Michael Johnson’s New Track League Gets Boost With Media Deal

In an important step in making professional track more mainstream, the new startup league Grand Slam Track announced its media rights deal Monday with The CW Network and NBC Sports.

Peacock, which has about 36 million subscribers, will stream all events, with most of them also broadcast on The CW Network, and NBC will show a special with highlights from the opening weekend on May 10. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Anticipation for the fledgling league’s media deal has been building largely thanks to Olympic gold medal sprinter Noah Lyles, who has said his participation in the league hinges on a strong distribution partner.

“The problem with our sport right now is we have great performances, but nobody is able to see it,” Lyles told ESPN last year. “So until I’m able to hear that TV sponsor, I don’t know that I can make a decision on that yet, because we could have the greatest performances at the Grand Slam Track, but if a tree falls in the middle of the woods and nobody’s there to see it, did it fall?”

Grand Slam Track announced the final racers in its 48-spot inaugural season in December, a list that does not include Lyles. (The league signs 48 “Racers” for all events, and another 48 “Challengers” for each event, meaning there’s still room for Lyles should he want to run.) On Monday, Lyles reposted an announcement of the media deal from Grand Slam Track on X, but didn’t add his personal thoughts to the post.

The new league, which was created by four-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Johnson, is part of a larger movement in the sport aimed at getting more highly touted and highly compensated events in the sport. The first season of the league will feature four “Slams,” beginning in Kingston, Jamaica, on April 4 before traveling to Miami, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles over the next two months. Athletes like Gabby Thomas, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Fred Kerley, Josh Kerr, and Cole Hocker are all committed as “Racers.” Following Johnson’s vision, the league won’t make athletes wear paper bibs.

“Racers” will get a base salary in addition to prize money, which starts at $100,000 for first place and totals $12.6 million for the entire first season.

Grand Slam Track will bolster the live sports offerings on Peacock, which will be largely dormant this spring without the Olympics or NFL playoff games. The CW has increased its sports portfolio in recent years with the WWE, NASCAR, ACC football and basketball games, and Pac-12 football. The CW and Peacock will give Grand Slam Track a larger distribution than what competitor track startup Athlos had at its first event in New York in September, which aired on YouTube, X, DAZN, and ESPN+.