There are also other problems that I see with this Tour, beginning with the fact, that all of the “new” meets are in Los Angeles. It’s better than having all of your meets in Eugene, but you don’t want everything in any single location! The idea is to get the sport EXPOSURE! Expanding the sport, means to expand visibility. Getting meets into as many large markets, and regions of the country. We have fifty states that are spread from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean. A nation of over 300 million people. There are reasons why every major professional sports league in this country, has as many teams, in as many markets as they do. We should be no different, and our goal should be the same, to be in as many markets as possible, so that we can expose our sport to as many people as possible. That part is fairly simple.
That aside however, NOTHING is going to work if you can’t pay the top talent to perform! Fundraising first, then scheduling meets! It’s only a Tour, if you’ve got a show! These meets weren’t a tour last year, without stars it’s not a tour this year. We told Michael he has to do better. USATF you have to do better too.
The idea of creating more elite competitions is long overdue to be acted upon. So, to see the attempt finally being made is a good thing and shouldn’t be discounted. USATF should be fully aware of what this entails however, and should have come to the table with a completely flushed out program of new, high paying meets, or not come forward at all. My suggestion, is that USATF pick a couple of locations that have appropriate venues (Los Angeles and Tampa maybe). Raise a sufficient amount of money (I’m thinking $5 mil per meet). Then begin by running two outstanding competitions, that can be added to year by year. If USATF cannot raise an additional $10 million dollars in this country, then a change in leadership is necessary. Especially given that we are in the position of playing host to the Olympics in less than three years now. If we can not leverage that as a strong marketing opportunity for potential investment in the sport, then we have lost given the number of individuals and businesses with values over $1 billion exist in the United States! We MUST begin to do a better job of creating allies for this sport within Corporate America! The buildup to the Olympics is THE best time that we will ever have to do so. The time is now for USATF to get this right. Show Grand Slam, and the rest of us how to get this done.