Americans will be encouraged to compete domestically in 2021 ©Getty Images

A new series of athletics meets in the United States is set for 2021, giving the nation's best more opportunities to compete domestically.

Pro Track Series has been formed by a group of meet and race directors and is set to have seven meets between May and August 2021.

Los Angeles will host the first on May 14, followed by the Portland Track Festival in Oregon on May 29.

The Iowa High Performance meet in Des Moines is then scheduled for May 31, with the Music Distance City Carnival meet taking place in Nashville on June 6.

Two track meets in Los Angeles are then set to take place on July 10 and 17 as part of the Under Armour Sunset Tour before the Ed Murphey Classic in Memphis in Tennessee hosts the final event of the series on August 14.

The series will take a brief pause for the US Olympic trials, scheduled for June 18 to 27 and then a break again for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, currently scheduled from July 23 to August 8 2021.

"We need an actual formal [US] season, and we need it to be convenient for athletes, something to build a fan base," said Jesse Williams of Sound Running, as reported by Runner's World.

Sound Running will organise the Los Angeles meets, including the Sunset Tour.

Prize money is expected to be available for each meet, with the series also having an overall competition which could also award prize money for the best athletes over the series.

It has also been created to offer an alternative to the European athletics circuit next year, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"It's pathetic that all the best athletes in America go to a different continent for most of their racing," said Music City Distance Carnival director, Dave Milner.

"That's the position we're in with track because for as long as I can remember, there's just been a dearth of competitive opportunities for professional track athletes here.

"So they have to go to Europe and live out of a suitcase for four or five weeks at a time, and that's just hard for people to do, especially those that have families or have jobs.

"I feel like it's been slowly killing the interest in the sport for the public for decades.

"We need to bring the sport back to the US to keep it relevant."

Eugene in Oregon is scheduled to hold the only American leg of the 2021 Diamond League, set to be held on August 21.

The city is also set to host the 2022 World Athletics Championships from July 15 to 24, after it was postponed from 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.