Top scheduled attractions Kenenisa Bekele, the world’s dominant distance runner from Ethiopia, and Sanya Richards-Ross, the US 400 meters world champion, are injured, and Russian Olympic pole vault gold medallist Yelena Isinbayeva is taking a break from the sport.

Yet optimism remains high among leaders of the new 14-meeting Diamond League circuit, which supplants the now-defunct European Golden League series as the IAAF’s top non-championship event.

“The interest of the athletes is huge,” Diamond League vice chairman Patrick Magyar told Reuters in a telephone interview.

“If you want to see the best, you are going to watch the Diamond League and the big championships.”

The estimated budget of $50 million will bring triple Olympic sprint champion Usain Bolt and other big names to the circuit, which promises fast-paced action and more head-to-head competition.

Bolt, scheduled to make seven contracted appearances on the circuit beginning in Shanghai on May 23, is likely to meet chief American rival Tyson Gay at least three times.

Either Bolt, Gay or former world record holder Asafa Powell will be scheduled to run at every Diamond League meeting.

Powell has the honor in Doha, joining more than a dozen current world or Olympic champions.

Total prize money for the 14 meetings will top $6.6 million with millions more in promotional fees, Magyar said, adding that more than $25 million would go to the athletes.

Every event except the men’s and women’s hammer throw will be contested at least seven times and a diamond-studded trophy awaits all 32 season leaders.

“Our objective is to provide the athletics season with a new structure and, in the end, to get a better product for athletes, spectators in the stadium and spectators at home on TV,” Magyar said.

New technology such as slow-motion replays and better choreographed presentations also are planned.

Such moves are vital for the sport to remain spectator friendly, Isinbayeva’s manager Daniel Wessfeldt said.

“We have been losing, how should I say, ground,” he said. “So something had to be done.”

Whether the Diamond League is the answer remains debatable.

“I do not know that the Diamond League is going to solve the problem,” said top sports analyst Bob Dorfman from San Francisco.

“Track and field is a little bit of a dinosaur in a sense. It doesn’t feel like it is moving with the times, coming up with ways of staying relevant.”

Magyar agreed there were better ways of packaging athletics.

“But I don’t think we need to change the sport itself by just making it more part of the entertainment industry,” he said.

The long jump will always be the long jump, he said, but competitors might make four jumps instead of the current six.

“We might have mistakes in the beginning which we will adjust,” he said. “But I am very sure this is what we need to do.”