Exclusive: Plans for city-based, private equity-backed athletics league revealed
An audacious new athletics league that will see city franchises, road running and stakes sold to competitors is seeking funding to the tune of seven figures ahead of a 2027 launch, Morning Wire can reveal.
Former runner Florian Lussy is spearheading the as yet unnamed project – under his R-evo Ventures firm – which will be backed by private equity and sponsorship having already secured its first host city.
“We want to create an ecosystem that allows the sport to grow beyond the performance-driven routes and actually become an entertainment product competing against SailGP and Formula 1 in a format that is more appealing to the today’s 25-year-old,” Lussy told Morning Wire.
“Our vision for the sport is that we create a world where running is run as a franchise system where you have teams across Europe in the beginning and then global. And they race against each other in a new format.”
The wider pitch deck suggests that events take place without a track with races akin to city cycle races and based on duration rather than distance.
“Our goal is to go off the track because it’s about creating something totally new,” he added. “The format will be quite different to what we have seen in running so far.”
Athletics on the rise?
Lussey admits that hosting a leg in London would be a key goal, but an inaugural season next year may not run to a full calendar. He cites all-female Athlos, rather than Michael Johnson’s Grand Slam Track, as a preferred model.
“Grand Slam Track did quite a few things wrong,” he said. “But they also had a few good things that they tried to do in this sport. You need to ensure that you build the trust that the athletes don’t have the fear of getting let down again and for that you need to set up a structure that allows them to be partially involved in the decisions and grow in their engagement over time.
“Our goal is definitely to sell it [down the line] but the athletes will have stakes in the franchises. We believe that our racing will be a bit less taxing to their bodies because it’s not a typical distance. It’s fine if they’re not in the best shape so we believe that they’re more interested in racing with us than they ever were at Grand Slam Track. “
Every athletics team will get a home race event, but not all athletes will need to be from the country whose city is hosting. Lussy suggests social media runners could feature.
“We’re in talks with two three really big guys and have 80 athletes on the waiting list that are interested to join. We kind of want to create a mix of athletes that were in Birmingham and then also some a sub-elite that have a solid reach because in the end, it’s an entertainment product.”