How to build professional track & field, by Michael Johnson, used with permission

Watching Michael Johnson compete as an athlete from 1992-2000, I was fortunate to interview Michael on several occasions and found him thoughtful, on point, and not suffering fools. 

I was there for his gold medals in 1996, both the 200m and 400m. His stumble in the 200 meters was fascinating, and I recall the gold medalist noting that it shook him up. I must say his semi-final in 1999 in Seville in the 400 meters, where he ran a World record pace for the first 300 meters and then jogged the last 100 meters, in one of my favorite all-time performances. 

His development as a sports journalist continues to make me smile. MJ can stir it up on BBC Sports, and his columns in British print and digital media have been superb. Michael Johnson challenges the status quo, and that is what he is doing with his long tweet on how to professionalize track & field. 

One final note. I wanted to note that in April 2011, Michael Johnson gave the Shoe Addicts, which consisted of Adam Johson Eder, Mike Deering, and Algernon Felice, their first big interview when he launched MJ Performance. Michael showed a lot of class, and I never got to thank him for that. See the interview at bottom of this column. 

I found this tweet last weekend and asked Michael for his permission to reprint it on RunBlogRun. He granted it, and here we go: 

I’m often asked how I would improve track & field. Here it is.

Allow me to first explain the problem:

If you were to design a sport for success in TODAY’s sports market, it would look nothing like today’s track. Track must be reimagined for TODAY’s sport & entertainment market. In my opinion, championship track (Olympics, Worlds, etc.) needs very little change, if any, so I’m going to focus on professional track and field. Developing professional track is not the role of federations; they are not equipped for the job. A private commercial entity focused on profitability must develop professional track.

There is a basic profit formula for pro sports: QUALITY PRODUCT leads to FANS leads to MEDIA RIGHTS & SPONSORS leads to REVENUE. The athlete plays an important role in this. GREAT ATHLETES + GOOD COMPETITION = QUALITY PRODUCT. Athletes are key to the product, and revenue comes back to athletes as compensation from the sport itself. Not just individual sponsors, as is currently the case.

Fans are critical in the formula. The current fanbase for track isn’t sufficient to garner significant media and sponsor…