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IAAF President, Dr. Primo Nebiolo, announced today an important innovation in the structure of the IAAF Grand Prix, the circuit of international meetings organised around the world under the auspices of the IAAF.
Pending IAAF Council approval, the IAAF plans to start a new series of meetings in 1998 called the "IAAF Golden League". In principle, the League will include six of the most successful, existing Grand Prix Meetings: Berlin, Brussels, Monte Carlo, Oslo, Rome and Zurich. All six meetings have confirmed their participation through an agreement reached directly with the IAAF. The meeting in Paris might also be added, making it the seventh in the Golden League.
The League is planned for the two key months of the athletics season, beginning on July 14th with Rome, followed by Oslo (July 16th), Monte Carlo (August 8th), Zurich (August 12th), Brussels (August 28th), Berlin (September 2nd) and Paris (July 29th). The Final will be held in Moscow, as previously scheduled, on September 5th.
The Golden League will have a jackpot of US$ 1 million to be divided equally amongst any athletes winning all of his/her "IAAF Golden League disciplines" and the Grand Prix Final. In the absence of a jackpot winner, the prize of the overall Grand Prix is to be allocated according to the present structure of US$ 200.000 for first place, US$ 100.000 for second place, US$ 50.000 for third place and so on.
Those who break a world record in one of the "IAAF Golden League disciplines" will receive a special bonus of US$ 50.000.
It is expected that a select group of world-class athletes will be offered special promotional agreements for their participation in the Golden League and other initiatives.
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The IAAF President underlined that the philosophy behind this reform would reinforce the concept of prize money while attempting to discontinue the trend of over-inflated appearance fees.
He also emphasized the overall strategy of the IAAF to further improve the quality of the meetings by reducing the television format to no more than two hours.
The President pointed to the historical importance of such eventual changes, saying the League concept demonstrates the strength and unity of World Athletics and the IAAF in light of the existing tendency of many sports to alienate the democratically elected sports leaders from their sport. While still under discussion, the League structure is also intended to maximise the commercial value of the overall league, the meetings themselves, the athletes and the sport in general.
The IAAF thanks UFA Sports who has been a good partner to four of the Golden League meetings over the last four years. Dr. Nebiolo expressed appreciation for what UFA has done to raise the standard of these events in the interest of Athletics.
The IAAF looks forward to continued, excellent working relations with UFA in the future and hopes to be able to collaborate in the interest of our sport.
IAAF
