Loss making athletics to continue at London Stadium

UK Athletics have been bailed out financially after agreeing on a joint venture with the organisers of the London Marathon and Great North Run in a bid to help it tackle its financial crisis.

It follows UK Athletics reporting a record annual loss of £3.7m in 2023. Most of that deficit was due to the staging of major events including the London Stadium Diamond League event. UKA was awarded up to £150,000 by UK Sport to help stage July’s Diamond League London Stadium meeting last year after it approached the funding agency for help.

Despite being a 50,000 sellout, UKA is reported to have lost between £100,000 and £500,000 from the flagship event at the London Stadium.

Last Summer UK Athletics was forced to pay the BBC to cover Sunday’s Diamond League meeting at the London Stadium in a stark illustration of the financial problems facing the sport.

The BBC have been UK Athletics’ main domestic rights partner for decades, but it is understood that the current contract agreed earlier this year is worth a fraction of the previous deal, which saw the corporation pay £3million-a-year and around £500,000 in production costs.

UK Athletics will again host the loss-making games at the London Stadium this July prompting many to ask why they don’t just move the event to Birmingham.

UK Athletics signed a 50-year agreement with the London Stadium owners in 2013 and 2019n with 39 years remaining of that deal