13th November 2024
IAN BEATTIE STATEMENT – FINANCIAL UPDATE
UKA Chair Ian Beattie has issued the following statement providing an update on UKA’s finances:
Last year the sport will recall when UKA published our accounts we publicised a significant loss to UKA. At that time, we also highlighted a strong cash position which would provide us with the necessary time to turn the organisation round.
With this year’s account now available online, I am providing an update on our progress so far and a few more details on our journey to financial recovery.
In December 2023 whilst highlighting our loss position, we provided some ongoing projections to where our financial path would lead us in the coming financial years. This was important in demonstrating our commitment to the plan that would lead 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. Whilst 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 at the organisation and we continue to work in a way that will safeguard our and the sport’s financial future.
Whilst 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 will have a significant impact on our future figures.
We did however highlight last year a number of variables in our financial outlook which we remain aware of and continue to monitor closely. And these remain relevant and something all sports face to some degree at this time.
One such variable is our legal costs relating to disciplinary cases – UKA as with many NGBs across the funded sport landscape continue to absorb the legal costs of the essential work undertaken within safeguarding and disciplinary areas. Whilst these are indeed vital aspects of governing a sport, it has impacted our capacity to support GB & NI teams outside of the ring-fenced spend of the World Class Programme monies from UK Sport.
Last year we mentioned extreme pressure on the funding for important development opportunities that sit 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, but over the years these have partly been supported 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 is likely to continue to grow for the foreseeable future and we thank those athletes and areas of the sport that have continued to have positive and constructive dialogue with us on how to move forward collaboratively.
Finally – the funding award we receive from UK Sport. As with every sport we are hugely reliant on the funding award made 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, something which has never been achieved before. We enter the LA cycle in excellent performance health, and it is important we embed ongoing stability in the sport, and 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.
As it is, there remains much to be positive about in terms of 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 also 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 biggest 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 themselves, 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 that is the landscape of global para sport 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 wider note, track and field athletics remains the only true global sport apart from football. Almost every country sends teams to the World championships and Olympic games. Almost every school in the world has a sports day and a 100m. Running is currently booming around the world, 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 all of our future finance projections are ‘worst case scenarios’ in that there is no presumed commercial or broadcast income with these numbers. 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 there are many good causes supported by lottery monies in many sectors, but its impact upon sport and those competing for their country is simply phenomenal. Successes such as those in the relay programme would not be possible without that investment. Thanks to Nike who continue to be the most supportive of partners, and BBC for showing our product and giving events their platforms both domestically and internationally. And finally, thanks to everyone working, volunteering and putting their best efforts into athletics across the UK.
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