It is possible that your excitement levels have already peaked into the red zone, with more world cups or championships to follow than any sports fan should have to endure, but before you reach overload make sure you leave a little spare capacity for the world athletics final in Stuttgart this weekend.
What, I hear you cry. Didn't they have their chance in Osaka last month and anyway didn't Sanya Richards and Yelena Isinbayeva split a cool million dollars on Sunday at the end of the Golden League season in Berlin?
Yes is the answer to both questions but they will all be lining up in Germany again this weekend for the end-of-season finale, whose only real significance is to dish out cash to the well-deserving and to a few others fortunate to find themselves competing well at the wrong end of the season. The IAAF reserves the right to install one wildcard entrant in each event but this is rarely used to any interesting effect.
For instance Tyson Gay, the real world champion, is only ranked 11th on the points table at the moment and only the top seven get an automatic invitation. Top is Asafa Powell. You can see where I'm going, but, sorry, no chance. When they race together over 100M it will be for big bucks or in the Olympics. Not to worry — Jaysuma Saidy Ndure, the Gambian now of Norway, will no doubt give Powell a race for about 20 metres.
This is the problem with the season's final event. There's nothing final about it. It has no meaning and even less kudos. Even the $30,000 first prize looks paltry coming one week after the two women mentioned earlier cleaned up to the tune of $500,000 in the Golden League.
You may wonder why the two of them might bother to make the trip to Stuttgart in that case. They do so not because they fancy one more processional victory but because the IAAF had to link its event into the Golden League extravagance by insisting that all athletes eligible for the big prize must turn up at the world athletics final or they forfeit their loot. Still it's nice to know you can compete with the money already in the bank.
It's another reason for the IAAF to bite the bullet and look again at the current structure. The world athletics tour (WAT) is a mystery to all except its instigators. Whenever it is mentioned in conversation it is usually met with its own acronym. The idea that they could reward consistency across the season and tie permit meets, grands prix and super grands prix together would have some merit if the world athletics final was the true culmination of the summer and the big cash was on offer in this final event. Unfortunately, the six-event Golden League series reserves that role for itself and somehow sits within, yet above, the Wat.
In addition, the Golden League has a separate and distinct rights portfolio to offer broadcasters, which has increasingly seen showpiece European events disappear on to minority broadcasting platforms.
The London grand prix and others like Stockholm have benefited in recent years from their independence from the Golden League, because of their ability to negotiate their own commercial deals, and as a model they appear to be the way forward.
There are new faces in the IAAF hierarchy after the latest elections, including Seb Coe, and many are aware that something needs to be changed, and soon. The stadium attendance in Osaka was poor, yet Berlin and Brussels had 45,000 and 70,000 crowds over the weekend. The basic product is still good and despite what some might have you think it retains a high level of popularity. However, its current packaging needs some serious attention.
The world championships themselves are too long and probably too frequent but, in particular, the athletics season needs to have a clearer story to sell to the public and to the media, and with a season finale that has some relevance. This is not a universally held view as some of the Golden League meets would undoubtedly fare less well without being tied to their stronger partners and some are happy to take rights revenues from the highest bidders regardless of market exposure. In addition the IAAF have been so concerned with global expansion in recent years that they have neglected their own traditional commercial and competitive base which is Europe.
However, some rationalisation of the plethora of greatly varying meets needs to occur and quickly, with the Golden League given a makeover, if not a complete facelift with implants. Otherwise this weekend's event will continue to be just another end-of-season pay day struggling to live up to its name.
