Introducing the 776 Invitational. Coming September 2024.
Source: 776 Invitational
According to reports, Olympian Michael Johnson has raised over 20 million dollars for the Grand Slam Track League. I can’t find a website… He’s landed New Balance sponsored Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone as the first commitment, but outside of articles on websites and unlike another upcoming event for track and field, there isn’t a website providing some insight into where these events are headed.
Billionaire founder of Reddit and husband of Nike endorsed tennis great Serena Williams, Alexis Ohanian, is launching the 776 Invitational which will capitalize on the momentum of the Olympics increasing the profile of women track and field stars and offering more opportunities to generate income for the ladies.
Neither of these events, at this moment are listing field events as an option. No discus, hammer, javelin, long jump or high jump events have been discussed. The Grand Slam League, which is a confusing title considering tennis already owns the idea of a Grand Slam (and so does Denny’s breakfast) has reported extensively that the focus is on running events.
Track is notorious for competitions which can last 12 hours on some days, when run inefficiently. This does not make for a great viewing experience. adidas has created a track and field event with a compressed schedule in their ATL Games. The competition is a blueprint, and it offers some field events, but after two years the event has failed to really create the type of engagement and viewership needed to drive interest.
It probably doesn’t make sense for adidas to host the competition. The ATL Games are free to attend and since it isn’t contained in an arena the ability to generate revenue from concessions and alcohol sales doesn’t exist.
14.41s, a Briefcase and an adidas F1 Inspired Suit: Can Noah Lyles Make Track and Field a Vibe?
Add in that adidas hasn’t brokered a media deal for the event, it streams on YouTube, the ATL Games offer a broken blueprint… which falls in line with all of track and field; but to be fair the issues have more to do with adidas’ marketing team.
Track and Field across all age groups is splintered. High School events are split between Athletic.net, Coach O, and Milesplit with AAU and USATF monitoring as Nike, adidas, Brooks and New Balance deliver a similar route to how basketball operates.
High School hoops is split between sneaker brands, for travel basketball and national rankings for high school land on SI.com, MaxPreps and USA Today. The difference in basketball is the collegiate level has a billion-dollar deal in place and the NCAA Tournament’s March Madness as a its Super Bowl. Basketball culminates in March and the billion-dollar NBA as its premier league. Smaller leagues exist in the international market with considerable financial backing also.
$289 million for Wimbledon
Basketball can’t be the model for T&F. It has to be Golf or Tennis. Both are individual sports with events held over the course of days and supported by major titles. Wimbledon, for example, should be the model for the Grand Slam and 776 Invitational:
Wimbledon Prize Money | 2023 Breakdown & Historicals (tenniscompanion.org)
In track the Diamond League already exists and with the World Championships and the Olympics, track has a solid foundation, but unlike tennis where there is a USTA and PGA (now disrupted by LIV Golf) the U.S. doesn’t really provide a consistent opportunity for professional track and field athletes to be ranked and to compete accordingly. These new events, 776 and Grand Slam, completely overlook field events like High Jump which means, even with these two new competitions, the sport is still broken.
The $286 million created by Wimbledon each year, the PGA, USTA, with the ATL Games by adidas as a model, create a compelling blend which should inform the foundation of a true Track League capable of offering an exciting take on the sport.
Puma sponsors the American Track League | Party Faster. An admirable attempt to create a league concept, but the league is utilizing the same structure as the Wanda League without recognizing the financial aspects of the Wanda League. The Wanda League had a deal with Peacock/NBC for streaming. They have unfortunately sold those rights to FloTrack (which is another problem). The Wanda League also owns their YouTube and is consistent in the locations for events. Simply based on the evergreen content of their YouTube channel:
832K subscribers
3,269 videos
445,848,105 views
The Wanda League has generated an Estimated Video earnings of $58,216 on just one of their more popular videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dKd-b31mck
I raise this point to establish how the American Track League placed their videos behind a paywall on Vimeo for years before finally creating a YouTube page. This YouTube is smaller than the arch channel and cements the reasons the league isn’t capable of handling the duties to elevate the sport. If you take a second to visit the ATL site (a confusing name when the adidas event is also named ATL) there is no roster of athletes on the website, point totals or consistency in athletic participation. It is only a league in name.