This year’s Penn Relays have a new neighbor: Grand Slam Track’s arrival in a few weeks

For many years, the Penn Relays have served as not just a marquee track and field meet, but as a way for Philadelphia to see the sport’s spectacle in person instead of on TV.

People who might never watch their high school or college teams or who would only watch the pros at the Olympics are drawn to Franklin Field by the carnival atmosphere as much as the competition itself.

This year, though, the Relays won’t be the only game in town. The upcoming Grand Slam Track meet from May 30-June 1 will bring a second showcase to 33rd Street, a gathering of stars the likes of which the Relays haven’t had since the USA vs. the World showcase ended after 2019.

Some familiar names have come to town in the last three Relays, and there will be a few again this year: U.S. Olympic middle-distance runners Ajeé Wilson and Nia Akins and high jumper Vashti Cunningham. The Jamaican fans who always come to town will recognize triple jumper Shanieka Ricketts, last year’s silver medalist in Paris.

But the true headliners, the ones you know you’ve seen before, will be here in May instead of April. So most of the Olympic Development races that draw the most attention on Saturday won’t be as compelling as in the past.

This isn’t a bad thing for local track fans, who’ve yearned for years to see a pro meet at the only venue in the country that can draw a really big crowd. And it isn’t a bad thing from Penn’s perspective. The athletic department wanted to bring Grand Slam in, the university backed it, and Grand Slam wanted to come here.

It just casts the Relays in a different light.

» READ MORE: Franklin Field earns a stop on Michael Johnson’s Grand Slam Track circuit next year

“I think it’s great that we have both things here,” Relays director Steve Dolan said. “The Penn Relays is about these great college programs and the unbelievable high school athletes and great Jamaican crowd that joins us here at the Penn Relays — the Penn Relays is all that. And the Olympic Development [portion] is a nice piece of it. The Grand Slam will be different.”

A certain caucus of Relays devotees might not like hearing the Olympic Development events called “a nice piece.” It wasn’t just “nice” when Marion Jones, Justin Gatlin, and, above all, Usain Bolt brought huge crowds to Franklin Field on Saturday afternoons. It was a big deal.

Just ask the program printers, who put the pros on the cover plenty often during the USA vs. the World era. Someone knew they’d sell more that way than with the previous year’s college and high school winners.

(And yes, the program still is a bargain, a tradition The Inquirer has reported on since 1989. Though it now costs $15, the many pages of old photos and historic results still make it a must-purchase for fans.)

Dolan and his colleagues at Penn didn’t want to say too much publicly about the future of Olympic Development races, and how Grand Slam could affect them. There are a few reasons for this, and none of them are too surprising.

The first is that Grand Slam is just getting started. For as much as people in the track world want it to succeed, any startup needs time to become well-established.

The small crowds at the opening event in Kingston, Jamaica, were worrisome, and the two other U.S. venues — a sports complex in suburban Miami and UCLA’s track stadium in Los Angeles — aren’t all that big. Franklin Field could have a low bar to clear to get the biggest crowds of the four-meet circuit.

» READ MORE: Penn wants Philly to be a global track destination. Bringing more pros to town is part of it.

A check of Grand Slam’s ticket sales website showed plenty of good seats available, with single-day prices ranging from $25 to $75. Three-day packages run from $60 to $200 (for the VIP offering), and two-day packages from $40 to $100.

The second factor with the Relays is one that has been the case for a few years now. After Nike’s marquee sponsorship ended during the pandemic, specialty athletic wear brand On became the new big partner. But with Nike still tied to USA Track & Field, the sport’s national governing body, there was a natural impact on which races got Nike-wearing stars.

Last year was a clear example. Though Akins, Wilson, and Olympic champion Bryce Deadmon ran at the Relays, USATF held its own grand prix that weekend — in Bermuda, of all places — that was headlined by Noah Lyles. The biggest American star in women’s track, Sha’Carri Richardson, spent that weekend at a World Athletics Diamond League meet in China.

When the calendar is that crowded, there are only two ways to break through. Either everyone pulls together, as happened for the Relays in the USA vs. the World era; or a big name with a lot of cash steps up, as Michael Johnson has done with Grand Slam Track.

» READ MORE: Villanova record-breakers Liam Murphy and Marco Langon have formed a ‘terrific rivalry and a tremendous friendship’ on the track

An outsider might think the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles would help clean that up, but there’s a long way to go. A recent Wall Street Journal report on USATF’s bad finances opened a lot of eyes: $12 million deficits in 2022 and ’23, late payments of prize money, and the cancellation of hosted events, including that Bermuda one.

At least the Relays aren’t going anywhere, nor is its reputation for being the best spectacle in American track. The event may be back to what it used to be, more about high school and college runners than pros. But in the bigger picture, now there are two Saturdays to circle at Franklin Field instead of one.

“We think that Penn and Philadelphia can be a major hub for track and field,” Dolan said. “And we continue to take steps toward that, and this is a big one. … We’re excited and proud that Philadelphia and Penn are really staking a claim to helping the track and field world grow.”