Athletics in the UK: The Rise and Fall of the BAF

99 Athletics and television An important element in John Bromley’s winning bid was that ITV would broadcast 25 events annually, provided that they were of sufficient quality. This element was something of an illusion as, in reality, many of the events were not likely to attract the viewing numbers that could justify their continued presence in a commercial broadcaster’s schedule. And so it proved and the number of events actually broadcast dwindled so that, in the final year, only 17 were covered. It will also be recalled that, in the first months of the contract, cameras had been pulled from an event in Edinburgh because of unacceptable political advertising and, in the second year, an indoor event had not been screened because of poor quality. The initial relationship with ITV had been bumpy but, nevertheless, personal relationships were good and, in early 1988, Richard Russell (pictured) made overtures for an extension of the contract beyond 1990. This time, ITV was seeking an arrangement to include the IAC in the joint contract and the IAC, through its chairman David Bedford, was agreeable to this. These discussions proceeded extremely amicably and speedily to a point where a very satisfactory contract extension could have been secured. However, the IAC suddenly withdrew from the negotiations and ITV shelved the deal. The reason given by the IAC was that “with the future of one governing body unclear and the real possibility [existing] that [disagreement over] subventions (payments to athletes)....... may put us in direct conflict with the AAA ”. This argument was hard to understand and probably had much to do with internal politics as it will be remembered that 1988 was the year of the “Southern Counties EGM” and David Bedford and Derek Johnson (together the leading forces in the IAC) had been heading the Southern campaign against the AAA and the McAllister plans for the BAF. Probably they thought that their positions would be compromised if they were seen to get into bed with the opposition but, whatever the reasons, a golden opportunity was passed up. Richard Russell had offered a contract extension to 31 December 1992 which was the furthest he could go at that time as all the ITV franchises expired on that date and new bidders were jockeying for pieces