Johnson's £100,000 fee is a non-starter

David Bond, Deputy Political Editor @djbond6873

13 April 2012

Michael Johnson's plans to say farewell to British athletics fans at Crystal Palace this summer have fallen through after organisers told the American star: "You're not worth it".

The Olympic 400 metres champion and world record holder offered to end his four-year British exile at the Norwich Union British Grand Prix at Crystal Palace in July.

But promoters Fast Track turned his offer down after Johnson, who retires at the Goodwill Games in Brisbane in September, demanded a £100,000 fee to run in a specially-arranged 300m or 400m relay.

Alan Pascoe, Fast Track's chairman, said: "The meeting is bigger than any individual athlete including Michael Johnson.

"We have been steadfast in our view that there's no hiding place in this Grand Prix. We have got to have genuine distances, genuine events and genuine results

"If Michael Johnson is prepared to come and put his head on the line in a 400m against Britain's top stars and the rest of the top people in the world then fine. But we are certainly not going to fund a fly-past."

Johnson has not raced in Britain since the 1997 Grand Prix where he suffered one of his rare competitive defeats.

He has refused to run here since the British Athletic Federation, organisers of the meeting, went into administration within two months of the race with debts to athletes totalling more than £1 million. Johnson was one of the organisation's biggest creditors.

Since then, the sport in Britain has resolved its financial problems with the establishment of a new governing body, UK Athletics, and by giving responsibility for arranging meetings to Fast Track.

Prize money is now the highest in the world with £500,000 set aside for winners and record breakers.

Pascoe says the changes have allowed the Norwich Union British Grand Prix to re-establish itself as one of the top three meetings in world athletics.

He added: "One of the reasons we have done that is because we pay a lot less in appearance money than the other meetings.

"We base our payments on results and that ensures we get top-class competitive athletics."

This year's Grand Prix, the last major meeting in this country before the World Championships in Edmonton, Canada, in August, takes place on the evening of Sunday 22 July.

Promoters hope it will evoke memories of the glory nights of the Seventies and Eighties when the Palace meeting was one of the highlights of the British sporting summer.

Pascoe had to battle to find a suitable date and travelled to the International Amateur Athletic Federation's Monte Carlo headquarters three times in the last few weeks to finalise the meeting's place in their international calendar.

The BBC are televising it live following coverage of the third day of the British Open.

Those spectators at Crystal Palace who want to keep an eye on the golf will be able to follow events as they unfold on two giant video screens before turning their attention to the evening's athletics.

To help ease travel worries, there will be free car parking for spectators.

Already one fifth of tickets have been sold to fans who attended last year's meeting and promoters are urging anyone who might want to go to book early.

Pascoe added: "It is going to be a super Sunday of athletics which has now joined or in some people's minds rejoined the elite meetings of the world.

"This meeting can now be mentioned in the same breath as Zurich and Brussels, not only in terms of athletics and the stars who turn out, but also in the way it's presented to the crowd.

"It is also very important to British athletes who love competing in front of their home crowd and this will be their last chance before the World Championships. This Grand Prix is now a key fixture for London in the British sporting summer."

Tickets for the meeting are available by telephoning 0870 4444440

MORE ABOUT

Brisbane

Johnson's £100,000 fee is a non-starter

Read More