Why Britain lags behind France in sport

[Gwylan]

Just looking at Cholet, where yesterday's stage of the Tour de France finished.

Here's an example of the facilities: "Cholet has invested in modern, state of-the-art infrastructures, such as the Glissé center which combines 2 skating rinks and 8 recreational pools."

This in a place of 200,000 inhabitants, smaller than Brighton & Hove. Is it any wonder that France beats the UK in just about any sport going except, paradoxically, cycling?

Meanwhile, in Brighton, we're still waiting for the ice-rink that was promised us in the mid-60s and two pools.

 

[Simster]

Meanwhile, in Brighton, we're still waiting for the ice-rink that was promised us in the mid-60s and two pools.

and a stadium. And an alternative to King Alfreds. And lets gloss over the fact that the traffic is shithouse in Brighton.

And yet Brighton residents on here still have the cheek to sneer at somewhere like Crawley, home of one of the only Olympic sized swimming pools in the country, and the biggest stadium in the county.

 

[turienzo's lovechild]

and the biggest stadium in the county.

withdean actually holds more

(from football ground guide)

Ground Name: Withdean Stadium
Capacity: 8,850 (all seated)

Ground Name: Broadfield Stadium
Capacity: 4,996 (1,150 Seated)

and also

Ground Name: Priory Lane
Capacity: 5,644 (542 Seats)

 

[Simster]

Oh.

However Withdean IS shithouse.

 

[Tooting Gull]

I've lived in France, and noticed much the same. And I think maybe it's to do with a completely different attitude to leisure facilities. Most of their sports facilities are publicly provided, a lot of ours are still in private clubs.

I noticed it particularly in tennis. There were decent, free (or very cheap) courts everywhere, accessible to all. No joining/membership fee, no snooty rules.

 

[User removed 4]

and a stadium. And an alternative to King Alfreds. And lets gloss over the fact that the traffic is shithouse in Brighton.

And yet Brighton residents on here still have the cheek to sneer at somewhere like Crawley, home of one of the only Olympic sized swimming pools in the country, and the biggest stadium in the county.

id rather be a lampost in brighton than the mayor of crawley!

 

[Il Duce]

Utter crap.

We may not have the best facilities but it's not like that in every French town. Anyway, I wasn't sure that France were better than us at most sports. Rugby Union? Rugby League? Athletics? Boxing? Swimming? Golf? Cricket? Snooker? Darts? Motor Racing? Riding? Shooting? Sailing? Rowing? In a couple of years we can add tennis and football to sports we're better than them at.

And what about our stadia. Paris has nothing that can compete with Wembley, Twickers, Emirates, the O2, etc etc. Part of the reason we won the Olympics. Plus, come 2012, we'll be even further ahead.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

I've lived in France, and noticed much the same. And I think maybe it's to do with a completely different attitude to leisure facilities. Most of their sports facilities are publicly provided, a lot of ours are still in private clubs.

I noticed it particularly in tennis. There were decent, free (or very cheap) courts everywhere, accessible to all. No joining/membership fee, no snooty rules.

To be fair we have a number of publically owned, fairly decent, tennis courts in Brighton - Ditchling Road, Preston Park and Hove Park to name but three sets of courts.

 

[Gwylan]

What shocks me most about this is that Cholet is a no-mark of a place with no pretensions to be the leisure centre of France. Yet it pisses over Brighton which has high claims to be one of the leading leisure/tourist destinations of the UK.

Shows what you get from a country that isn't afraid of public spending

 

[Simster]

id rather be a lampost in brighton than the mayor of crawley!

You're not alone. I don't live in Crawley but it gets unreasonably bad press on here. It has improved no-end in the past 15 years and is not a bad place to live near. There are too many chavs of course, but it's a small price to pay.

Shows what you get from a country that isn't afraid of public spending

I tend to agree with Il Duce. I think it shows more just how overrated Brighton is. Plenty of small towns in this country are reasonably well served for sports facilities.

 

[User removed 4]

You're not alone. I don't live in Crawley but it gets unreasonably bad press on here. It has improved no-end in the past 15 years and is not a bad place to live near. There are too many chavs of course, but it's a small price to pay.

Ive got to admit i dont really know the place

 

[Trigger]

Because it rewards failure... Oh look a Britain made the QFs at Wimbledon, didn't he do well, let's give him an MBE and Sports Personality of the Year... Well, erm, hang on, he didn't actually win anything... Oh but didn't he do well...

CROCK OF SHIT.

 

[Race]

we are far better at sports than the garlic munchers. and they're women have hairy pits!

 

[London Calling]

i HAVE HEARD THE FOLLOWING TWO CLASSICS DURING OUR BIDDING FOR THE OLYMPICS:

1. Paris had more 50m swimming pools than the whole of the UK and
2. Paris has more tennis courts than the whole of the uK.

I was in Annecy a few years back it had, a tourist town about 50,000 population.

An Olympic standard Ice Rink,

Olympic standard swiming pool plus, 2 other pools. plus other lake pools, cycling routes around the lakes etc.

Sports facilities everywhere and a heathier looking population?

My sense is we leave sports facilities to the private sector now whilst:

the Nordic countries, Germany, France see it a a public provision.

 

[Race]

they've got the room to build them!

 

[Gwylan]

Utter crap.

We may not have the best facilities but it's not like that in every French town. Anyway, I wasn't sure that France were better than us at most sports. Rugby Union? Rugby League? Athletics? Boxing? Swimming? Golf? Cricket? Snooker? Darts? Motor Racing? Riding? Shooting? Sailing? Rowing? In a couple of years we can add tennis and football to sports we're better than them at.

I remember being on holiday in Montpellier about 15 years ago and wanted to go swimming - there were 9 pools to choose from (this in a place not much bigger than Brighton) and this in a place not that much bigger than us. And that's before there was a big investment in sporting facilities.

And as for France not being better than us: apart from football and tennis where they're clearly superior, they won more medals than Britain at the last swimming world championships, they won more medals (and gold medals) at the last two Olympics - a lot of the sports you mentioned are not really popular in France so it's not really fair to make a comparison.

Cycling is the obvious exception and a glorious one. Rowing is another one but as that's not a big French sport either, it's not quite such a glorious exception.

 

[cheeseroll]

They've beaten us at every Olympics in the last 20 years.
They've won the World Cup once and Euro's twice in the last 20 years.
They've won the 5/6 nations 9 times to England's 7 times in the last 20 years though we did win the Rugby world cup once and both France and England lost the final twice.
We'd better not mention Tennis..

The French are better than us at sport it seems. Time for us to wake up as a sporting nation.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

I don't think the authorities can win this one whatever they do.

As it is currently we have a lack of facilities because they are privately owned and the owners need / want to make a profit.

If they were provided by the council ( as in France etc ) then it would come out of tax - something the British have an aversion to paying. Just look at the uproar about the council funding cycle lanes in Brighton currently.

If you don't play, say Tennis, do you want your council tax paying for the upkeep of numerous council owned courts ?

Rock and a hard place me thinks and it comes down to priorities. If we want a low(ish) tax regiume then we have to accept that we will go without on some fronts.

 

[CHAPPERS]

Beer and kebabs and that innit i reckon.

 

[warsaw]

Was down by the Pyrenees a few weeks ago and it is very noticeable that even the smallest villages appear to have decent facilities, floodlit football pitches tennis courts, and areas for boules. And instead of hanging around in threatening groups on street corners the local kids were using these facilities.
In contrast, kids in the UK complain they have nowhere to go.

Perhaps the French have these facilities because each village has a figurehead in the form of a Mayor who has the power to get things done rather than the remote District and County Councils that we have?