Two events are being held in Southern California next month and play into the governing body's strategic plan to turn athletics into the fifth-most followed sport in the United States by 2028.

Its Los Angeles Grand Prix is due to take place at UCLA's Drake Stadium on May 26 which is being dubbed as a "distance carnival".

The next day, a three-hour event is planned, with half of it due to be broadcast on NBC, and a "USATF Legends Jam" concert following on the university's campus.

The event is due to test new innovations, including placing a microphone on select athletes that will allow them to speak to the audience during warm-ups.

"Track and field has an opportunity to innovate much more than it has over the last couple of decades, and that innovation stands at the intersection of fans, athletes, sponsors and television," said Robert Brisco, chief executive of event sponsor WebMD, as reported by the Los Angeles Times.

"The way the sport has evolved over the last couple decades hasn't entirely kept pace with what you’ve seen in other professional sports but there’s no good reason for that."

Williams founded Sound Running in 2019 and is behind Track Fest. 

Track Fest has promised races from 800 metres to 10,000m and is expected to attract some of the world's top distance runners from the US and abroad.

He is hoping to reinvent the "night at the track" with the two-hour May 6 competition at the Hilmer Lodge Stadium.

A live concert, access to food trucks and a beer garden is all included in the $15 (£12/€13) ticket price.

"If the sport's going to move forward, we can't move forward in the packaging it's in right now," Williams said to the Los Angeles Times.

"We've been beating that drum and it’s not working."