by Stuart Weir
UK Athletics financial deficit smaller than expected
UKA chair Ian Beattie briefed athletics writers this week before publishing their annual accounts for the year ending March 2024. Having projected a loss of £1.6 million (about $2 million) a year ago, the actual loss in the current accounts. It is £1.4 million ($1.8 million). Beattie stressed, as he had done last year, that with losses, the business was in a “strong cash position.”
He said, “Last year, the sport will recall that when UKA published our accounts, we publicized a significant loss to UKA. We also highlighted a strong cash position, giving us time to turn the organization around. With this year’s account now available online, I am providing an update on our progress and a few more details on our journey to financial recovery.
“In December 2023, while highlighting our loss position, we provided some ongoing projections on where our financial path would lead us in the coming financial years. This was important in demonstrating our commitment to the plan, which led us to a recovery position. At the time, we projected for 2023-24 a loss of £1.6m; for 2024-25, a loss of £400k; and around a break-even position in 2025-26.
“As it is, we find ourselves recovering ahead of the projected curve. While clearly there is still much work to do, our anticipated -£1.6m is, in fact -£1.2m. Our -£400k is now expected to be – £250k, and we are still forecasting a breakeven position for 2025-26. This has taken an immense amount of hard work from all involved in the organization, and we continue to work in a way that will safeguard our financial future and that of the sport.
“While many of the measures we took last financial year to reduce outgoings are starting to reap rewards, it won’t be until the next set of results that we shall see the benefit of our groundbreaking partnership with London Marathon Events and Great Run Company – Athletic Ventures – as working with these hugely experienced event partners on our world-renowned Diamond League fixture as well as the staging of Birmingham 2026 European Championships will have a significant impact on our future figures.
“We did, however, highlight several variables in our financial outlook last year, which we remain aware of and continue to monitor closely. These remain relevant and are something all sports face to some degree now. One such variable is our legal costs relating to disciplinary cases. UKA, as with many non-governmental bodies across the funded sports landscape, continues to absorb the legal fees for the essential work undertaken within safeguarding and disciplinary areas. While these are indeed vital aspects of governing a sport, they have also impacted our capacity to support Great Britain and Northern Ireland teams outside of the ring-fenced spending of the World Class Programme monies from UK Sport. [Ring-fenced for the support of elite athletes].
“Last year, we mentioned extreme pressure on the funding for essential development opportunities on the periphery of the lottery-funded World Class Programme (WCP) remit, such as cross-country competition, teams at junior championships, and other non-track championships. We continue to believe those events support our Olympic and Paralympic aims. Still, over the years, these have partly been funded by UKA income outside the WCP, so now we have commenced communicating through our policies which of the upcoming championships will require an element of self-funding. This model will likely continue to grow for the foreseeable future. We thank those athletes and areas of the sport who have continued positive and constructive dialogue with us on moving forward collaboratively.
“Finally, we received the funding award from UK Sport. As with every sport, we hugely rely on the funding award at the start of every Olympic and Paralympic cycle. We ended the Paris cycle with two back-to-back global championships where we secured ten medals, which has never been achieved before. We enter the LA cycle in excellent performance health and must embed ongoing stability in the sport. We hope to continue moving forward with similar levels of support from UK Sport to the past.
We remain alive to these varying challenges and continue to monitor them closely as part of this process. “There remains much to be optimistic about regarding our onward stability and opportunities that will present themselves over the next couple of years. For example, we’ve rebuilt the financial foundation for the sport through solid management and creativity, e.g., through the innovative business collaboration that is Athletic Ventures. This demonstrates responsible decision-making. Without developments like this, we’d have had to be much more drastic – for example, we would have had to consider abandoning events like the London.
Athletics Meet, which we have already rebuilt into the most significant one-day athletics meeting in the world, and where this year Keely Hodgkinson and Matthew Hudson-Smith and many others achieved personal bests just before the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
“At the Olympic Games, ten medals was the best result since 1984 and built on the ten medals in Budapest – our best ever back-to-back World and Olympic Games. Our Paralympic performance was also noteworthy, with 18 medals against the ever-increasing competition, which is the landscape of global parasport now. We are therefore determined that finances will not hamper our positive plans for the future, including European Championships 2026 and future event bids.
“On a broader note, track and field athletics remains the only genuine global sport apart from football. Almost every country sends teams to the World Championships and Olympic Games. Nearly every school worldwide has a sports day and a 100m. Running is booming worldwide, and we are the most open and inclusive sport in the world. We know the British public loves athletics – nine of the top ten BBC Sport Olympic moments were athletics events, and there is a reported spike in the National Lottery ticket sales when athletics is live on TV thanks to our athletes working hard to remind the public of the part they play in their success.
We should acknowledge that our future finance projections are ‘worst-case scenarios’ in that these numbers have no presumed commercial or broadcast income. This means any sponsor or partnerships will immediately improve upon that position. And we will have further commercial opportunities with a dual home championship summer in 2026 with the Glasgow Commonwealth Games and European Athletics Championships in Birmingham 2026, with
Athletic Ventures already helping us expand further into the sponsorship market. “I want to finish by stating a very clear and heartfelt thank you to the National Lottery – echoing the thanks our athletes and para-athletes gave during the Games. We know many good causes are supported by lottery monies in many sectors, but its impact on sports and those competing for their country is phenomenal. Successes such as those in the relay program [GB medalled in all 5 Olympic relays] would not be possible without that investment. Thanks to Nike, who continues to be the most supportive of partners, and BBC TV for showing our product and giving events on their platforms domestically and internationally. And finally, thanks to everyone working, volunteering, and putting their best efforts into athletics across the UK”.
