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

46 The home straight? Finally, I proposed that the working capital of the AAA, which was needed to cover ongoing commitments, should be transferred in full to the BAF, that £500,000 of the AAA’s reserves should be retained by the AAA of England and the remainder transferred to BAF as initial capital. As a result of the steps taken after the BAAB’s cash crisis, the finances had been transformed. A combined AAA-BAAB pre-tax loss to September 1987 of more than £200,000 had been converted into a 1988 profit of £463,537, followed by further profits of £1.3 millions and £1.1 millions in 1989 and 1990 respectively. At the end of 1990, combined reserves (held and managed by the AAA) had been built up to close to £2.25 millions and these were expected to rise to about £2.7 million by September 1991, the re-scheduled start date for the BAF. This was a vast improvement on the position three years before but still on the low side to sustain the level of commitments that had been built up. I regarded these funds as having been created by “British Athletics” and that, logically, they should be passed over to the BAF; whilst making suitable provision for the legitimate future needs of the English association. My plan would mean that the BAF would start out with reserves of around £2.2m. Against an annual budget of £2.6m, this was just about enough and something that could be built on. The AAA of England would start off with £500,000 from the AAA plus an expected £100,000 from its merger with the Women’s AAA and its annual outgoings would be covered by a grant from the BAF. What, on the face of it, seemed to me to be fair and reasonable went down very badly with the AAA stalwarts. My proposals for handling future income and outgoings and the transfer of working capital were accepted without dissent but my suggested split of the reserves was described as “daylight robbery” of the AAA. Arthur McAllister stated that “ the AAA has a right to its own money ”. Derek Johnson weighed in and disagreed strongly that “ the AAA should make such a gift to BAF ”. Ken Rickhuss (like myself coming from a business background), on the other hand, felt that it was “ unthinkable to start up a new business without a sound financial base ”. Derek Johnson’s intervention represented one of several “about faces” as, on an earlier occasion, he had written that “ it is important that our clubs, the public and bodies such as the Sport Council understand that