ASC Chair calls for athletics bodies to merge

Australian Sports Commission (ASC) Chair John Wylie has expressed his disappointment that athletics' two national governing bodies have failed to merge.

Following negotiations that dragged on for nine months last year, the Athletics Australia (AA) board voted to combine with Little Athletics Australia (LAA), only to be rebuffed by the junior body.

The inability to come together cost the sport $2 million in transitional funding from the ASC.

Speaking at the release of the ASC's annual Sports Tally report on Thursday (3rd April), Wylie said he remained convinced track and field's two bodies needed to merge for the greater good following a period in which the spot has experienced one of the worst drop-off levels in Australian sport with juniors not progressing to senior level.

Wylie stated "we also think this holds back the potential for commercial sponsorship revenue for the sport

"We see that all the time where major organisations come to us and say `we want to sponsor a sport but we want to have a vertical sponsorship where we're sponsoring all the way through from grassroots levels'.

"The world is moving on and athletics in Australia needs to get with the program.

"Athletics Australia has demonstrated its commitment to being part of a merged organisation and we'd very much like the leadership of Little Athletics to take a broader view of what's best for the sport in this country."

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10th October 2011 - LITTLE ATHLETICS AUSTRALIA AND ATHLETICS AUSTRALIA MAKE HISTORY 

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