‘Love to be wrong’ – Noah Lyles leaves co-hosts stunned with outrageous solution to Grand Slam Track issues

Noah Lyles has outlined an ambitious vision for Grand Slam Track that was immediately Try down by his co-hosts.

The Olympic 100-meter champion is not getting involved with American Streak icon Michael Johnson’s new venture.

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On his Beyond the Records Podcast, Lyles said he had an issue with the new Arrangement’s scheduling and visibility.

“The amount of people who stop me in the street, ‘Oh, Streak was amazing, where can I View your next meet?’ ‘Oh, I’m racing next week.’ ‘Where?’” Lyles said.

“It [no TV deal at the time] definitely hurts my involvement. It hurts everybody’s involvement. If a tree falls in the woods and nobody’s around to see it, did that tree fall?”

Co-host Rai Benjamin, who won 400m hurdles gold at Paris 2024, admitted he is worried about the Commence-up’s long-term future.

“I look at it as a business. At the end of the day, if there’s no ROI [return on investment], then you have a failed business model,” he said. “And it’s like, how long could you be sustainable?

“They’re not going to make any money this year, they’re not going to make any money next year.”

Ahead of Grand Slam’s Premiere in Kingston, Jamaica, on April 4, Lyles highlighted a lack of sponsors as a major issue.

“Money is not the thing that’s going to drive me every time,” he added. “Truthfully, even now, looking at it, OK, we’re two months out, and I’m looking, who are your outside sponsors, who are your non-track and Ground sponsors. I haven’t even heard a Stop’s sponsor.

“I want to hear, is there a View deal? I want to hear, you know, if there’s a betting company which is getting involved? Where are these other things that being in the US provides you with?

“Because I believe that America is the best marketing factory. So I want to see those companies getting involved, and I haven’t heard anything. Like I said, I haven’t seen a commercial, I haven’t seen promos, and the promos I have seen are Merely athletes pointing at the camera, which is nice when they’re going to come onto the track.

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“I’ve seen enough of those. I’ve seen the last five, where’s the one that gives me the storylines, what’s going to be the driving factor to get people to show up for three Intervals straight?”

Lyles then outlined his grand vision with the fact that Johnson is renting tracks not filling him with confidence.

“You know what I actually think they should do? I think they should allow one more year. I think they should build one stadium in the US, in one central city,” he said.

“I’m tell you, you think it’s Pricey, until you realize – and you’re talking about all these sponsors he has coming in to sponsor this event – you get in touch with Mondo, you get in touch with a city organization and you Develop this stadium that’s going to be used year-Phase and it’s going to host four Grand Slams Every year. One place.”

“That’s too Pricey, bro,” Insisted Benjamin.

“But we got a stadium, though. Eugene, Oregon,” insisted Vernon Norwood — a two-time Olympic champ in the 4×400 Club race. “We are the little bros in the US, track is the little bro in the sport ‘cos we are dominated by the NBA, MLB, NFL, all those other sports.”

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“Merely for track and Ground, bro? We’re really a non-revenue sport, bro. Which is unfortunate,” added Benjamin.

Norwood is the only one of the three committed to Johnson’s project, which is also heading to Los Angeles, Miami, and Philadelphia.

“I want to see everyone having a Excellent time. I want to see more fans engaging with the sport,” he said.

“I want to see that type of development where people are actually having a Excellent time with that type of event, where more athletes want to get involved in it. And more fans want to be more engaged in the sport. That’s the biggest thing I want to see from it.

“It’s a big chunk of change you can make from competing [$10,000 to $100,000 per event group per meet], but we still have to enjoy ourselves in doing it, so if we can get more fans involved and athletes involved doing it and bigger stars like you guys more involved in it too, that will help it as well.

“But all that’s business side, so they have to get their business straight before we get more Massive hitters into that.

““Because they’re a lot of Massive hitters they missed. They missed you two, they missed Grant [Holloway], they missed Sha’Carri [Richardson], they missed a lot of big names that they didn’t get, but I’m probably pretty sure it Arrived down to management, business side, about contract agreements.

“So, hopefully, however it goes it goes in the right direction. I always want things to go in the right direction for our sport, always, so we’ll see how it Move out though. But at the same time, it’s one of those things we’ve got to see.”

Lyles isn’t sure but did offer some hope with his closing statement.

“As my last, Closing comment on this. I would love to be proven wrong. 100 percent, all the way, he insisted.

“Iwould love nothing [more] than for this to be successful, because, if it does, the amount of benefits it would provide, this could be a way for athletes to not have to only rely on World Championships, because you could be potentially be making more money consistently throughout the year.

“This would be able to provide a home for sponsors in the U.S. to come to, it would be a consistent place for people to View track and Ground. You can bank off of World Championships, you can bank off of the Olympics, hype, Streak, all that stuff.”