Would The 2015 World Athletics Championships Come To London?
Head of the UK sport, Simon Morton has told the media that only after Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review would be announced, he would be able to determine whether London could host the 2015 World Athletics Championships.
Amid the huge financial crunch, the UK government has announced to make some crucial cuts in its spending which can also affect it financial support to the sporting activities. With the expectations to face 30 to 40 percent cut on the budget of the UK sport,
Morton said that the championship was something they had identified strategically very important. Expressing his views, he further said that the biggest hindrance on the way to host the event was the availability of required finances. According to him, to
host the championships, London would have to spend ten times of the budget which it had allocated for bidding the 2014 men’s and women’s hockey world cup.
He expressed his desire for being able to put together the required efforts; however, he also acknowledged that everything had to flow from the spending review. According to him, if they could be able to vividly assess the outcomes, they would be in a much
better position to come up with the final decision.
Hugh Robertson, the minister for sports has lamented that with comparatively low funds at his disposal, the government was not likely to underwrite the bid for the 2015 championships.
The UK sport is expected to draw the attention of the authorities that world athletics championships could be easily organized at the 2012 Olympic stadium, as the plans to sustain the stadium as part of British legacy had already been put forward. However,
the potential hole of around 25 million pounds following sponsorships and ticket sales could prove to be the biggest hindrance for obscuring the event. Yet, according to Robertson, there could be no final prediction until the Comprehensive spending review
is announced.
Drawing the attention of the media personnel to an important aspect, Morton said that despite of the utmost strategic importance of organizing the World Athletic Championships, all the bids would lie at the mercy of Osborne, which is undoubtedly the final
authority in this regards. Moreover, he was of the view that there were no imminent chances for a merger of UK sport with Sport England affecting the capacity of the city for organizing major sports events which had been announced by Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary
for Culture last week.
In rather an emphatic tone, he said that just because some changes were to take place, the sports were not going to stop in London. He further stressed upon the fact that to harness the power of London Olympics 2012, there was an immense need to continue
the work for bringing large sports events. Talking in context with the reported merger, he said that it was rather too early to comment upon how the new body would work, however he was hopeful that the functions of the two offices would remain the same and
would not pose any big concern.
Putting light upon the future plans of the sports body after the mergers of the two large sport identities, Morton said that from his perspective they were just pursuing the real priorities in hand. However, as soon they would become aware of the details
of the spending review, they would be in a better position to see how far they could practically go with the list of targets.
“Right now, if there is anything we are looking forward to, it’s the comprehensive spending review” concluded the head of UK sport.
The youth Sport Trust which had been engaged in talks with the department for culture, media and sports to analyze the prospects of making room for it in the new merger, there was an explanation that CSR was not to affect the fundamental goals of the organizations.
Giving their opinion, the independent analysts were of the view that putting everything on the spending view was not the right approach. After all, the whole of the nation was well aware of the financial facts which had been caused by the worst financial crunch
of the times.
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