Alexis Ohanian's Big Bet On Track And Field

Thanks for having me.

I did a full day there as a guest shark. A lot of fun.

Well, I'll tell you, it's the same thing I saw in March of 2019 when I tweeted about how I was going to start a soccer team in the United States that would one day be worth billions of dollars that ended up being Angel City. And the why was, every four years, the whole world, but especially the United States, is paying attention to these women who are the best in class. Back in 2019 it was women's soccer, and a year and a half ago, it was track and field. Every four years, we watch the very best. We cannot look away. It's one of those popular sports, and we have household names like Tara Davis-Woodhall, Gabby Thomas and, of course, Sha'Carri Richardson, who have captivated us during the Olympics, and then they disappear. But why? They're still just as great in between those four years. And so Athlos is a chance to build a women's first track and field league, to turn these ladies into even bigger household names, to let us see them in prime time and prime locations, in an elevated level, with great partners every single year.

I feel so confident after the success I've had at women's soccer that I know it's not just because there's a scarcity. And then when it comes to why track and field first, there are a ton of other amazing Olympic sports and events. I've only got 24 hours in the day, and so I had to optimize my focus. And the reason why track and field, frankly, it's the OG sport, right? The very first Olympic sport was a foot race. This is a fundamentally basic human activity, running, that every single person can in some way relate to, although very, very few can do it at the level these athletes do it. And let's just abstract away what's happening here, right? These are humans going as fast as they can in some kind of an oval type shape. We watch this when they are little humans on horses. We watch this when these are little humans in fast cars. If we know those are massive, billion dollar sports, why not actual humans just running on their two legs, right?

We had a great partnership with DraftKings for our first Athlos sports betting. Responsible sports betting is going to be a part of what we're doing, part of what we're doing with the Athlos league, of course. And I think to the other one, you know, whether it's Formula One or Alex, I'll stick to Formula One. Formula One is a great example of a sport that had true global fandom, especially in Europe, not unlike track and field today. You know, these same women will sell out 40, 50, 60,000 arenas in Europe. Outside of the Olympics, we've been to Paris. We've been to London. We've seen these meets. The American audience has not really felt that. And just like with Formula One, you know, the crossing over point was in the storytelling and the way the Drive to Survive was able to make Americans care about these athletes they didn't really know. My point with Athlos is these athletes, these ladies of track and field, are far more compelling. Notice your spec, guys, far more compelling, far more telegenic, far more interesting and better, more natural storytellers, and they're digital native. And so the way that we're telling these stories in Athlos is first and foremost through social media. It's direct to consumer, and I think it's the reason why for our first ever meet last year, we had over 3 million people tune into that broadcast, right? That's more people than watched Caitlin Clark's WNBA performance. And I think these athletes are great. They have a massive following. They just needed this lift.

That's right. I'm sorry you brought this up. And something I've always stressed, women's sports is not a charity. Women's sports, the reason I've been investing in it the last five years is because it is a tremendous business opportunity. So I'm glad we're talking about the revenue. Yes, traditional big four sports leagues make that eye-popping dollar for media deals. But why? Because they have massive audiences that are tuning in, and then the media companies can then expect to sell those rights to advertisers who make their money. When you're an emerging league, it is very, very, very hard to solve that chicken-egg problem, because you don't yet have a league by definition, you're building it from scratch, and so you're not going to have a media rights deal that's going to have anything close to an eye-popping number. So our strategy was, okay, go to where the money is: brand partnerships. We announced this league last year with Tiffany & Co, right, a world class, top tier brand, designing our one-of-one crowns so that every one of the winners, if you only saw one highlight from Athlos last year, it was probably one of our stars putting this beautiful crown on her head, right? That shows you it's premium. That shows you it's just as high quality and luxurious as an Olympic gold medal. It has that aura, which is an important talking point. But then also, we had great brands like Toyota year one sign up to be a part of this, because it was a first time ever event. It was a record breaking event in women's sports, and they're back again, actually, this year, which I'm proud to announce here. But what's so compelling here is these are brand stories from tier one brands. We have probably another four to five that we'll be announcing here in the coming months. By the time this airs, it'll be public, but you'll see we took a brand-first approach where we said, Listen, we know we can capture the attention of 3 million plus people last year. Again, credit to the Tiffany. And that was done mostly on Twitter. It was digital. It was through. So to the media deal, we opted against exclusivity, because it would have given us, frankly, a pretty limited windfall, like we wouldn't have made much money from it, and instead, opted for breadth and reach. So we're on ESPN+, rebroadcast on ESPN2, Zone, X, and YouTube.

It was so crucial because so many track and field fans today have so much trouble actually watching their favorite athletes. Our value proposition from the start was, if you're going to be a fan of Athlos, you're going to see your athletes by any means necessary. As long as you have an internet connection, you will be able to watch them.

So that is still up for negotiation. We're still talking to partners. All the same folks who hosted us last year are hosting us again this year.

We want breadth over depth, because at the end of the day, the other advantage to having top tier brand partners is especially in women's sports, and I'd say emerging sports broadly, but I think for women in particular, it's even more important. Aligning these athletes with top tier brands is so important, because they're worth it. They're worth every dime of it. During the Olympics, you watch them, they're next to top tier brands. And just like with women's soccer, you watch them during the World Cup, they're near top tier brands. When you're building any kind of emerging league like we are with Athlos, you have to keep that bar high, and so we'll compromise on a big fat media deal, because I'd much rather have the distribution today.

So we're modeling this inspired a lot by NCAA track and field, so there's a point system. So imagine your favorite runners in the world. You know, Sha'Carri Richardson could now finally be competing on a team with Tara Davis-Woodhall. You know, one is a sprinter, the other one's a long jumper. But by having a team-based track and field meet, you're gonna have all those events in probably three cities next year. I won't commit to how many. We're obviously New York is our home base. We're obviously gonna take care of New York City again next year. But so imagine a few different locations, Friday nights under the lights, and having this team-based model, so that your athletes are not just competing for themselves, they're also competing for a big team prize at the end. And so just the same way, you might root for Lewis Hamilton, but at the same time want to see Ferrari win the cup. We'll have the same concept. You'll be wearing a Sha'Carri Richardson jersey or shirt for the first time ever, because she'll actually have a team and a number emblazoned on her back that you can rep as a fan, and you'll be cheering for her individually, but also for her team and the points. So every runner, every jumper has something at stake.