BURBANK, California (AP) — Michael Johnson’s innovative track league has finalized a significant media agreement, with Peacock set to live-stream all the thrilling action and The CW to televise the weekend races during the course of the four events scheduled for 2025. The Grand Slam Track League has successfully enlisted a total of 48 talented racers, including notable athletes like Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Gabby Thomas, to partake in a dynamic four-event circuit set to kick off on April 4 in Kingston, Jamaica.
Renowned as a four-time Olympic gold medalist, Johnson has managed to secure over $30 million in funding for the league, which is now offering lucrative $100,000 first-place prizes and a substantial total prize pool exceeding $12.6 million, in addition to undisclosed sums for participants in the season-long series. The acquisition of major media deals was seen as a crucial component of the league’s launch, with NBC Sports, the holder of Olympic broadcasting rights and operator of Peacock, now making a notable foray into the world of track and field following its decision to not renew its streaming partnership for track’s Diamond League events last year.
Meanwhile, The CW, known for its previous sports agreement with LIV Golf, which concluded after two seasons due to lackluster viewership, has now shifted focus to showcasing the action-packed track league. On the golf front, the emerging golf series has recently inked a new deal with Fox Sports, scheduled to take effect this year.
Johnson’s overarching goal with the league is to sustain interest in track and field beyond just Olympic years, aiming to facilitate more thrilling matchups among the sport’s elite competitors. Besides the opening event in Jamaica, other highly-anticipated events are slated to take place in Miami, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia later this year. A unique feature of these events is the grouping of runners into categories such as sprints, hurdles, and middle distance, with participants racing twice over a weekend to determine champions based on their placements rather than their individual times.
___
AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports
