View from the sidelines

Paul Hayward, the Brighton-born chief sports writer at the Daily Telegraph, explains why the success of teams throughout Sussex relies on the will of politicians. And where better to start than by sanctioning a community stadium at Falmer which would fill a sporting void and kick the city's "feeble sporting reputation" into touch.

Spot the symbolism in Brighton and Hove Albion's back-to-back wins over Reading and Huddersfield this season.

Both those clubs play in glorious modern stadiums that can house 24,000 spectators.

Imagine how mighty the Seagulls will be when they are no longer shoehorned into those 6,960 seats at Withdean.

The life of the mind: No problem, the city by the sea will take care of you.

But what of the body? What about organised games? Fifteen years of covering national and international sport for a living has convinced me that my home town is a comparative wasteland for sport.

Reputation

The Albion's rebirth is a great wave cresting through the community. There is now an urgent need to ride that surf and rebuild the area's feeble sporting reputation.

Trust me. Experts in other parts of the country assume our city is a monoculture of politics and the arts.

Where, they ask, is an appreciation of sport's life-affirming powers? Where is the arena, the infrastructure, the official recognition of the value of sport in shaping the health and characters of children?

This is not a propaganda exercise for a community stadium at Falmer, though Heaven knows Brighton and Hove will never be whole until it possesses the kind of gleaming cathedral inhabited by Huddersfield, Reading and Stoke, all jostling to stop the Albion marching to a second successive promotion.

By now it ought to be obvious that the club has the power to drag sport across Sussex into a higher league. Tennis, rugby, basketball, cricket, golf and hockey can all benefit.

Councillor Ken Bodfish's declaration of support for the Falmer project last week was a significant political act. The Seagulls are now too successful and popular to ignore.

When the sold-out signs go up at Withdean and streams of supporters are turned away, we are entitled to wonder how our football club was ever allowed to drift so close to the brink.

Legacy

For too long in Brighton, there was a stink of cultural elitism, a state of mind, a blind spot, which left a legacy of neglect and under-investment in sport.

Politicians were too slow to realise that the Albion embodied a 100-year tradition that was established long before the town decided to become a metropolis. And now history is unlikely to forgive anyone who fails to recognise that the club's surge back to life presents an opportunity to add to the lustre of England's most engaging seaside city.

Those Reading and Huddersfield results felt like a turning point. So did Coun Bodfish's remarks.

So did a recent forum at Brighton College headlined The Sporting City. There, sport's voice was heard. Council leaders were taken aback by the strength of feeling from football, hockey, cricket and rugby.

Culture bid

Guess what. The message got through. There is already talk of Brighton and Hove's European City of Culture bid for 2008 placing a greater emphasis on exercise and games.

Without a strong portfolio for sport, that bid is surely doomed. The council can start by doing everything in its power to halt the sale of Varndean College playing fields for housing development.

According to campaigners there, our city already has less than half the national average of playing field acreage.

But back to Brighton College's excellent forum, where Geoffrey Dennis, development officer for Brighton and Hove Hockey Club, begged the council for help in finding a site on which he can build a £60,000 artificial grass pitch for his 300 members.

"We've been struggling for years to find a site," he said.

On the same night, Dick Knight, the Albion chairman, stirringly said: "Football is a community thing and for 100 years the club itself has been a vibrant part of the culture of Brighton and Hove, binding people together.

"The people rose up to save the club. I was one of those people."

Of the huge increase in media exposure which followed the Albion's first trophy in 36 years, the Third Division championship, Knight said: "It's good for the club, good for the supporters and good for the city."

My aim is not to preach about the community stadium project (though Heaven knows I could). It is to argue the case for sport and to urge our politicians not to regard the redevelopment of the King Alfred centre as a good place to stop.

Mike Middleton, lead councillor for leisure, recreation and open spaces, needs to be given more clout.

The local authority has been generous in its support for the Brighton Bears, who attract sell-out crowds to the Brighton Centre, and to Hove Rugby Club, who were given space to play in Hove Park.

But now the city needs a strategy, an investment programme, more faith in the spiritual power of sport.

Space is a problem. Of course it is. But so is the anti-sport mentality that has done so much harm.

Sporting tradition

This city houses the oldest county cricket club in England (Sussex were founded in 1839), whose chairman, Don Trangmar, reminded the Brighton College audience: "Competitive sport is not an ill, it's a virtue."

He also said: "The first time the local authority ever mentioned the cricket club was when it launched the city status bid and suddenly we got talking. I do believe the local authority could be a little more dynamic."

Resident here also is a resurgent Brighton racecourse, on which £4 million has been spent (attendances have consequently doubled); two good rugby outfits and the Brighton Health & Racquet Club, where many promising young tennis players are trained.

At the forum, Coun Bodfish said: "I accept that it's not as good as it could be. It can only be as good as it should be if people work with us. Do we value sport? Yes. Do we do enough? No. But assume good faith from us."

The most moving testimony came from Jill Clough, principal at East Brighton College of Media Arts, a previous educational black spot.

To a rapt audience, she said: "I couldn't believe more in the link between sport and attainment. A lot of my pupils are small, they're malnourished. We need strong role models. I have got an environment that is dying for input from sport."

Sport England and UK Sport have warned that a million fewer people could be playing sport by 2006 and called that statistic "a time-bomb" for the NHS.

With the Albion leading the way, Brighton and Hove has a chance to buck that trend. Right here, right now, as Fatboy Slim would say.

Paul Hayward received no fee for this article.