TRP... singlehandedly keeping track fans in the know for years now. So Yeah, the sport needs to be seen and available for ALL fans if they want it to grow.👍👍
@@MansaMusa_ll_of_Timbuktu GST means goods and services tax in quite a few countries. Always pays to do acronym searches haha, but yes, acronyms help a lot.
Wow. This is LIV version in TRACK! The reason so many pro-golf players ghosted to the Saudis is because everyone, from 1st to last place, gets PAID. Johnson has tapped into something. I like this because we know that even the last place finisher is one of the top 8 fastest people in the world (among we mortal humans). They deserve to be paid compensation for their efforts
@@goblack6770 ..the last place guy does not get five figures just to be in the race. Everyone gets paid....a cashier gets paid, so does Apple CEO....the question is HOW MUCH you get paid.
This is nothing like LIV - this is not Sports Washing and top golfers were already getting paid huge money. The only thing bad about this is it only will help the very top runners (I guess that is like LIV 😉)
@@toadlguy i am not saying that they will be PAID like the LIV....It just has a pay structure like the LIV. And I agree, only the top runners will probably be there.
@@THE_HMRC The last place athlete will have to race more in Europe…maybe twice per week and place higher in races in order to earn more prize money. But the bottom line is if he/she wants to earn a living from Track and Field they will have to become an elite performer. Track and Field athletes are paid based on their performance.
Agreed. Look at other sports like combat sports. They don't just have competitions, they have events. They have shows. You want to draw eyes and sponsor dollars to track? It could use some spectacle.
@@ThingsYouMightLike track makes plenty overseas already. This is a US centric problem. Chances are, this will flop and not last long unless international viewers up the revenue.
MJ putting that Business Administration degree from Baylor to use. Just goes to show you, no matter how talented you are as an athlete, being well educated can always help.
Response from the DL & WA Continental Gold Tour will be interesting to track! Hope ATL gets that 2nd Slam in the US ahead of NYC & LDN is 99% likely to be one of the 2 International Cities!
London would be great; I saw the London Diamond League last year and it was CRAZY! (I live in Britain). Us Brits love ourselves some athletics (London Olympics 2012, World Championships 2017) not to mention London is one of the world's major cities so it's most likely to draw the most attention! My guesses would be LA (obviously), Eugene??, London and Paris (maybe could be Budapest after last year's World Championships and the future World Ultimate Championships in 2026!).
@@AthleticsEditz Brits are a very passionate sports crowd who will in a good way attend practically any sporting event :) Commonwealth Games Stadium in '22 being practically packed out every single day/session was very impressive! Plus the London DL is always a 50K+ sellout! They want 2 of the Slams in the US & with LA on the West Coast already confirmed as one location, I just feel somewhere on the East Coast like NYC or ATL (where ppl from around the country can easily get to as compared to Eugene) will be the 2nd US location.
@@AllInTheGame01 Yeah probably. I also happened to be at one of the days of the commonwealth games in 2022 as well! That was even more packed than the diamond league (although obviously a smaller stadium lol).
T&F athletes deserve to get paid. The reward they receive is really not reflective of all the hard work that they put in. This is excellent news. Michael has the first hand experience and connections to pull off something really special.
Now they need to go sign Femke Bol so Sidney McLaughlin has a proper rival to race against! Can you imagine how many people would watch that race? And they need as many of those kind of rivalries as they can get signed! Do that & it’s must watch TV!
If this takes off, i can most guarantee one shoe brand will have the rights and you're going to have to wear their kit(but you can wear your sponsor's shoe) like other professional sports leagues. But im glad to see Track athletes starting to get paid
@@certifiedchaos4643 if that shoe company (nike or adidas) cuts a huge check,it will not be secondary. A huge sponsorship from them can increase the athletes pay day or/and grow the league
this all sounds great and can only improve the sport imo, hopefully they will manage to get some dedicated coverage as track & field is still quite difficult to see live in a lot of places, even here in the UK, theres so much i would miss out on if it wasnt for TRP so many many thx for doing what u do and spreading the word
This is great news. I've been following Johnson since I was a youngin and always believed he would be the one coming through for Track and Field sports.
If they have several millions to spare, why not but such event takes a lot of $ and manpower. I don't think the crew is up to that task just yet. Anything that involves the public and public streets is "dangerous" for the organizers because negligence will cause you not only millions to run but millions of lawsuits tha follows
I'm glad things are happening to push track forward. I wish track would take a page from team sports and do something like the following: 4-6 full track teams are formed...probably associated with a city. So lets say they are teams called Oregon, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Indianapolis, and Los Angeles, and New York. Each city hosts a meet and (like college and even in some ways with Olympic medal count), you keep a team score. Each meet wouldn't have to be a full meet, like maybe run either the 800 or the 1500 but not both. But I think it could help track fans learn and care more about the events outside their specific area and it could give an added incentive for the athletes...they are trying to get their TEAM to win.
This could radically change the sport. Hopefully makes it more mainstream. Whether successful or not a shake up was needed and I'm rooting for this to be wildly successful.
It's very exciting and I am happy the athletes will be financially rewarded for years of training where until now they haven't been compared to other sports. My only concern is if it takes off i wouldn't want it to take anything away from Olympic achievements, by that I mean in tennis(and other sports)the Olympics is not considered as big of a deal as winning grand slams. The Olympics has always been the pinnacle of Track and field
This is a fantastic start. With time, we will have bigger prize money. I love this. It should help Track Teams across the globe develop talent knowing there is actually a chance of sustainability especially from these big pots of prize money. I can only hope that it doesn't become segregative like what the ATP became of Tennis. If there is a structure made for this sport in terms of having some kind of seeding athletes, it would be good for the sport. Since it is a Grand Slam, it is actually possible to have a heat, semi final and Final all in the space of just one week especially for distances up to 5K. I just can't stop thinking of how good this can be for the sport!
I'm very skeptical about this. If the top athletes all do this then the Diamond League will either become obsolete or a second division event. Also if the athletes get injured they can't compete at all. There seems to be no attempt to provide any field events either.
The idea to let people compete in more than 1 discipline is actually great. That might bring fresh wind to the sport. I really like it. Lets hope more athletes sign up for this event and let's hope they really make it happen.
Should this not also create more match-ups between the more elite? That is barring who signs up, but having more head to head with the Jamaican and US women.
This sounds a lot like the PTO is trying to do with the T100 series in triathlon. I think 4 meets is more doable than the 6 in the T100. Would like to see Johnson add a “grand final”. Of course would love for them to come to Atlanta!!
no they need to do more to draw fans so they can do more. right now you can bet 95% of americans don't even know where or when the olimpic trials are taking place. mostly only the die hard fans know. they need to change that,
I can't see many athletes turning down that kind of money compared with what they are used to, so they should have their choice of the best. This will be necessary for it to draw enough attention to make the business viable, which I am still unsure that it is. We obviously need to raise the profile of athletics and get more people interested, watching and competing and this seems like a great way (possibly the only way) to achieve that.
@@RA-lu6mb seriously I predict she will be pulled out of some of the events. I wonder what her contract says about that. You cannot make track athletes run when there’s a very fine line getting close to injury at any given time. It’s not like playing in one of 162 baseball games. that’s why top track athletes run only four or six times a year.
Thats why some only compete a few times a year, meanwhile others will race every damn week, helping to spread awareness of the sport and enthusiasm about it.
@@DonnerRunningFitness If you look at other similar athletes like Femke Bol (ran 19 times this year, including semi-finals and heats tho), some compete way more often than others. And its not as if Bol struggles with injury. Injury is more about how sensitive the athletes themselves are for injury than about athletics as a whole.
I'll sign up as the 8th athlete to get the 10k. That's fine with me (as long as people are patient enough to watch me finish, and that there are no more than 8 athletes)
Track is a sport that is “dying” in popularity. This is an attempt to resuscitate it. I like that they are changing some of the old antiquated practices, but there are still some major shortcomings. I suggest rabbits and pace lights because folks want to see world records. Also there should be a HUGE bonus if a World Record is achieved. Without this these will be tactical slow races. Overall, Unfortunately, I don’t see this winning many new casual fans…great effort though.🙌🏾👍🏾
So we are supposed to believe MJ and his investors in a fledgling new track league are going to turn down a sponsorship from a major shoe/athletic company?? 😲😂🙄😬
This is great ,the thing I miss is the athletes wearing there club vests like sub 4 , or there national vests , fed up of seeing 6 -7 athletes wearing the same colour vest of the sponsor so you can't tell who they are , and I like that any athletes can enter unlike the diamond league , the problem is going to be access to watch it it needs to be in the UK on a free to air channel , and a highlight programme or live Michael knows this in the UK and how uk always gets huge crowds .
It will be interesting to see how this fits with the Diamond League and the coverage European tv stations give it. TV revenues are massive for expanding a sport. In the UK only World Champs & Olympics get mainstream coverage despite it being one of our most successful sports. 😢
100% will not go to the UK because it would mean all athletes would have to give up 50% of all prize money for UK tax. I'm guessing he has a broadcaster interested in streaming this else it seems to exclusive to be on any interests to 90% of all athletes. We really need something more inclusive.
Some quick thoughts: 1. who pays the air fares? 2. any penalty for not attending? 3. injury clauses? 4. drug testing? 5. record breaking bonuses? If they could get a streaming deal from this it could quickly become self-funding.
I think no rabbits or wavelighting will make for boring and slow times for the distance races. Tactical races are way too common nowadays especailly if 100k is on the line
I couldn't disagree more. This is about racing and prize fighting. And you are only talking about distance events. It is about creating interest and excitement, duals and head to head strategies. No guts no glory. Building fan favorites and following them through a series, a season where you know you will see them more than once every 4 years. Pacers and pace lights are as artificial as the unrecognized Sub 2 hour marathon. Yes it proves how fast a human can run in a lab but racing is what we want to see. At least IMO. To me the records that are the purest are the championship records where there are no pacers or lights... like Sydney's.
It's good that it will be out of the the US as well, after the mudslinging between USADA and WADA over testing in the previous Olympics it's a good idea to get some of those athletes out of the country and tested by other countries just to build confidence in their status.
The key to make this successful and multi-year is the marketing behind it and the TV deals. Track and Field is everywhere but professional track and field is not marketed properly. This should be marketed at every track meet going forward - high school, collegiate, nationals globally etc. That's where you'll get ordinary fans interested in the professional level of track and field. With Twitter and other platforms, this shouldn't be too difficult. Just be creative.
It's not always about being the best, although MJ did that. It's about what happens throughout your history before, during, and after your competitive career. Michael Johnson is a GOAT.
Another thing the league needs is to remove the 100m and replace it with the 40 yard dash so that it aligns with other sports better (football and soccer). Everyday people, casual fans and football folks know the 40 yard dash…so seeing elite Track and Field times will bring it more into perspective. Also the 1500 must become a mile. People know mile times not 1500m.
Wow this is long overdue! Track is so far behind, this will immediately be successful if they get the top sprinters to run, and if they make it at the very least accessible to view. One of the biggest problems with track is its broadcasting. iI'm suprided he didn't get Noah on board immediately like he did with sydney; maybe because noah got his 200m record? lol
I like the idea but the keys to long-term success is going to be TV rights or some other form of sponsorship, unless Johnson just wants to give away a milli every year. At the very least tho it's making waves in a sport that desperately needs them.
I see they've got "more than $30 million in financial commitments from investors and strategic partners" for the launch of the league. That's a good start, but I think it's a much bigger project than that.
Yeah. This is the entire question. The initial 30 mil is nice, but I’m sure those people are expecting that money back at some point. If no one watches, it doesn’t continue.
Beats me but the older I get, the more I enjoy/love track and less of the so-called mainstream sports as they get politicized and rather so much intrasquad bs drama! Looking forward to it all unfolding.
This league will definitely grow the sport but it will probably diminish the importance of the Olymppics and World championships due to the differences in money payouts ..eg tennis is one of the highest paying sports but an Olympic gold in tennis honestly isn't that big of a deal and thats where this league is gonna take T&F
This is phenomenal. The endorsements will come. Don’t worry the companies want to be seen. They’ll come. I’m so excited for this. It’s been a long time coming.
sounds good, promising, all but the LA part. I stopped going to LA for events, too much traffic and arseholes. they should launch here in San Diego, where everybody likes to vacation, travel to Japan, and Barcelona, and finish in Orlando.
"Short Distance?" It doesn't help the sport to literally capriciously change how we refer to the events. It's always been called Middle Distance. "Short Distance" is a non sequitur.
They thought it wasn’t entertaining enough just like diamond league did🙄…also one event at a time over only 3 hours, it simply wouldn’t work in their opinion.
TRP... singlehandedly keeping track fans in the know for years now. So Yeah, the sport needs to be seen and available for ALL fans if they want it to grow.👍👍
Getting it on TV and doing advertising for it will be huge. Track needs some good advertising for once
Yes, and they need to shorten their name to an acronym GST put that everywhere. When was the last time you saw National Football League 😅
@@MansaMusa_ll_of_Timbuktu GST means goods and services tax in quite a few countries. Always pays to do acronym searches haha, but yes, acronyms help a lot.
Wow. This is LIV version in TRACK! The reason so many pro-golf players ghosted to the Saudis is because everyone, from 1st to last place, gets PAID. Johnson has tapped into something. I like this because we know that even the last place finisher is one of the top 8 fastest people in the world (among we mortal humans). They deserve to be paid compensation for their efforts
Everyone already gets paid when they go to Europe to race in the summer. Some athletes race multiple times per week to make more money.
@@goblack6770 ..the last place guy does not get five figures just to be in the race. Everyone gets paid....a cashier gets paid, so does Apple CEO....the question is HOW MUCH you get paid.
This is nothing like LIV - this is not Sports Washing and top golfers were already getting paid huge money. The only thing bad about this is it only will help the very top runners (I guess that is like LIV 😉)
@@toadlguy i am not saying that they will be PAID like the LIV....It just has a pay structure like the LIV. And I agree, only the top runners will probably be there.
@@THE_HMRC The last place athlete will have to race more in Europe…maybe twice per week and place higher in races in order to earn more prize money.
But the bottom line is if he/she wants to earn a living from Track and Field they will have to become an elite performer. Track and Field athletes are paid based on their performance.
Those Prize pools are nice. Makes it hard for athletes to not join the league. Competition should be olympic level every race.
Agreed. Look at other sports like combat sports. They don't just have competitions, they have events. They have shows. You want to draw eyes and sponsor dollars to track? It could use some spectacle.
@@ThingsYouMightLike track makes plenty overseas already. This is a US centric problem. Chances are, this will flop and not last long unless international viewers up the revenue.
This is exactly what track needs. This can turn into something huge.
One of the meets definitely has to be in London. Biggest athletics crowd-pulling venue.
55 thousand St the Diamond league in London, definitely has to be a venue
MJ putting that Business Administration degree from Baylor to use. Just goes to show you, no matter how talented you are as an athlete, being well educated can always help.
college is overrated. Anyone with a great mind and team and open-minded enough can move a lot of chains.
Response from the DL & WA Continental Gold Tour will be interesting to track! Hope ATL gets that 2nd Slam in the US ahead of NYC & LDN is 99% likely to be one of the 2 International Cities!
London would be great; I saw the London Diamond League last year and it was CRAZY! (I live in Britain). Us Brits love ourselves some athletics (London Olympics 2012, World Championships 2017) not to mention London is one of the world's major cities so it's most likely to draw the most attention! My guesses would be LA (obviously), Eugene??, London and Paris (maybe could be Budapest after last year's World Championships and the future World Ultimate Championships in 2026!).
@@AthleticsEditz Brits are a very passionate sports crowd who will in a good way attend practically any sporting event :) Commonwealth Games Stadium in '22 being practically packed out every single day/session was very impressive! Plus the London DL is always a 50K+ sellout! They want 2 of the Slams in the US & with LA on the West Coast already confirmed as one location, I just feel somewhere on the East Coast like NYC or ATL (where ppl from around the country can easily get to as compared to Eugene) will be the 2nd US location.
@@AllInTheGame01 Yeah probably. I also happened to be at one of the days of the commonwealth games in 2022 as well! That was even more packed than the diamond league (although obviously a smaller stadium lol).
Levrone making smart business decisions
World swimming has been doing this for a few years now and the crowds are HUGE! Good to see track following swimming into the future.
T&F athletes deserve to get paid. The reward they receive is really not reflective of all the hard work that they put in. This is excellent news. Michael has the first hand experience and connections to pull off something really special.
Lets gooo! Im pumped for this!
Now they need to go sign Femke Bol so Sidney McLaughlin has a proper rival to race against! Can you imagine how many people would watch that race? And they need as many of those kind of rivalries as they can get signed! Do that & it’s must watch TV!
I hear what you’re saying but Syd is likely to use this to focus on progressing in the 400m flat and 200m…
If this takes off, i can most guarantee one shoe brand will have the rights and you're going to have to wear their kit(but you can wear your sponsor's shoe) like other professional sports leagues. But im glad to see Track athletes starting to get paid
It depends it can always be like a league with multiple Kit sponsoring teams! Hopefully
I think shoe contracts are secondary. I think it’s an opportunity to add personal merch like shirts hoodies socks trading cards
@@marcusszavaleta what league has multiple uniform sponsors ?
@@certifiedchaos4643 if that shoe company (nike or adidas) cuts a huge check,it will not be secondary. A huge sponsorship from them can increase the athletes pay day or/and grow the league
this all sounds great and can only improve the sport imo, hopefully they will manage to get some dedicated coverage as track & field is still quite difficult to see live in a lot of places, even here in the UK, theres so much i would miss out on if it wasnt for TRP so many many thx for doing what u do and spreading the word
Father Day!! Juneteenth! 4 gold medals. Michael I thank you!!! Jessie Owens!!!! ❤❤❤❤ Thank you Sydney
This is great news. I've been following Johnson since I was a youngin and always believed he would be the one coming through for Track and Field sports.
Dude should have a marathon and open it up to the general public.
to make money?
Yeah the 5k is the longest def feels like it's short track focused
@@Dylan-ci6un yep. And so I could say I technically ran in a league.
If they have several millions to spare, why not but such event takes a lot of $ and manpower. I don't think the crew is up to that task just yet. Anything that involves the public and public streets is "dangerous" for the organizers because negligence will cause you not only millions to run but millions of lawsuits tha follows
No…that is the current problem with track for the casual fan…too many events. Long marathons are extremely boring for non-track folks.
Where can I stream this!? Love the idea
Hopefully it's streamed on UA-cam, or another free platforms.
Does she know she has to show up to meets now 😆
The Queen does whatever she wants.
Hilarious that one of the athletes that’s run the least the last few years is first to be signed. 😂😂
it's just 4 additional runs a year, i think that'd be fine for her
This is right up her alley. Only has to run in 4 meets for the year.
She goes where the money is...
We need them in the DMV!! Washington, D.C, Maryland, and Virginia
they should bring it to GA, where i live too
The athletes deserve this. Great idea.
MJ is a Legend in track & has brought so much of his experiences & wisdom forward ; This is the proof that he cares more .
This is so exciting!
I'm glad things are happening to push track forward. I wish track would take a page from team sports and do something like the following: 4-6 full track teams are formed...probably associated with a city. So lets say they are teams called Oregon, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Indianapolis, and Los Angeles, and New York. Each city hosts a meet and (like college and even in some ways with Olympic medal count), you keep a team score. Each meet wouldn't have to be a full meet, like maybe run either the 800 or the 1500 but not both. But I think it could help track fans learn and care more about the events outside their specific area and it could give an added incentive for the athletes...they are trying to get their TEAM to win.
Does anyone know the funding source?
This could radically change the sport. Hopefully makes it more mainstream. Whether successful or not a shake up was needed and I'm rooting for this to be wildly successful.
I love this!
This is AWESOME!!!
RIP Willie Mays
It's very exciting and I am happy the athletes will be financially rewarded for years of training where until now they haven't been compared to other sports. My only concern is if it takes off i wouldn't want it to take anything away from Olympic achievements, by that I mean in tennis(and other sports)the Olympics is not considered as big of a deal as winning grand slams. The Olympics has always been the pinnacle of Track and field
I'm hoping this is successful and easily accessible. I love track and field.
no field events are stupid, they already get the least amount of money and now they cant even compete. field will die off like this!
This is a fantastic start. With time, we will have bigger prize money.
I love this. It should help Track Teams across the globe develop talent knowing there is actually a chance of sustainability especially from these big pots of prize money.
I can only hope that it doesn't become segregative like what the ATP became of Tennis. If there is a structure made for this sport in terms of having some kind of seeding athletes, it would be good for the sport. Since it is a Grand Slam, it is actually possible to have a heat, semi final and Final all in the space of just one week especially for distances up to 5K.
I just can't stop thinking of how good this can be for the sport!
They should have one of the meets in Chicago. There are almost no professional meets in Chicago.
Probably cause carjackings are more likely than sports competition.
I'm very skeptical about this. If the top athletes all do this then the Diamond League will either become obsolete or a second division event. Also if the athletes get injured they can't compete at all. There seems to be no attempt to provide any field events either.
The idea to let people compete in more than 1 discipline is actually great. That might bring fresh wind to the sport. I really like it. Lets hope more athletes sign up for this event and let's hope they really make it happen.
This sounds great, but, no one will be able to beat Sydney McLaughlin 😊
Should this not also create more match-ups between the more elite? That is barring who signs up, but having more head to head with the Jamaican and US women.
This sounds a lot like the PTO is trying to do with the T100 series in triathlon. I think 4 meets is more doable than the 6 in the T100. Would like to see Johnson add a “grand final”. Of course would love for them to come to Atlanta!!
He'll yeah!
Track needs to do more for master runners
no they need to do more to draw fans so they can do more. right now you can bet 95% of americans don't even know where or when the olimpic trials are taking place. mostly only the die hard fans know. they need to change that,
If it goes anything like his GM skills of the NBA this is doomed
I can't see many athletes turning down that kind of money compared with what they are used to, so they should have their choice of the best. This will be necessary for it to draw enough attention to make the business viable, which I am still unsure that it is. We obviously need to raise the profile of athletics and get more people interested, watching and competing and this seems like a great way (possibly the only way) to achieve that.
It would be great to see Sydney run four times in one year. Wonder what coach Kersee will think about that
Kersee is probably trying to negotiate it down so that she only has to race in 2 of the 4 meets, lol.
She's never run 4 or less, so.......?
@@RA-lu6mb seriously I predict she will be pulled out of some of the events. I wonder what her contract says about that. You cannot make track athletes run when there’s a very fine line getting close to injury at any given time. It’s not like playing in one of 162 baseball games. that’s why top track athletes run only four or six times a year.
Thats why some only compete a few times a year, meanwhile others will race every damn week, helping to spread awareness of the sport and enthusiasm about it.
@@DonnerRunningFitness If you look at other similar athletes like Femke Bol (ran 19 times this year, including semi-finals and heats tho), some compete way more often than others. And its not as if Bol struggles with injury.
Injury is more about how sensitive the athletes themselves are for injury than about athletics as a whole.
Thats awesome news.
Yes
I'll sign up as the 8th athlete to get the 10k. That's fine with me (as long as people are patient enough to watch me finish, and that there are no more than 8 athletes)
This actually sounds really good and made for the athletes.
🎉🎉🎉
Maybe send all competition on UA-cam as well.
Hopefully the sponsors of the big name athletes don't restrict them from competing publicly without their consent, or wearing their products.
Free online streaming?
Can't wait!!!
I sure hope it gets streamed somewhere that isn't PPV
Track is a sport that is “dying” in popularity. This is an attempt to resuscitate it. I like that they are changing some of the old antiquated practices, but there are still some major shortcomings. I suggest rabbits and pace lights because folks want to see world records. Also there should be a HUGE bonus if a World Record is achieved. Without this these will be tactical slow races.
Overall, Unfortunately, I don’t see this winning many new casual fans…great effort though.🙌🏾👍🏾
So we are supposed to believe MJ and his investors in a fledgling new track league are going to turn down a sponsorship from a major shoe/athletic company?? 😲😂🙄😬
Will this be expanded to include field events or limited to track events?
Not at this time. They’re committed to a 3 hour event, one event at a time.
This is great ,the thing I miss is the athletes wearing there club vests like sub 4 , or there national vests , fed up of seeing 6 -7 athletes wearing the same colour vest of the sponsor so you can't tell who they are , and I like that any athletes can enter unlike the diamond league , the problem is going to be access to watch it it needs to be in the UK on a free to air channel , and a highlight programme or live Michael knows this in the UK and how uk always gets huge crowds .
are they going to work with WADA or USADA?
they won't need bibs coz they'll have team running kit with names on them most likely.
It should come to NYC, where the most people are, but yes, this could be a positive if we can see a stream of it.
We need a draft
👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
Hope this works out.
I"m interested in how they are planning to finance the larger prize pools
It will be interesting to see how this fits with the Diamond League and the coverage European tv stations give it. TV revenues are massive for expanding a sport. In the UK only World Champs & Olympics get mainstream coverage despite it being one of our most successful sports. 😢
100% will not go to the UK because it would mean all athletes would have to give up 50% of all prize money for UK tax. I'm guessing he has a broadcaster interested in streaming this else it seems to exclusive to be on any interests to 90% of all athletes. We really need something more inclusive.
One must come to Africa
Some quick thoughts:
1. who pays the air fares?
2. any penalty for not attending?
3. injury clauses?
4. drug testing?
5. record breaking bonuses?
If they could get a streaming deal from this it could quickly become self-funding.
How will they maintain monetization without the big shoe companies?
I assume donors and ads
I think no rabbits or wavelighting will make for boring and slow times for the distance races. Tactical races are way too common nowadays especailly if 100k is on the line
I couldn't disagree more. This is about racing and prize fighting. And you are only talking about distance events. It is about creating interest and excitement, duals and head to head strategies. No guts no glory. Building fan favorites and following them through a series, a season where you know you will see them more than once every 4 years. Pacers and pace lights are as artificial as the unrecognized Sub 2 hour marathon. Yes it proves how fast a human can run in a lab but racing is what we want to see. At least IMO. To me the records that are the purest are the championship records where there are no pacers or lights... like Sydney's.
It's good that it will be out of the the US as well, after the mudslinging between USADA and WADA over testing in the previous Olympics it's a good idea to get some of those athletes out of the country and tested by other countries just to build confidence in their status.
The key to make this successful and multi-year is the marketing behind it and the TV deals. Track and Field is everywhere but professional track and field is not marketed properly. This should be marketed at every track meet going forward - high school, collegiate, nationals globally etc. That's where you'll get ordinary fans interested in the professional level of track and field. With Twitter and other platforms, this shouldn't be too difficult. Just be creative.
Create an app right away! Make it possible to bet too (Not that I like or endorse gambling but gamblers are a HUGE audience).
One in Europe and one in Asia.
It's not always about being the best, although MJ did that. It's about what happens throughout your history before, during, and after your competitive career. Michael Johnson is a GOAT.
it all comes down to viewership. If people are willing to pay $$ to watch then it will be sustainable.
I like the idea of the 800m and 1500m slam. These racers rarely mingle but will now be "forced" to if they want to participate in the league.
Another thing the league needs is to remove the 100m and replace it with the 40 yard dash so that it aligns with other sports better (football and soccer). Everyday people, casual fans and football folks know the 40 yard dash…so seeing elite Track and Field times will bring it more into perspective. Also the 1500 must become a mile. People know mile times not 1500m.
Wow this is long overdue! Track is so far behind, this will immediately be successful if they get the top sprinters to run, and if they make it at the very least accessible to view. One of the biggest problems with track is its broadcasting. iI'm suprided he didn't get Noah on board immediately like he did with sydney; maybe because noah got his 200m record? lol
I like the idea but the keys to long-term success is going to be TV rights or some other form of sponsorship, unless Johnson just wants to give away a milli every year. At the very least tho it's making waves in a sport that desperately needs them.
I see they've got "more than $30 million in financial commitments from investors and strategic partners" for the launch of the league. That's a good start, but I think it's a much bigger project than that.
Yeah. This is the entire question. The initial 30 mil is nice, but I’m sure those people are expecting that money back at some point. If no one watches, it doesn’t continue.
Where's all the cash coming from? I wish we had money like this in Australia for our sprinters.
The event should be in each continent...to give atheletes from each continent a fair shair and viewership from fans from all over the world
They should incorporate pyrotechnics into the races
Beats me but the older I get, the more I enjoy/love track and less of the so-called mainstream sports as they get politicized and rather so much intrasquad bs drama! Looking forward to it all unfolding.
They need to create a gofundme for the fans to donate 10 bucks to the pot a month.
So everyone gets a check😂😂. Like no losers get nothing
This league will definitely grow the sport but it will probably diminish the importance of the Olymppics and World championships due to the differences in money payouts ..eg tennis is one of the highest paying sports but an Olympic gold in tennis honestly isn't that big of a deal and thats where this league is gonna take T&F
This is phenomenal. The endorsements will come. Don’t worry the companies want to be seen. They’ll come. I’m so excited for this. It’s been a long time coming.
sounds good, promising, all but the LA part. I stopped going to LA for events, too much traffic and arseholes. they should launch here in San Diego, where everybody likes to vacation, travel to Japan, and Barcelona, and finish in Orlando.
Get Femke Bol as well
A deal with TRP would be fantastic
Heading to Eugene to talk with Michael next week.
Cool. As long as they offer YOU a job.
"Short Distance?" It doesn't help the sport to literally capriciously change how we refer to the events. It's always been called Middle Distance. "Short Distance" is a non sequitur.
the shoe and clothing thing sounds nice, but tbh. if you have a contract with Nike, Nike will not let you run in adidas kit
Damn she looks like Marion Jones
Do you have another troll or just this one?
Where's the the 10,000m?
They thought it wasn’t entertaining enough just like diamond league did🙄…also one event at a time over only 3 hours, it simply wouldn’t work in their opinion.