According to the Atlantic, “Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian’s women’s track event late last month drew some 3 million viewers across its non-exclusive platforms, the company said.” The livestream aired 3 weeks ago. The video is still piling up views on YouTube, 102,000 and growing:
The biggest stars in women’s track are ShaCarri Richardson and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. The biggest rivalry consists of the women of Jamaica vs the women of the U.S. Those battles weren’t really a part of Athlos NYC. Although Gabby Thomas and other Olympians took part in the event, a lot of the luster was lost when the 100m failed to deliver on the biggest names. The field was led by Marie Ta Lou (an elite formidable sprinter), but there was no Bol vs Sydney level hype for any of the races.
This doesn’t mean the event wasn’t incredible. The vision of the team at Athlos to reduce the number of runners (6 in each event) and races (100m to 1500m) offered a compelling speed to an end of season event… which was the biggest hurdle the competition faced. The track season was over after an extremely long year. The Olympics were followed by the Diamond League Championships, and this made it difficult to land the biggest names, but Athlos was still loaded with Olympic medalists and young, fresh and new rising stars. The prize money was gigantic also.
Placing 1st in the 200m and 2nd in the 100m at ATHLOS NYC, @_brittanyshamere took home $85K all in 33.23 seconds
Non-Traditional Sports Media
The world of track revolves around international meets and is fueled by sponsorships of sneaker companies. I’m writing this post late because I’ve spent the last few weeks doing an analysis of retail/resale of kicks. I’ve been pondering a huge “what if” as it relates to brand sponsorships. In a cooling retail marketplace that is relying heavily on the holiday season to recover after slowing sales, what if sports brands decide to cut back on athlete sponsorships in track and field? If budgets are stretched, sponsorships are often the some of the first things on the chopping block along with employee layoffs. The intention here isn’t to be negative, but to shine a light on how successful Athlos was as a marketing tool and as an opportunity to develop the sport of track and field in the U.S.
But what does it really mean for sneaker brands? The individual athletes in the event wore their brand kits and they weren’t hindered by affiliation. Gabby Thomas (New Balance) was the primary spokesperson for the competition. ICAHN Stadium, not affiliated with a brand, was the host venue and in one of the most interesting aspects of the competition, it was not confined to one streaming or television platform. The event could reach people where they were. This is important as the Diamond League sold their rights to FloTrack for next season which will honestly make the league much more difficult to watch during live competitions (The league was previously streamed on Peacock). In today’s media world, the most important form of sports coverage consists of the broken down digestible digital chunks on YouTube.
Athlos is new and doesn’t adhere to traditional standards and while exclusivity tends to be the deal with sports leagues, track and field events are difficult to pitch. Events are visually chaotic, making it an expensive sport to present. The jump events can take an hour and a half, while the most popular event, the 100m, takes 10 seconds. Athlos wasn’t visually hard to watch because it was scaled down. The limited number of events, allowed for a more controlled environment; but for Athlos to advance it will have to find a way to chop a 4–6-hour event down. The U.S. market is notoriously impatient and not quite as informed about the rules around track and field events. How does Athlos become more inclusive? How do they shine a light on Field events when those events aren’t as visually stunning, they are a further distance from the crowd (especially at a stadium like ICAHN) and they are time consuming?
Estimated Earnings
The biggest question is how much did this event possibly generate? Most new events and leagues act as loss leaders building on the potential and future of the sport, but Athlos is not a league… yet. The additions which would have to be created to develop a league are extensive. A new field design would be required which means stadiums. The point system could work if the U.S. were to follow a small league format featuring teams and drafts. Track and Field is ripe for disruption. Athlos and the upcoming Grand Slam League are evidence, but they both follow a more traditional format for track, but to be honest the tradition is broken from youth sports to the pros. A breakdown of how much the event lost or earned would be welcomed as the biggest question is how can Athlos grow if it potentially loses money for years? Here is the estimated YouTube earnings based on 102,000 views (Remember these numbers will continue to grow over time because YouTube is somewhat evergreen. The day of the event right at 70,000 viewers checked out the livestream. The event has added another 30,000 views since.)
- Estimated Daily Earnings – $408.00 USD
- Estimated Monthly Earnings – $12,240.00 USD
- Estimated Yearly Earnings – $146,880.00 USD
On Twitter the livestream garnered almost 2 million views during the livestream. By comparison the first two games of the WNBA Championships were right over 1 million viewers each game. There hasn’t been a disclosure of ad revenue from Twitter or from ESPN about Athlos, but the event was not broad enough to generate Super Bowl level interest for ads, so a possible average of ticket sales, concessions, and ad revenue is difficult to ascertain, but what Athlos did was show proof of concept as a follow up to an amazing track and field year.
Athlos should not be considered a first of its kind event. The adidas Atlanta City Games, which have yet to fully maximize on its potential, is a sneaker brand led event which could be a much better presented competition. I’ve written in the past how and why they have yet to maximize, but Athlos has already understood the assignment in a better way. They have taken their events and broken them down into YouTube Shorts, but what’s more compelling is the potential of the event to exist as an addition to Netflix’s interest in track and field. The Road to Athlos could be a series if the company documented all aspects. More important, a streaming service like Netflix would get access to a missing aspect of the event. There aren’t any longform videos of the Megan the Stallion concert which ended the show.
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What About Sneaker Brands?
The sponsorship of an athlete is a micro-branding platform in many instances. Gabby is unlike the other women in the event. She’s an amazing ambassador for New Balance. With over 1 million+ followers on Instagram, she was the most followed athlete in Athlos. She posts often and in some instances her likes reach 42,000+ on images featuring New Balance gear. That is a 4% engagement rate almost triple the standard rate for images and as an ambassador, New Balance becomes a more attractive brand with those who are fans of the Olympian.
Bigger doesn’t always mean better but for brands who rely solely on the eyeball test vs true metrics. Likes and Hearts on social media can be deceiving. Brittany Brown, the biggest winner of the night at Athlos, by comparison to Gabby, only has 31,000 followers on Instagram. As a Nike sponsored athlete, she was signed prior to the Olympics and was previously an adidas sponsored athlete, a photo series of her at Nike House in Paris had 4200 hearts. Her numbers are fairly consistent on all of her images which is impressive. Since signing with Nike her numbers are better, but here is why athletes matter. Brittany’s engagement rate is a whopping 13%.
Masai Russell is almost at half a million (a number she strategically developed as an athlete at the University of Kentucky), and Camacho Quinn is at a quarter of a million. These three ladies are sponsored by Nike. Alaysha Johnson is unsponsored (no sneaker brand) and she has 150,000 followers. Candace Hill, who jumped straight to the pros from high school, is only at 23,000 followers, but she is sponsored by ASICS. For a sneaker company looking for KPI’s Brittany is like many of the women who competed in Athlos, they don’t have an astronomical number of followers, but their engagement rate is above average, and they provide amazing stories. Brown competes with Endometriosis. Women offer compelling narratives for brand storytelling, but for the purpose of sales, track and field women tend to be the most in-shape athletes in all of sports.
Athlos’ Potential
Athlos could be groundbreaking if the company truly breaks the mold. As it stands, the speed of the event is misleading. The reality is track and field events are long and difficult to televise, but if the company truly takes on reinvention and revolutionizes, they could be what LIV Golf has been to the PGA. The problem is the continued fracturing of the sport via tradition (Diamond League), upstart (Athlos) and upstart (Grand Slam). At the youth level athletes compete in AAU and USATF events. At the end of the summer teams have to decide where to go. Events are difficult to register for as coaches have to use a combination of Coach O, USATF, Athletic.net, and MileSplit to track down and find events.
To be fair, basketball at the youth level has a similar issue because of the individual shoe circuits (EYBL, Gauntlet, UAA) and this has contributed to the rest of the world gaining considerable ground on the U.S. in hoops. Track and Field is fractured from youth to pros, and nothing is really being done to improve the situation. This leaves Athlos in a difficult situation especially as Grand Slam Track has yet to clearly define if athletes will be able to compete in events outside of the Diamond League.
The potential is undeniable. The opportunities are incredible as more events are added. What Athlos has to do ultimately is make an investment in track and field across the spectrum, but what they should do is to find a way to acquire the American Track League. After covering the ATL on its stop in Memphis I realized the league is underfunded. ATL (sponsored by Puma but not as well as it could be) has been around for years but is basically unknown. The YouTube channel has 2500 subscribers: Puma American Track League – YouTube. Their Instagram is at less than 25,000 followers. By comparison Athlos is already at 2100 subs on YT with one event and 20,000 on IG. Those numbers aren’t explosive for Athlos, but this is basically half a year vs almost ten years of ATL. Track and Field is trending in the right direction.