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During 23 years with the BBC, and 41 years in journalism (when he was trained to use simple language, avoiding jargon), for our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry, sports stories rarely featured as governing bodies resented his direct journalistic questions, but now this could be about to change with news that another organisation is being set up to remedy a situation of money being meagre in one sport – athletics – which may open it up to proper scrutiny by the media.
It’s another world.
Basic questions are always the best – such as “why have you lost so many matches?” (perhaps this should be aimed at the Wales rugby union captain!).
But this is a long way from the kind of anodyne interviews conducted by my colleagues in sport, who may be more concerned about upsetting sponsors and not being granted access to players after a game.
I clearly remember when I worked for BBC Wales Today (WT) being asked to cover a story for that night’s news about the announcement of the rugby squad for international games, and being despatched to the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) headquarters in Cardiff.
I had the audacity to ask the team captain how they would perform without a star player, and it was not at all welcome.
Throughout I could never understand why players were paid so much, and why there was (and is) such disparity depending on the sport.
Everybody knows (and possibly grumbles) about the vast sums available to certain superstar ones, but it varies massively according to what the game is.
Footballers ‘earn’ huge amounts, rugby players earn far less, although it is still quite a wedge. Snooker players, jockeys, and others are all paid incredible amounts.
Then there is the prize money for winning tournaments in some sports – millions are up for grabs.
Let’s look at the Six Nations first.
Last year the eye-watering sums were:
- Winner – £6 million.
- Runner-up – £3.5 million.
- Third place – £2.5 million.
- Fourth place – £2 million.
- Fifth place – £1.5 million.
- Sixth place – £1 million.
Here are the details of the Welsh Snooker Open (if you can bear them).
Earlier this year the overall prize fund stood at a record high of £550,400, and the winner’s purse remained the same as it was in 2024, when Gary Wilson beat Martin O’Donnell in the final.
The champion got £100,000, and the runner-up, consoled himself with a mere £45,000.
But there is one notable exception in this money-go-round – athletics. So what keeps athletics in the slow lane?
It could be to do with the fact there are fewer opportunities to promote the sport, and its stars.
Whereas most individual sports hold several contests a year, giving athletes a platform and generating content for broadcasters, athletics’ main events (the Olympics and World Championships), provide just three competitions every four years.
In 2010 World Athletics (WA), the sport’s governing body, introduced the Diamond League, comprising 15 meets a year.
But it has struggled: with so many disciplines, each meet contains only a selection of events, and athletes can pick and choose when to compete, meaning the field is sometimes thin.
Without big stars locked in, broadcast revenue is limited – prize money was capped at $10,000 last year.
However this could be about to change (for the worse some might say) as more money becomes available, although they are still unlikely to welcome trouble-making journalists like me!
There is a new kid on the block (or in the blocks!) called Grand Slam Track (GST). It began in Kingston, Jamaica on April 4.
The competition, backed by Winners Alliance (WA) (a sports-rights company) consists of four ‘slams’, mirroring the number in tennis and golf. Its athletes must compete in all four.
“Our biggest innovation is that we put the athletes under contract”, declares the organiser Michael Johnson, so that fans know who will appear.
Four events are intended to provide enough space for narratives to develop, while being a small enough commitment to persuade elite athletes to sign up.
So soon, possibly, we could see the money on offer for winning athletic competitions up there along with that for Welsh snooker.
Unfortunately…
The memories of Phil’s astonishing, decades long award-winning career in journalism (when he always asked the difficult questions everyone wanted raised) as he was gripped by the rare neurological disabling condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in the book ‘A Good Story’. Order it now.
Also on The Eye – how ‘explosive’ and ‘bombshell’ new evidence which casts further doubt on the safety of Lucy Letby’s conviction, has once again highlighted renewed questions about police actions, the enormously important role of Wales, as well as the journalistic background of our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry, who has raised concerns about behaviour by officers on many occasions.
A HAPPY EASTER TO ALL OUR READERS – PASG HAPUS!
