Club and Member Body Affiliation and Athlete Registration fees: effective from 1 April 2024

We thank our clubs, athletes, coaches, officials, and volunteers for their incredible support, resilience, and passion over the last 12-months.

The process

Following consultation with the Regional Councils through the England Council during the summer, the England Athletics Board have made a decision with respect to athlete registration and club / member body affiliation fees for the year 2024-2025 effective from 1 April 2024.

The affiliation fee for clubs and member bodies has been set at £150 since 2018 whilst at the same time insurance premiums and safeguarding costs have increased significantly. Other costs, such as travel, and venue hire have also risen dramatically in recent years.

In addition to reducing our expenditure in specific areas deemed less of a current priority in line with our strategy the Board has recognised, that with costs continuing to rise, the current fee model is not sustainable. In a recent blog as Chair of England Athletics, I provided my thoughts on this challenge.

Fees for 2024/2025

Therefore, the decision has been made to increase the club and member body affiliation fee to £200 from £150, whilst the athlete registration fee will increase to £19 from £17, effective from 1 April 2024.

Rationale

As a not-for-profit organisation, we will continue to keep overheads to a minimum and ensure that at least 70% of our revenue each year is invested into the direct delivery of our strategic priority areas across the sport, a summary of which are included in a strategy video we launched late last year.

The increase in club affiliation and athlete registration fees will help to support all the benefits which come with membership of England Athletics, but specifically the increasing insurance and safeguarding costs.

• Read about benefits of athlete registration
• Read about benefits of club affiliation

It will also enable us to further invest in licensed competitions, coaches' and officials' development, facilities, road and multi-terrain event support, and other important areas of work.

We are committed to keeping the sport affordable but at the same time remain resolute in our mission to keep our sport safe. Therefore, we will subsidise all safeguarding course costs for renewing officials from 1 April 2024. More details of this support will be available in the coming period.

Despite this fee increase, we remain significantly cheaper than other athletics bodies and sports and have kept the increase in line with inflation over the last 5 years.

We are committed to keeping fee levels as low as possible for as long as possible, as we recognise that at all levels of the sport, bodies are facing challenges with rising costs.

However, to allow us to make positive change whilst retaining low costs, we will need to double our efforts to realise greater levels of commercial investment and revisit alternative ways of generating revenues through the development of new membership offers for those not currently engaged with England Athletics. This will not be an overnight solution.

Future

The Board will set up a group representing a cross-section of member clubs to review the current affiliation and registration model and help ensure the future decisions around fees are fair and equitable relative to club size, type of club / member body, geography and athlete age.

Thanks

We hope you agree that the planned increase is rational and appropriate at this time, and we once again thank you for all your efforts in developing an inclusive sport where everyone belongs and can flourish.

Gary Shaughnessy CBE - Chair of the England Athletics Board
Chris Jones - Chief Executive Officer