Champagne finale has more cash than dash

On Athletics:It may come as something of a surprise that the champagne finale to the season takes place this weekend, the star-studded, 2.15-million prize-fest known as the World Athletics Final. Second only to the World Championships in terms of its potential as pay dirt for athletes, it was dreamed up by the IAAF five years ago as a way of maintaining the profile of the sport, when clearly that profile was dwindling.

The World Athletics what? you might be thinking, because not only has it failed to catch on, it's clearly one event too many on the athletics calendar.

Yet it epitomises the problem facing the IAAF: they may be cash rich thanks to their all-powerful role within the Olympics, but they'll have to dream up better ideas to maintain big-time interest in athletics outside of the major championships.

At the time the World Athletics Final probably seemed like a good idea, the chance to bring all the leading athletes together for the one weekend, enticed by bags of loot and the promise of a fun weekend in Monte Carlo, home of the IAAF headquarters. When it became clear this wasn't the ideal venue (no one turned up, let alone watched on TV) they moved the event last year to Stuttgart, Germany, a traditional athletics-loving town and again the happy hosts for the next two days.

Practically all events are catered for (36 in all) and the prize-money is not be sniffed at: €21,500 to the winner of each event, €14,300 for second and €8,600 for third, trickling down to 1,400 for eighth place. There's also the usual world-record bonus of $100,000 71,590). Qualification is based on the five best results from previous IAAF meetings, with the top seven (or top 11 for races over 1,500 metres), and one wild card entry, per event invited.

Around 70,000 spectators are expected over the two days, not a bad crowd by any standards, but that's not the problem with the World Athletics Final. It's a case of who really cares. Naturally the top athletes will compete given the financial rewards, but if previous editions are anything to go by, winning seems about as important as a local egg-and-spoon race - and is remembered for about as long.

It also shows up the faults in the whole structure of the competitive track and field season as orchestrated by the IAAF. A World Championships every two years is fine, although that event could easily be reduced from nine days to seven, or possibly even less. What happens outside of that is where things get messy.

Originally there was the IAAF Grand Prix, the highly glamorous circuit where points were accumulated over the summer, and winners announced in each event and overall. (Sonia O'Sullivan was one of those early winners, second overall in 1993, third in 1994 and fourth in 1995.)

To liven that scenario up the Golden League was introduced: originally four meetings where the winners in selected events across each meeting would share the $1-million jackpot. This was then extended to six meetings - the current format of Oslo, Paris, Rome, Zurich, Brussels and Berlin.

This is where the IAAF should be concentrating their efforts. The final Golden League meeting in Berlin last Sunday attracted 70,000 spectators, packed some brilliant athletics into two hours, and ended with only two athletes splitting that jackpot: the American 400-metre runner Sanya Richards and the Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva.

Yet it hardly registered on the world's sports radar - and definitely not on the Irish sports radar. The start of the Rugby World Cup, and of course our All-Ireland football final, didn't help matters, but clearly the IAAF aren't doing enough to give this climax to the season the attention it deserves. For a start all events should be thrown open to the Golden League jackpot.

Despite what some think, athletics maintains a wide following, but no less-than-devoted fan of the sport wants to go too far out of the way to watch it. The money the IAAF are pouring into events like the World Athletics Final would be far better spent improving access to the sport, starting with cost-price terrestrial television coverage.

As things stand, however, the finale to the athletics season is hardly worth talking about. Just ask Paul Hession and Róisín McGettigan. They are the only two Irish athletes starting this weekend but it would hardly bother them if they run or not. The World Athletics Final at least needs a name change.