In tough times, it's more important than ever to get behind sport
The chancellor's recent spending review contained a real-terms cut in funding for culture, media and sport — hardly a surprise, given the enormous pressures bearing down on the public purse. Organisations across these sectors have seen inflation eat away relentlessly at the value of their state funding in recent years. The economies they have had to make are less newsworthy than the effect of inflation on essential services but no less painful.
It is hard to make an argument that sport and the arts should be a high priority when money is tight. But having led various organisations in the sporting sphere, I can attest that without public support most would struggle and many fold, leaving holes in the patchwork quilt of culture that is emblematic of the variety and richness of life in Britain.
It is easy to argue that leisure pursuits should be self-sustaining, that they deserve to fail if their beneficiaries can't find the resources to ensure they break even. This, though, is the path to elitism, and with it a narrow range of available choices for spectators and participants alike.
If you doubt the pressure, reflect on the might of the Premier League. Its dominance of sport's commercial landscape hurts not only football at lower levels but, less noticed though perhaps more significantly, other sporting pursuits and enterprises. Whatever your view of the need for the independent football regulator (I happen not to be in favour), that MPs should feel the need for its creation is a striking indication of the stress felt across football, and by extension sport more widely.
The British public proves the breadth of its sporting tastes whenever big events roll around in the calendar, especially when on its own doorstep. UK Sport has done sterling work with sports governing bodies in persuading successive governments of the social and economic merits of backing bids to host such competitions. In the next year or so, Britain will welcome the Women's Rugby World Cup, Commonwealth Games, European Athletics Championships and a string of other international events from boxing to table tennis, parafencing to figure skating.
Many of these are projects that have been years in the making — the scramble to arrange next year's Commonwealth Games being an exception. The Labour government signed off backing for Glasgow 2026 within its first few weeks in office. This, though, was still a honeymoon period for the new administration, a time in which its leaders might have been thinking fondly of their future places on finish lines in VIP stands rather than the cost of the circus.
Now, governing bodies and cities are looking ahead to hosting opportunities that will require government commitment, albeit for spending in future fiscal years. Sir Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, and a consortium of UK Athletics, London Marathon and Great Run have their eyes on the 2029 World Athletics Championships and are lobbying for a £45 million Treasury contribution. Khan has also declared the capital's ambition to stage another Olympics and Paralympics.
Blink or stall and the UK will miss opportunities such as these. Bid timetables are set and aspirant nations are circling, eager to burnish their image on the global stage. Although it may jar to think of floodlights and footlights right now, committing to the nation's culture would represent a vital investment in our collective wellbeing.
Ed Warner sits on a number of boards and is the author of Sport Inc. He is writing in a personal capacity
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