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United Kingdom Athletics (UKA) recorded significant losses in three years despite the promotions and publicity track and field has gotten in recent years which begs the question on the profitability of the sport.
Following the end of the 2024 athletics season, United Kingdom (UK) Athletics released its financial status after pulling out from hosting one of Michael Johnson's $30m Grand Slam Track meets next year.
The Grand Slam Track League already has many elite athletes such as US hurdling queen Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Olympic sprint star Kenny Bednarek signed up for the series and has a prize fund of $12.6m.
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With the recent announcement of Kingston, Jamaica (April 4th, 5th, and 6th) and Miami, Florida (May 2nd, 3rd, and 4th) as two of the host cities, with the final venue announced this week, it has been revealed that the UK Athletics was approached but declined the offer due to fear of financial risk.
Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium and the London Stadium are rumoured to be among one of the cities.
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According to theguardian.com, UKA’s chief executive, Jack Buckner, said its difficult financial situation meant it would be focusing on making the Diamond League in London profitable, as well as a potential bid for the 2029 World Athletics Championships.
“We’re positive about Michael Johnson’s format,” he said. “But three days of just track athletics is a lot of tickets to sell in the London Stadium and the cost base comes pretty high there. They did approach us and we had a really good discussion with them. We would like to have a bigger, more comprehensive events portfolio, but we want that built on strong foundations that are sustainable."
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“We are also conducting a feasibility study into a bid for the World Athletics Championships. We understand that the next one available is 2029 and then potentially 2031.”
In 2022, UKA lost £800,000 in one day when it hosted the Diamond League in Birmingham in 2022 and another £500,000 by staging the World Indoor tour in February 2023.
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Buckner said: “We don’t want to – gamble is too strong a word – but if you don’t get an event right and you don’t budget for it properly, it can lose a lot of money quickly, which is what happened historically.”
UKA will report on Wednesday that it lost £1.2m in the financial year up to March 2024. However, its chair, Ian Beattie, said it was an improvement on the £3.7m lost in the previous year and predicted the organisation would break even in 2026.
“We find ourselves recovering a bit ahead of that projected curve, which is encouraging,” he said. “We know there’s still quite a lot of work to do, but the £1.6m loss I was projecting for this period last year is in fact just under £1.2m.”
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The UKA financial loss comes as a surprise considering the United Kingdom is known as one of the world's top athletics countries with an increased interest in the sport and assured spectator appearances at any given meet.
So if a city/country that has hosted many global competitions such as the London 2012 Olympic Games, London 2017 World Championships, Commonwealth Games, and London Diamond League meets, can record such huge losses in a year, it begs the question again: Is athletics a profitable sport?
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