Australian Sports Commission Offers $2M For Long-Desired Merger Of Athletics Bodies

The Australian Sports Commission is dangling a A$2M ($2.05M) "carrot in front of athletics to encourage a long-desired merger between Athletics Australia and Little Athletics Australia, the two leading bodies for the sport," according to Nicole Jeffery of THE AUSTRALIAN. The division of the sport between AA (which runs the elite end) and LAA (which has 100,000 junior athletes on its books) "has long been regarded as a handicap to development of the sport, but the two have struggled to find common ground." However, with the ASC's support, they announced Thursday that "they had started a review into a potential merger." ASC Chair John Wylie "has pledged a one-off investment of $2M 'in recognition of the integration costs'" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 5/3).