Jack Buckner: “Our plan is on track”

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Despite a loss of around £400,000 at last year’s London Diamond League, UK Athletics’ chief executive adds that the meet can be a profit-driver like Silverstone is in F1

Jack Buckner states that “our plan is on track”, after UK Athletics announced a loss of £1.2m for the financial year up to the end of March 2024.

That’s down from the £3.7m reported last year, with the governing body projecting a loss of £250,000 for next year and a break even position in 2025-2026.

The figures come off the back of Paris 2024 where Great Britain secured 10 Olympic athletics medals – the most since LA 1984 – and 18 in the Paralympics.

“We never like negative results but we’re pleased that our plan is on track,” Buckner, UK Athletics’ chief executive, said. “In fact, we’re slightly ahead of our plan and that’s our intention to keep step by step improving the position of the sport.

“It feels like we’ve got a great performance programme with not just established stars, but really exciting stars for the future –  whether you talk about Phoebe Gill or Louie Hinchcliffe and obviously Keely Hodgkinson, Jake Wightman, Matt Hudson-Smith and Katarina Johnson-Thompson.

“It feels like we’ve got a really exciting team and the success of the relays, so we’re delighted with that and we’re delighted with the way Paris went.”

Buckner also believes that the Diamond League can be “like Silverstone” and a “profit-driver for us”, despite UK Athletics losing £400,000 on it last year and £800,000 when Birmingham held the event in 2022.

Since the Diamond League returned to London last year, the meet – now delivered by Athletics Ventures, which involves UK Athletics, London Marathon Events and The Great Run Company – has sold out on both occasions.

Next year’s edition (July 19, 2025) will be the last Diamond League before the national trials, ahead of a September world championships in Tokyo.

The event will once again be at the London Stadium but discussions are already in place on evolving it for the better.

“In terms of innovation, we are absolutely looking to do that,” Buckner added. “I’m hoping we’ll come out with some innovative ideas and I think we probably all recognise the success of some of those kinds of concepts.

“So yeah, we’re definitely looking at ways of innovating, keeping the heart of it kind of pure and authentic, which we did this year.”

UK Athletics however will not be taking up Michael Johnson’s Grand Slam Track next season.

Grand Slam Track, which has a prize pot of $12.6m and is based off the four Slams you get in tennis or golf, has already attracted some of the biggest athletes in the world, from the likes of Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Josh Kerr to Marileidy Paulino and Kenny Bednarek.

Johnson’s new league begins in Kingston, Jamaica in April next year, with Miami and Los Angeles also staging events.

Buckner states that UK Athletics had really good discussions with Johnson about Grand Slam Track but, for now, they just want to see how it goes.

“We know certain things about it and that seems quite US-centric at the moment, which is fine,” he said. “So I think we’re interested in sustainable, innovative events and we’ll look at all of them. But they need to be viable too. If you don’t get events right, you can lose quite a lot of money quite quickly, which is what happened historically.

“So we will look at all these and see the core of it. Step one, get the Diamond League right. We just think there’s loads of potential in that to become strongly profitable.”

As well as UK Athletics’ immediate focus on the Diamond League, the governing body is also looking at a feasibility study into bidding for either the 2029 or 2031 World Championships. An announcement on the 2029 host city will not be made until 2026.

Buckner also revealed that he wants to better support coaches in the UK, with Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows – who train Hodgkinson and Georgia Bell – receiving a fraction of the £60,000 in funding that top coaches once received.

“I’ve set up a performance coaches’ group that Jenny Meadows sits on and we’re going to meet regularly and just generally try and find ways of supporting coaches better than we have done in the past,” Bucker added.

“I’m really hopeful that that the this group will develop. There are some really good coaches on that and I’d absolutely love to do a lot more for coaches on the whole.”

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