Does anyone else think that Michael Johnson’s Track league will flop?

Yes

Athletes are lousy at business.

I think we need to define "success".

To me if it is still going in 5 years then it would be a success. If success is being broadcast on a major network live then I am skeptical.

I just don't think people care about track (outside of the Olympics where the ratings are often amongst the best in the US).

At least MJ is trying to make a difference. What productive thing/resource are you contributing?

1) I do not think it will be successful but I hope I'm wrong.

2) IF it it successful, I hope it's not at the expense of the great meets we currently have like Monaco, Welklasse, Pre, etc

3) If it it's successful, I'l almost certain it will not the track and field as we currently know it, meaning the odds that is has all of the events is close to zero.

Right now, instead of having Pre, you could have a very successful match race between Kerr and Ingebrigtsen. So one off things like that could be promoted just like MJ vs Donovan bailey at 150m was big when I was a kid.

But track spends a lot of time and effort on things that are expensive and has little interest (many field events, wheelchair races, many lane fillers in track events, etc. - IF it's a 400h race, does anyone care about anyone who isn't one of the Big 3-4?)

I was talking to my brother and Jonathan about this the other day and I was complaining a bit about the for profit angle of this. I was like, "Many track athletes are struggling to get buy? Why should some rich investor get rich off of track (it's what drives me nuts about the flotrack business model)?"

Weldon helped point out that only a for profit entity would have the guts to make painful changes for the sport - like axing half the events, or half the competitors.

And Americans and people like celebrity. I finally had a talk with my ex-Cornell runner Barry Kahn who is looking into doing sprint match races and his idea is certainly not track and field as we know it - it would be a tv series but not what you and I envision as a normal track meet.

But your last sentence is one I have to agree with the most:

As I said to a buddy the other day who stopped by on a run. "Do you swimming people sit around and think, "If only presented the sport better , it would be super popular all the time? I have no interest in watching swimming except at the Olympics and I feel like that's largely true for sports fans regarding track."

Can Mike get us Hollywood Professional pay? Shohei? LeBron? Serena? Naomi? Tiger? that would be cool.

As is stands no T&F, Marathon, road race, etc. splits TV and seat sales revenue 50-50 with the athletes.

We just suffered flaming disasters at WC 2022 Eugene, LA Grand Prix, Eugene DL, NY Grand Prix. and so on.

100%. If I can short it, I will.

If athletes were paid better and could dedicate their time to their profession instead of having to find a job while still being a professional athlete, they would be better.

What NBA or NFL athlete do you know who have to go and get a job just to make ends meet? And they are by no means superior in talent in their chosen profession than T&F athletes.

Not necessarily, they haven't announced any details that I can see.

If it's like Vin Lananna's cringe track league then yes, but I don't think it's that

Success = revenue within 10% of the NFL

I think it will work. People want something new, with wider appeal. That alone makes me think it will be successful.

Maybe a ‘Post NCAA Div I League’ that only accepts past Div I athletes would work. Valby would front-line it for a few years, with the occasional Valby/Tuohy match-up.

The point is to give him something to do. If it does that then it's successful to him.

And it would mainly be inaccurately measured cross-country courses, so the public doesn’t need to how fast they are really going, relative to the track.

I wonder how MJ's financial model for the series is based. Is it dependent on broadcast rights, sponsorship, or butts in the seats?

ESPN has money issues, Peacock didn't think viewership justified re-upping the DL, and I can't see how a startup track league can get much of a payday. As for in person spectators, I'm in the LA area and getting solicitations for the LA Grand Prix in two weeks....$40 for general admission seats (now discounted to $30!), up to $175 VIP tickets. But there's no way in hell I'm driving to Westwood from where I'm at, even on a Saturday morning to attend. I am, however planning to attend the Sound Running Track Fest next Saturday night at Oxy....$12 entry fee.

To make track and field successful as a television enterprise, some ongoing drama would be necessary to be compelling to the average viewer. A reality TV series that was a blend of VH1's Bands on the Run competition and Team Ingebrigtsten would have the greatest chance of success. Separate camera crews could film the daily ups and downs of major track groups, punctuated by actual competitions, leading up to a finale at the USA national championships. A little behind the scenes trash talk between Centro and Cooper Teare, and people will tune in to cheer on their favorite.

Without the attention from the media, there would not have been the same degree of anticipation of the Moscow Olympics Coe vs. Ovett showdown.

Otherwise, I don't envision track and field becoming more popular as televised sport.

If pro track is ever to be successful, it needs to follow model of tennis and golf.

When those tours were founded they removed the athletes from all other events, so if an organizer wanted pro athletes to be in their meet, they had to come to the tour, and become a tour event.

Those tours then partnered with the classic event sites like Monaco, Zurich, Oslo, Eugene in track to build their schedule of tournaments.

The challenge in track is there are more athletes, and the different events have different requirements for how many meets they can do, making it hard to schedule a yearly calendar of meets.

Love your idea of a reality TV series.

The reason many people don’t care about track outside of the Olympics is because they haven’t been given a good reason to care. The casual viewer needs interesting stories and exciting rivalries to care. The sport has plenty of those stories and rivalries. It just does a terrible job of promoting them.

Really? Manic Johnson has something to say to you and MJ did alright with negotiation the right to Air Jordan revenue.

I bet 50% of the worlds richest list played some sport as a kid even if it was just little league.