Despite losing around £400,000 on last year’s London Diamond League, the chief executive of UK Athletics adds that the match could be as profitable as Silverstone in F1.
Jack Buckner says “our plan is going in the right direction” after UK Athletics announced a £1.2m loss for the financial year to the end of March 2024.
It’s down Last year £3.7m was reportedand the governing body predicts a loss of £250,000 for next year, and a declining position in 2025-2026.
The figures come on the back of Paris 2024, where Great Britain secured 10 Olympic athletics medals – the most since Los Angeles 1984 – and 18 at the Paralympic Games.
“We never like negative results, but we’re pleased that our plan is right,” said Buckner, UK Athletics’ chief executive continue to improve the position of the sport.
“It feels like we have a great performance program with not just established stars but really exciting stars for the future, whether you’re talking about Phoebe Gill or Louis Hinchcliffe and obviously Keely Hodgkinson, Jake Wightman, Matt Hudson-Smith and Katharina Johnson. – Thompson.
Louis Hinchliffe (Getty)
“It feels like we have a really exciting squad and the transfer success, so we’re delighted with that and happy with the way Paris has gone.”
Buckner also believes the Diamond League could be “similar to Silverstone” and a “profit engine for us”, despite UK Athletics losing £400,000 last year and £800,000 when Birmingham hosted the event in 2022.
Since the Diamond League returned to London last year, the meeting, now run by Athletics Ventures, which includes UK Athletics, London Marathon Events and The Great Run Company, has sold out both times.
Next year’s edition (July 19, 2025) will be the final Diamond League national trials before the World Championships in Tokyo in September.
The event will once again take place at the London Stadium, but discussions are already underway to develop it for the better.
Georgia Bell, Keely Hodgkinson and Gemma Rickey (Getty)
“In terms of innovation, we absolutely strive to do that,” Buckner added. “I hope we come up with innovative ideas, and I think we probably all recognize the success of those kinds of concepts.
“Yeah, we’re definitely looking for ways to innovate to keep the heart of it kind of pure and authentic, which is what we did this year.”
Great Britain Athletics, however, will not be following Michael Johnson’s Grand Slam race next season.
The Grand Slam Track, which has a prize pool of $12.6 million and is based on the four slams you get in tennis or golf, has already attracted some of the biggest athletes in the world, such as Sidney McLaughlin-Levron and Josh Kerr and Kenny Bednarek.
Johnson’s new league will launch in April next year with events in Kingston, Jamaica, Miami and Los Angeles also taking place.
Buckner says UK Athletics has had really good discussions with Johnson about the Grand Slam track, but for now they just want to see how it goes.
Michael Johnson (Grand Slam)
“We know certain things about it, and it seems pretty US-centric at the moment,” he said they also need to be viable. If you don’t treat events correctly, you can lose quite a lot of money pretty quickly, which has happened historically.
“So we’re going to look at it and see what it’s all about. Step one, get the Diamond League right. We just think it has a lot of potential to be very profitable.”
As well as Great Britain Athletics’ immediate focus on the Diamond League, the governing body is also considering a feasibility study to bid for the World Championships in 2029 or 2031. The 2029 host city will not be announced until 2026.
Buckner also revealed he wants to better support trainers in the UK with Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows training Hodgkinson and Georgia Bell. receiving a fraction of the £60,000 funding that top coaches once received.
“I’ve created a group of performance coaches that Jenny Meadows sits on, and we’re going to meet regularly and just generally try to find ways to better support coaches than we’ve done in the past,” Bakker added.
“I really hope this group develops. There are some really good coaches and I would absolutely love to do a lot more for coaches in general.”
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