Fifty Years of Progress 1880-1930

A.A.A. JUBILEE SOUVENIR meeting current expenditure out of income was more deeply ingrained in the Executive of 1888 than in 1928. Fortune has favoured us with good Championship profits, which have levelled up matters, and this tends to show that the driving force in Amateur Athletics is not so much finance as the vast amount of voluntary work which is put in by so many Com– mittees and Sub-Committees for the sake of sport. Leaving this part for a time and going back to the period of years from l 888, we find in I 890 a loss of £48 on the Championships at Birmingham, but the following year, 1891, at Manchester there was a profit of £265, the IO Miles alone bringing in £r22 of this, to be followed in 1892 and I 89 3 by quite good results at both Stamford Bridge and Northampton. INVESTMENTS Between l 89 I and l 896 the financial pos1t1on of the Association improved considerably. The general income was more than sufficient to meet current expenditure, and the Championships were bringing in substantial profits. During that period the Association invested just over £950, as follows:- £504 7s. 9d., 2! per cent. Consols, costing . £500 £236 18s., 3 per cent. Canada, costing £250 £225, G.E. Ry. Stock, costing .£202 It is interesting to note that for two or three years these investments showed an appreciation in value, but then a falling off started, and ·with the tremendous reduction of values consequent upon the war, the Balance Sheet of 1928 showed the same securities standing at £447, a depreciation of rather more than50 per cent. 1900-1908 (OLYMPIC YEAR) In the early years of the present century the work of the Association continued to grow, and in consequence the expenditure increased at a much faster rate than the income. Each year showed the hopeful anticipation of good profits from the Championships, which was only fulfilled to an appreciable extent when held in London. In 1900 the Championships, held in London, showed a profit of £3 5 3, the largest since I 88 I. There was an attendance of 6,800 and no fewer than 4,000 programmes were sold. Nineteen hundred and eight was Olympic Year for London. After the memorable wind-up of the games in the thrilling and exciting Marathon Race on a hot July afternoon, when the crowd was estimated at about 70,000, it was found that the A.A.A. commitments in connection with the games left us £301 on the wrong side. 8