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

100 Athletics and television of the ITV action. The future of the entire ITV system was in the melting pot, successful bidders would be expecting to recover their investments and budgets would come under close scrutiny. Viewing figures would become even more important and those programmes and sports that could not command good audiences would be under pressure. Athletics was one of the sports under scrutiny. The climate for a possible renewal of the contract with ITV was, therefore, difficult and unpredictable and at a meeting in late 1988, Bromley announced that, in any renewal, ITV would be interested only in track and field events (perhaps 8 outdoor and 3 indoor events). The opening shot in real contract discussions came in February 1989 when Bromley offered £3m for an extension to December 1992. This represented £1m per year for three summer seasons, less than half the previous contract. He also again made it clear that ITV was interested only in the cream, now defined as 7 outdoor and 3 indoor events, track and field only. They were not interested in cross country, road or the British League and the sport could do what it liked with those. A year earlier, Richard Russell had offered £6.5m for a similar package of events. The negotiations continued against such a background and, eventually, ITV was pushed to make an improved offer that included 8 outdoor and 3 indoor track and field events, the clubs’ cup final, and one cross country and one road racing event. By now, ITV had decided that they could contract beyond the December 1992 watershed (the business had to go on and new franchise holders would have to accept existing commitments) and proposed £8m for a new four year contract. Although this represented a small reduction on the £2.1m per year secured in 1985, with far fewer events to be funded it was a generous offer in the circumstances and owed much to John Bromley’s personal integrity. As the sport’s negotiators, Andy, Malcolm and I were satisfied and relieved and waited for the formal rubber stamping by the ITV board. Then came the bombshell; the ITV board said no. This news was broken to the three of us by Bromley when he took us aside at the end of the first day’s competition of the European Cup in Gateshead on 5 August 1989. This prestigious competition, bringing