US TV ratings are in for first two Grand Slam Track meets

Do we have the numbers from Flotrack regarding the Diamond league? I'd expect those numbers to have tanked in the US. But its also early season.

Thanks for sharing. I wish we could see GST's Peacock numbers and how they compare to last year's Diamond League Peacock numbers.

Importantly, GST's numbers for the Miramar/Miami meet were an improvement over Kingston. Michael Johnson said his metric for GST success is growth, so he should be pleased even if it was only a modest improvement. With something as novel as GST, there was a risk that the numbers would drop off after the first meet. That didn't happen.

Just a random comparison - 749,000 Norwegians (remember Norway has 5 mill inhabitants) saw Jakob Ingebrigtsen run the 1500 in the 2022 european championship.

I dont know what the norwegian viewing numbers are for the diamond league, it would surprise me if they are not higher than what is reported for GST in the US.

Somehow I think its more about how you convey the sport, than the sport itself.

You’d know best but Jakob is a far bigger star in Norway than the biggest star here, SML. He also promotes himself much more (reality TV show -> YT series, social media etc). Casual Norwegian sports fans will watch Jakob in European champs and I doubt casual American sports fans will seek out to watch even the biggest US star (Lyles, Sha’Carri) at World Champs unless it’s on broadcast and at a favorable hour. Track fans would of course.

Maybe consolidating into two days would help boost sales and ratings.

Track Town USA is relieved at the dismal figures. Thanks a Hundred...

Similar numbers here in Switzerland. Weltklasse Zurich has a 27-29% TV market share. Fun data, last year Warholm-Duplantis exhibition the day before the meeting attracted a 60% TV market share in Norway!

More important than the TV viewership are all the side events in clubs and schools related to Athletissima and Weltklasse throughout the year, which contribute to promote T&F among youth in a country where winter sports, soccer, gymnastics, shooting and mountain related sports have traditionally been the most practiced sports.

Here some 2023 data from Weltklasse website (translated):

Every year, we welcome 25,000 spectators to the sold-out Letzigrund Stadium, and this year is no exception. The live broadcast of the competitions on television generates a total of over 15 million viewers in more than 120 countries. Digitally, we achieved 120 million online contacts with all our activities in the last 12 months. This includes our regular newsletters to over 50,000 friends. The annual number of over 160,000 participants in the national junior project "UBS Kids Cup" is also significantly high. In the "Kids & Families" area, we now have access to more than 500,000 contacts and sports-loving adults. And most importantly: direct contact with more than 10,000 Swiss track and field athletes and coaches as well as around 1,000 schools.

So thank you Michael Johnson for wanting to "save our sport" with your business focused show with just a few contracted athletes who are already at the top of the pyramid. But no thanks, you concept is not what will bring more kids practicing our sport.

Better ratings than most LIV golf events. And the prize purse at LIV tournaments is $25 mil.

This is useless without the Peacock numbers. I don't know anyone who watched this on CW; most people watched on Peacock, I would assume.

And no need to have a local Duplantis, Bol, Ingebrigtsen or Warholm to fill a stadium.

Weltklasse Zürich sold out in record time
Never before in the history of the Letzigrund athletics meeting have tickets sold out as quickly as this year. The organizers are overwhelmed.
Once again this year, Weltklasse Zürich will take place in front of a full Letzigrund. The rush for places at the athletics meeting has never been so great. All the tickets that went on sale on Tuesday were gone in record time.
After two hours, there were no more tickets available. "This year's ticket sales have exceeded all expectations," said Co-Meeting Director Christoph Joho in a press release. "What we experienced among athletics fans was unprecedented. Tickets were in demand like never before. All categories are already fully booked in May, several months before the meeting."

tagesanzeiger.ch

Grosser Andrang: Weltklasse Zürich in Rekordzeit ausverkauft

Noch nie in der Geschichte des Leichtathletik-Meetings im Letzigrund waren die Tickets schneller weg als in diesem Jahr. Die Veranstalter sind überwältigt.

Open link

I'm not sure what to expect from GST yet, but I do think it's unreasonable to compare a league that just started (2 meets), is US focused and had very limited exposure outside of the US, to something like the DL meets in Europe.

GST has for sure had some impact on other T&F events when it comes to prize money, so just for that it is already a net positive in my book. Sure, shouting "100K dollars for the winner!" every 5 minutes isn't going to win over any European T&F fans, but like I said, it is mainly focused on the US market. Lets just hope that GST in some shape or form survives and attracts many new US track fans, because for a nation that has so many talents in the sport and trains so many talents from other countries, the sport really needs help in the US ...

That, and eliminating the first 60 minutes of commentators talking amongst themselves. I don’t think the average non-track fan is prepared to sit through an hour of “preview” before seeing anyone race - this isn’t the Preakness (yet)!