Noah Lyles has previously challenged Michael Johnson’s Grand Slam Track League, questioning its structure and marketing.
Noah Lyles has posed a challenge to Michael Johnson ahead of his inaugural Grand Slam Track league set to debut in Kingston, Jamaica at the National Stadium in Independence Park on April 4, 5 and 6.
The reigning Olympic 100m champion has been one of the biggest critiques of the event, revealing some of the major reasons why he opted not to join the league.
Noah Lyles revealed that he wants everything to go well for Michael Johnson, but there are many unresolved things ahead of the event hitting the ground running.
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The triple world champion noted that if all goes well, they would have proven him wrong and he would be willing to sign as a challenger.
“I would love to be proven wrong and then I’ll become a challenger if everything lines up. I would love to be proven wrong, I would for this to be nothing but successful,” Noah Lyles said on the Beyond the Records podcast.
He added that one of the major reasons he was reluctant to join the Grand Slam Track league was due to lack of a broadcast partner.
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Harambee Starlets have moved up seven places in the latest FIFA rankings thanks to their impressive results against Tunisia in the WAFCON qualifiers.
However, that has since been addressed with the Grand Slam Track league partnering with Eurosport (Europe and Asia) and TNT Sports (UK and Ireland). For the US audience, Grand Slam Track announced partnerships with both The CW Network and NBC Sports.
However, Noah Lyles has since revealed another dilemma, the scheduling of the events. he pointed out that from a marketing perspective, it is a bit of a headache on how the events should be run.
“The biggest issue is that the scheduling is very odd, in my opinion, especially from a marketing standpoint,” Noah Lyles revealed.
“If I go on Jimmy Fallon and I say, I’m the 100m and 200m Grand Slam champion and then Grant comes on the next day and he’s like, ‘I’m the 100m, 110m hurdles Grand Slam champion’.
‘Noah said he is the 100m Grand Slam champion and you also said the same, how does that work? From a marketing standpoint, how are you going to market something that two people already own?”
The American sprint further offered advice on how Grand Slam Track can be more effective and sign more elite athletes.
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He revealed that Michael Johnson should capitalize on the sponsors to build a stadium in the US which will host all four Slams.
“I actually think they should build one stadium in the US and one central city…you think it’s expensive until he starts talking about all these sponsors that he has coming in. You get in touch with Mondo and the city organisation and you build this stadium that is going to host the four slams,” Noah Lyles said.
Noah Lyles is among the top stars who have yet to sign with Michael Johnson’s Grand Slam Track but the retired legend is unfazed by that as he looks forward to hosting a successful event and making it memorable for fans and athletes who have already signed.
