At the time of writing the membership fee of Maidenhead AC does not automatically include the England Athletics athlete registration fee. This often leads to questions from new (and some long-time members) about whether or not they should add this optional extra. There’s a short answer to this question: Yes.
The longer answer requires us to take a couple of steps back and understand a little bit about the governance of athletics in the UK.
What is England Athletics?
England Athletics is our ‘Home Country Athletics Federation’ and the not-for-profit membership and development body for the sport in England. It supports grassroots athletic and running clubs in England, athletics facilities, and domestic competitions at all levels. It supports recruitment, training and retention of coaches, officials, leaders and other volunteers. If you want to know more about how EA fits into the athletics structure in the UK, read this post.
How is England Athletics Funded?
As well as some modest sponsorship (most sponsors are attracted to elite level), there’s three other sources of income for EA.
- Sport England / lottery income. They provide EA with a four-year funding investment to deliver EAs core priorities – particularly clubs and coaching.
- Club affiliation fees. Clubs like ours pay £210 a year to be affiliated to EA.
- Athlete registration fees. Athletes pay £20 per year to be registered.
How is the money spent?
The budget in 2019-20 appeared to be in the region of £7.8m and the three biggest areas of expenditure were:
- Club Support
- Coach & Athlete Development
- Competition & Events
You can read more details about the income & expenditure here.
As you can see, for a sport so widely enjoyed, there’s very little money to support it. Contrast this with other sports like Football, Rugby, Cricket or even Hockey & Cycling and it’s clear to see the disparity and hopefully see why Athlete Registration is so important.
What’s in it for you?
So what do you (and you club) get out of England Athletics? Considering the limited resources, quite a lot! All the training our coaches go through is provided by EA. Yes, we have to pay for the main qualifications courses (although they’re subsidised) but much is free or low-cost and the expertise and experience of those producing and delivering content is impossible to put a value on. Training & qualifications for officials are also provided. You might think this is not a benefit if you don’t do track & field, however you might not know that qualified officials are required for all road & cross country events run under UKA rules as well. As a club we also receive support in many ways from coach support, guidance on issues of governance including legal, health & safety, safeguarding and welfare. In 2019 we participated in the Club Run programme where higher level coaches came for several sessions to help with coach and athlete development. We also recently received a grant towards the cost of the cover for the long jump pit we purchased to keep this clean & safe for our athletes.
At the risk of this starting to sound like the Monty Python “Romans” sketch, apart from the club support, coach & officials support, training & education, governance and legal support, affiliation to EA means that UKA also covers our insurance for all club coaches, officers, athletes and other members as well as any club activities and races including public liability cover. They also organise area, regional and national competitions across track & field, road, cross country and Sporthall for Juniors, Seniors and Schools, in which many of our athletes compete.
Registration Benefits
If you’re not already convinced that registering is the right thing to do ‘for the good of the sport’, here’s a few tangible benefits:
- Discounted entry to any UKA licensed road race
- Partner product & service discounts
- Eligibility to enter county, regional and national competitions
- Eligible for club entry to the London Marathon
- Discounted coaching, leadership & officials qualifications
You can see the full benefits of athlete registration on the EA Website
The fee covers the year from April ’til March, but if you register for the first time ever after January 1st, it covers you for the remainder of the year, and the next. You might be tempted to try to calculate whether you’ll enter enough races with a £2-3 discount to cover the annual fee. After reading this, I’d hope you realise the value is so much more than a race discount.
Value for money?
All that is just £20 (for 2025). Or 5 cups of coffee. One of the aspects comparable to other sports is the ‘race licence’ part. In order to be inclusive, most mass participation road, trail and cross country races do not make a licence compulsory. This is different to most other sports – team sports including rugby, football, hockey & cricket and individual sports such as cycling and triathlon don’t have this option. If you compete at any level, you need a licence. Sometimes that licence is included in club or association membership fees, and sometimes that licence is paid per match/race. Either way, it’s always a lot more than the EA registration fee! Some examples from my brief research:
- English Triathlon: £57 per year or £4-6 per race. In addition to club membership
- British Cycling: min £84 per year or £10-15 per race. In addition to club membership
- Football: e.g. Binfield FC – £210-£380 per season
- Rugby: e.g. Maidenhead RFC – £175 per season
- Hockey: e.g. Maidenhead Hockey Club – £480 per season
So what do you think? Is it worth paying the £20 extra? Should we bundle it in with the membership fee instead?