For England and Albion
Final decision to rest with Deputy Prime Minister
Ian Ridley
Sunday March 28, 2004
The Observer
'A provincial city's professional football club is not a national consideration.'
So said Charles Hoile, a government planning inspector, when ruling recently against Brighton & Hove Albion's case for a new stadium. Had the Burnley-supporting Alistair Campbell still been at the centre of political life in this country, it is likely that Mr Hoile would by now have been the recipient of a word, and a flea, in his crass ear.
I mention Burnley because when I were a lad in the early 1960s they captured my imagination. Jimmy Adamson leading them to runners-up in the old First Division and two FA Cup finals; those gorgeous claret- and-blue shirts. And this was a lad growing up on the South Coast.
Without their football club, for what else would the town of Burnley be celebrated? I'm sure letters about famous sons, daughters and Lancashire landmarks will flood in, but otherwise it is now the British National Party's foothold in the place that draws attention. Without the football's club work in the community, odium might well be heaped on the town.
I can still hear the results crackling out of the radio, right the way down to Workington 0, Hartlepools United 0. There was reverence in the tones, the clubs seeming so important, so glamorous even. To a cynical football writer, such a score might tell now of end-of-season, lower-division mediocrity; then it told of epic struggles between northern giants. Who would have thought Hartlepool, its West and its rest united, could have sounded so exotic, save to Peter Mandelson, who serves as its Member of Parliament?
Those results gave a youngster a feel for the landscape and geography of England, provided a stethoscope to check its heartbeat. They were - are - a national ritual, institution and treasure. As is the Football League, no matter the rise of the Premiership.
Tony Blair seemed to recognise as much in the year before his election as Prime Minister. Addressing a football writers' dinner in 1996, he talked of the role of the game in the national fabric, its importance to the country's heritage. After the Thatcher years of opprobrium, it was reassuring. Now you wonder.
Brighton's search for a new 23,000-capacity stadium has been a five-year campaign, costing them £10 million, £2.5m for last year's public inquiry alone. The local council is in favour of the development and 61,500 people in the area have signed a petition for it.
Many more nationally have backed the cause, not just supporters of other clubs but also people such as Sven-Göran Eriksson and Arsène Wenger, along with the FA As was also shown by the football fraternity's concern and backing when Brighton nearly went out of business a few years ago, that does not sound like a provincial concern being of no national interest. Anyway, they do play in a national competition.
The problem for Brighton, currently constrained in the 6,000-capacity Withdean Athletics Stadium, appears to be that their proposed destination of nearby Falmer is within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, being adjacent to the South Downs. Indeed it may be, but it was not considered quite so beautiful when the university was plonked there - its 1960s buildings now in need of renovation - or the A27 dual carriageway ploughed through it.
One, further, ridiculous element of all this is that in two years, the Falmer site is likely to be allocated for development when the adjacent South Downs land is designated a National Park.
Now a final decision rests with the Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, whose own constituency of Hull has recently become the proud possessor of a new stadium.
The Secretary of State has extended the deadline for new evidence until 9 April, Brighton having insisted that the government planning inspector's report was flawed. The Secretary of State can now expect another deluge of correspondence before he decides some time in the next two months.
Actually, he may now be best left to deal with new material from Brighton rebutting the inspector, rather than being inundated simply by emotional arguments. I am sure Mr Prescott understands the local benefits of a club in a new stadium, both to the economy and morale, having attended Hull's new ground. Should he wish to know the national importance he need only tune in to the results, with the profile they give a town or city. Whither Workington now?
Should he wish to understand further the benefits of football's prosperity, he might even cross Whitehall to the Treasury. There, they will be able to tell him how much football contributes to state funds, in income and value added taxes. There is a simple equation: bigger stadium equals bigger crowds equals increased VAT collectable on gate receipts.
Mr Prescott, being of a certain age, will also realise that Brighton - designated the first new city of the Millennium - has a certain national fame, not to say notoriety, via dirty weekends, Graham Greene, Genevieve , Pavilion and piers, and Fatboy Slim.
Not to accord its football club, which has some Premiership potential, the chance to reflect the city's countrywide reputation by building a modern, shining stadium is madness. Without it, according to their chairman Dick Knight, they will 'be condemned to being also-rans or even going out of business' - and that would be a national disgrace.
