UK Athletics chief executive Jack Buckner believes Birmingham 2026 has been a rollercoaster of highs for British athletics, with breakout stars, strong BBC viewing figures and a ticketing operation he says was "world-class".
Jack Buckner has described the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham as "epic" and says the event has delivered new stars, strong broadcast numbers and a financial outcome that should leave British athletics in a healthier position than when it started.
Speaking just before the final session of the championships, the UK Athletics chief executive said: "We've loved it. I mean it's been absolutely fantastic. We loved doing it."
Asked for his favourite moment, Buckner struggled to settle on just one. "There's been so many, it's just been epic. I mean that women's 800m was different class, obviously. The (4x100m) relays were brilliant, fantastic," he said. "We've had some amazing highs.
"It's been a really weird championship, because it's been a bit of a rollercoaster. There's been these massive highs, which have just been off the chart, but then events like the men's 1500m, which obviously means a lot to me. That men's 10,000m was special. I think there have been a lot of really amazing moments."
Broadcast figures have been a particular source of pride. "Everyone is absolutely delighted with the BBC numbers. I think it's amazing," Buckner said. "I heard it was 3.8m but that was without iPlayer. So they've been talking over four million Friday night, which is really strong and building during the week. So we are absolutely delighted and everyone is buzzing. This is a big sport that cuts through with big stars and that's what we want. We want big heroes and big names doing amazing things."
Amy Hunt's breakout week was singled out as a particular highlight. "Another star emerged here in Amy Hunt, which is fantastic for the sport," Buckner said. "And Keely in a way she's conducted herself and the way she handles herself is a role model. And then you look at all of them in that 4x100m and you just go 'that's what we want this country to be'."
He went further on the wider cut-through those performances have achieved, pointing to Hodgkinson, Hunt, Josh Kerr and Georgia Hunter Bell all featuring in conversations around this year's BBC Sports Personality of the Year award. "It is the heroes that cut through. And I'm a geek so I'm really happy, but you know when you start seeing articles in the wider media it is brilliant," he said.
"I was with my nieces last night and they're going 'Amy's amazing' and they are not track and field. So I think if you do get the icons – and I think Keely is that – I think Amy is that, I think Josh is and I think Georgia might be, they cut through to much bigger audiences. And that makes our sport bigger."
On the financial picture, Buckner was cautiously confident the championships will turn a profit, though he stressed he had not yet seen the final figures. "We should be all right. I mean we work really hard at our budgeting and we have to deliver things on a budget and so yes, we think yes it will," he said. "That said, I haven't seen what's happened in the last few days because there have been a few bumps in the road."
He put the scale of the operation into context by comparing it with recent Commonwealth Games budgets. "The budget for the Commonwealth Games was £600 million when it was in Birmingham (2022). The budget for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games (2026) was £150 million. The budget for this is about £28 million," he explained. "Traditionally these events lose money and with Athletic Ventures we won't. The principle of Athletic Ventures is we get events to be profitable and then this works well and then that allows us to rebuild UK Athletics."
Ticketing had been a source of criticism earlier in the week, with some sessions short of capacity and complaints over pricing, but Buckner defended the overall operation while accepting expectations remain high. "We worked really hard on the tickets, so we did all of that, so through the build-up we did work with schools and we did work with community groups, so I'd say overall we've sold 73% of the tickets," he said.
"I think we've done a world-class job with ticketing, but the expectation in this country is higher than that. So any other country in the world, if they've delivered that result in ticketing, they'd have been jumping up and down with excitement. But our expectations are higher and we're okay with that.
"One of the things, people kind of came and they thought, 'day one Monday we sell out every time' and you know we didn't, but we worked hard to do it and we've sold out the last four days so it's been a world-class ticketing result but we want better."
Buckner also pointed to the marathon's road-running crossover as central to the model behind Athletic Ventures, which combines UK Athletics with London Marathon Events and The Great Run Company. "What we try and do, and I believe we're the first people to do, is bring athletics and running together," he said, citing the thousands of children who ran and watched the marathon in the city on Sunday morning. "So we are integrating athletics and running and participation. No one else is doing that. And that's the vision for Athletic Ventures."
On the future, he says the bid for the 2029 World Championships is naturally exciting, as well as planning for next year's Diamond League in London. "We've got the world champs bid and we want to do a lot more and we think there's an audience for it in this country and we can do that," he said. "We're already thinking about the Diamond League next year and who might we get there and build the rivalries and all that kind of thing."
Reflecting on the broader lessons of staging a major championships in the current climate, Buckner said risk management had become an ever-growing part of the job. "These events come with a huge responsibility now and that responsibility and the risk management of that cuts across everything," he said. "If you'd said two years ago, you need to make sure you're planning for forest fires close to the event, you would have gone 'what?' I'm just so grateful, again, for the last few days we've had the London Marathon and Great Run. I think if we hadn't had them there, we'd have really struggled."
