The United States is one of the biggest markets for running in the world. With nearly 50 million avid runners and almost every high school in the country having a track and field team, the arena is filled with talented sprinters. Unfortunately, elite-level competition doesn’t draw audiences in the States as it does in Europe. Especially in non-Olympic years, the sport faces a major concern with drawing spectators to the stadiums. However, during the recently concluded World Athletics Championships, the American viewership saw a surge. And, track and field expert Coach Rob tagged Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone as a major reason.
In a YouTube video that aired on October 1, 2025, track and field Coach Rob proposed an idea to save track and field in the USA. “A pro track and field league. Yes, a league. One that is aimed for the American market. So, I’ll be real with you. The primary goal is to put American athletes in it,” he said. The track pundit didn’t mean to exclude international athletes but stressed the league mainly targets Americans. Rob pointed out that McLaughlin-Levrone was an exception in the World Championships in the 400m. A historic time of 47.78 seconds, the fastest in 40 years, and second on the all-time list, nobody saw it coming.
He added, “In the American market, nobody cares about the world…The only reason some people know a world championships happened is because Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone ran as fast as she did, broke a championship record, another gold medal, she’s already a world record holder. That right there was the moment when some people found out there were the world championships. Nothing else that the Americans did was widely celebrated in the sports community.”
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While Rob’s words stand true, it is also important to mention that Sha’Carri Richardson did beat Sydney in terms of views. Considering the same, Coach Rob then highlighted what went wrong during the World Championships. He talked about how the race was aired on tape delay.”Again, the track community, people who actually like track and are actively trying to figure out what happened, they might have figured out like Noah Lyles won a 200 or she, you know, Sha’Carri Richardson anchored the 4×100 or even Melissa Jefferson Wooden Sprint Triple like and these are big moments with very talented like higher profile athletes really wasn’t promoted in the sports market like in the media. It just wasn’t there,” he said.
Lyles won the 200m in 19.52s, anchored the men’s 4x100m relay to gold in 37.29s, Richardson anchored the women’s 4x100m relay to victory in 41.75s, and Jefferson-Wooden won the 100m in 10.61s and 200m in 21.68s. But they didn’t make it to the headlines much. That is why a good TV deal is important for this league he is proposing. As per him, to land a real TV deal, competitions need to be scheduled at a time that works, so American athletes actually take them seriously without clashing with the World Championships.
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Right now, outdoor track and field revolves around Worlds and the Olympics, and no one in the sport’s ecosystem wants to get in the way. “We’re going to have to get real because you don’t get paid what you’re worth. You get paid what you negotiate,” wise words from the coach. He talked of Grand Slam Track, saying they had a great idea to invest heavily in athletes, but he couldn’t justify it. The only way to earn money is by actually performing, and when athletes do, there needs to be enough TV coverage to make that investment worthwhile. So what’s this league about? The structure of it.
He wanted two things cleared: a TV deal and navigating the track calendar, dominated by Worlds and Olympics, which U.S. sports largely ignore.
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Coach Rob’s idea of the league that can save track and field
“The league that I would propose is a six-team track and field league. Yes, I said it’s teams, and with those teams, we’re going to have men and women. 21 men, 21 women. So, essentially, 42 people on the roster. Yes, you can have minimum some of most of these athletes are going to have minimum contracts.” Rob said. The coach also proposes that this league should happen during the indoor track season si that athelte can give thier time to Diamond League, Continental Tour and more outdoor events.
Regarding the league format he said that the number of regular-season meets, along with a championship, were likely to amount to five events on television involving American athletes. Every team would play three times but not every athlete would reach the final. He described the layout of the meet: there would be two meets of all six teams (only through the six indoor lanes), one at the beginning and one at the end of the season. The two mid term meet will have but three teams, the others will have a bye week. Athletes in various track and field events would be included in each team making a complete track and field league.
Gabby Thomas, a 200m sprinter, has an indoor record of 35.73s over 300m, at the 2021 New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Staten Island, New York. It may be ideal to mention that he mentioned race distances as non-rigid because one is training to run outdoors. The 60m dash would be followed by the 500 and 1,000, and 3K (3K on different days by men and women), and then the 60m hurdles and a mixed 4×400 relay. Field events would include shot put, pole vault, high jump, and optional long jump or triple jump, indoors.
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Concerning team balance, he said it would be relatively even, but the talent would be focused in some events. Such sprinters as Lyles, Berk, and Coleman would be placed in various teams, each having several athletes, but there would be someone at the helm. In terms of salaries, Rob said that there would be a max contract, probably one male and one female athlete on one team. It all comes down to the owner of the team, who must be rich enough to finance the league and keep it running all through the season.
“I got a whole bunch of cost-saving measures that are coming in a moment. You’re about to hear them. In general, the season would probably start, if we ran it in 2025 to use real dates, probably around January 11th, around the same time they did the Clemson invite, and it would have ended probably in February, right around when we did Milrose,” he said. The 2025 indoor track season in the U.S. for elite athletes began on January 11, 2025, with the Clemson Invitational held at the Clemson Indoor Track & Field Complex in Clemson, South Carolina. The season concluded on February 8, 2025, with the 117th Millrose Games at The Armory in New York City. What Rob is proposing does seem like an interesting concept. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone could be the key here, don’t you think?