Frustrated With Diamond League Mess, Noah Lyles Brings Much-Needed Change to Track and Field for Free

“Be the change you wish to see in the world”– Noah Lyles seems to believe in this adage wholeheartedly. A few days ago, the American sprinter voiced his protest against the added subscription charges for the track and field games. He blamed it to be one of the probable recurring reasons to diminish the popularity of the sport he loves.

However, now it is time for Noah Lyles to take a bold step to nip the overwhelming subscription charge issue in the bud and he has done a phenomenal job on that spree. As per his hours-old post on X, Noah Lyles will livestream the Adidas Atlanta City Games next weekend through his YouTube channel. Along with that, Adidas’ official YouTube channel will also broadcast the feed live and both these presentations will be completely free of cost.

This will be one step toward making track and field broadcasting more popular as the sport appears to be lacking in that domain, per the athlete. Previously, Noah Lyles took the fight to broadcasters such as NBC and FloSports for bringing in massive changes in the subscription rate. 

As per the linked Memorandum of Understanding between FloSports and Wanda Diamond League, the broadcaster will hold the reins of major track and field events, including the Diamond League in the world. But it will come through putting a huge subscription rate on the audiences compared to the present one from NBC. So, Noah questioned the mindset behind it as the number of audience and investment is facing a dull end in track and field sports. 

“I wish. Flotrack offered more money to host the diamond league domestically. Thats how they got it,” Noah Lyles lamented. But being a pathbreaking athlete, the onus has been on him to bring a revolution. And the latest step definitely contributes to that end.

In the recent past, Noah Lyles’ point of argument in the broadcasting issue received support from several big names in track and field sports. In unison, they lambasted the paywall from the broadcasters and the ultimate effects coming from it. Gabby Thomas makes a prominent name among them. 

Gabby Thomas supports Noah Lyles in the question of visibility of sports 

The world champion American sprinter Gabby Thomas thinks that the overvalued subscription rate would help neither the sport nor the audience. Rather, it might go down, harming the popularity aspect of the sport and the athletes. “I mean, even if someone gets interested in an athlete and wants to follow their track career, well now they just lost it because of that deal,” she said in a symposium recently. Even the revised viewership charges won’t be affordable for her as well. 

”Paying $30 a month to watch a track meet is not reasonable for a lot of people, and not to me, to be completely honest,” the 27-year-old stated in front of the big names in that symposium. At the same time, Gabby Thomas reminded that she has nothing against FloSports, but such a high price tag won’t bring a positive aspect to the sport. Noah Lyles has been circulating his opprobrium on this matter for quite a while. Now, the major step from him may inspire the other bigwigs to follow the same route.