By Sean Whetstone
UK Athletics are in serious trouble after running up huge losses and are rapidly burning through its cash reserves.
Financial figures released last month show UK Athletics returned a massive £1.8million loss and savings have plummeted from £2.2m to just £430,000 in the space of a year for the 2021/2022 period.
Despite income for the year rising by 40 per cent to £18.1m, the soaring outgoings of £19.6m meant post-tax operating losses of £1.8m, dwarfing the £103,000 deficit reported in UKA’s 2020-21 accounts, which were heavily influenced by the reduced operations brought on by COVID
Since then, UKA has felt the full bite of losing their lucrative £3m-a-year BBC deal in 2020, and it is a source of growing consternation that they no longer have a lead sponsor, though a moderate-scale commercial partner is due to be announced in the new year.
Sources close to UKA claim they would accept a £10m pay off from London Stadium owners LLDC to tear up their onerous 50 year contract which costs the taxpayer millions in subsidy to transform each summer.