The Leisure Review: news in brief

Edition number 79; dateline 6 February 2014

Grassroots campaign looks for elite-level support
Increases to charges for local authority pitches have prompted widespread protests at the muddier end of the football pyramid. Under the banner of the Save Grassroots Football campaign, teams across the country boycotted junior league fixtures to highlight the contrast between the wealth of the Premier League and the poverty of the grassroots game. The focal point of the protests was at Camp Hill in Liverpool where the Save Grassroots Football campaign began. Here Kenny Saunders, the campaign founder, pointed out the damage being done by huge increases in charges for pitches, in many cases as high as 300%. The campaign has recognised the financial difficulties of local authorities that are having their central government funding cut but is angry that revenue-raising measures are now forcing clubs and leagues at the very lowest levels of the game to close. The protests have drawn attention to the decline in the contribution made to grassroots football by the Premier League. Having once agreed to give 5% of its broadcast revenue to support the grassroots, the Premier League now gives only 1% of its £5.5 billion income for 2013-16 to the lower levels. Save Grassroots Football is calling for the Premier League to make a 7.5% contribution or face the irreversible decline of the amateur game.

100 years of Thomas
This year is the centenary of the birth of Dylan Thomas, celebrated poet and mythic liver of life. South Wales is preparing to throw itself into a year-long series of events under the Dylan Thomas 100 banner but this series will also include an international programme in North America, India, Australia and Argentina, thanks to the support and enthusiasm of the Welsh government and the British Council Wales. Swansea, described by Thomas as an “ugly, lovely town”, is hoping to tempt visitors from the USA and Bill Clinton is high on the invitation list.

Time for NGB quotas for equality, says Jevans
Debbie Jevans, currently chief executive of England Rugby 2015 and formerly director of sport for London 2012, has spoken in favour of quotas for women in senior positions within sport. Speaking to the Women’s Sports and Fitness Foundation, Jevans explained that although she had previously been against such quotas the failure of sports governing bodies to recognise the importance of representing half the population had encouraged her to change her view. “If you look at the chief executives at national governing bodies, they’re now three less than they were a couple of years ago,” she said. “If you look across the boards of business and sport there isn’t the right percentage of females in my view. If you look at a number of sports where often women are as successful as men, they’re not represented. Why is that?”

HC for ToB
Amid all the news that revolves around life on a bike, the upgrading of the Tour of Britain by cycling’s world governing body, the UCI, may prove to be one of the most significant. While the categories of anything to do with bike racing are notoriously – one might almost say deliberately – complex, the elevation of Britain’s own stage race to HC status (which stands for hors categorie, or ‘beyond categorisation’, which, of course, is the second-highest level of competition) means that the race will attract the bigger names and receive more international coverage. It will also attract the interest of a different category of sponsors and will offer greater opportunities for British Cycling and its partners to promote cycling in all its forms to people around Britain.

Theatre’s biggest names, again
Who is regarded to be the biggest influence in the UK theatre industry by those in the know is a question that comes round annually and is answered by the Stage 100, a list of theatre’s biggest names presented by the theatricals’ publication of choice. Top for the fifth year running is not one but two people: Rosemary Squire and Howard Panter, the wife-and-husband team that runs the Ambassador Theatre Group. The company owns 39 theatres in the UK and was the first British theatre organisation to have its own Broadway venue. The company was bought by private equity group Providence in 2013 for £350 million-plus.

Stadium conversion set for go
Balfour Beatty has been selected to deliver the £154-million conversion of the Olympic Stadium from world-renowned venue designed for a community legacy to the latest outpost of the Premier League. The scheme will reduce seating from 80,000 to 54,000 with moveable seating extending over the running track. UK Athletics will be using the venue as its home for national competition and an adjacent community track will be installed. Five games of the 2015 rugby world cup will be staged at the stadium before West Ham arrive. West Ham will be paying an annual rent of £2.5 million after an initial fee of £15 million.

Top billing for “second-rate” master
The National Gallery will be holding its first exhibition of the works of Veronese later this year and the show, titled Veronese, Magnificence in Renaissance Venice, resonates with the earliest days of the national collection. Although the 16th-century Italian is now recognised as a master, when the National Gallery’s first director, Sir George Eastlake, bought nine of his works in the 1850s some members of parliament were critical of the director spending “an enormous sum” on “a second rate artist”. While mid-19th century art appreciation was dominated by the daring of the impressionists, among artists Veronese’s reputation remained intact. Now Xavier Salomon, curator of the exhibition, is able to describe him as “one of the greatest painters who has ever lived” without fear of ridicule. Veronese, Magnificence in Renaissance Venice opens at the National Gallery on 19 March.

Arts striving to minimise impact of cuts
The application process through which arts organisations can apply to be part of Arts Council England’s national portfolio for the period 2015-18 opened in early January with warnings from ACE that funding can only be confirmed for the first 12 months owing to uncertainty regarding government funding. While public funding for the arts will be reduced in 2015, ACE has been able to avoid large-scale cuts in light of a post-Olympics increase in lottery funding available. Some arts organisations are likely to be funded entirely by lottery money but ACE says that it is confident that the principle of additionality for lottery funding will not be breached. ACE chief executive Alan Davey said, “We must ensure art and culture retain their central place in this country’s way of life and continue to enhance the quality of life for all.”

New name for Tate’s Turbine Hall productions
Tate Modern has signed a sponsorship agreement with Hyundai through which the South Korean car company will support the Turbine Hall commissions for an 11-year period from 2015. Hyundai follows Unilever as Tate Modern’s headline sponsor and the Hyundai deal is Tate Modern’s longest and largest. Tate director Sir Nicholas Serota described the agreement as a landmark partnership and “a great springboard from which other things will grow”.

RFU highlights concussion issues
Concussion in rugby has been the subject of high-profile examinations in recent months following a number of incidents on the field. In response to these incidents and in light of research in the US that has found links between concussion and early-onset dementia in American football players the RFU professional game board is introducing a mandatory concussion education programme for players in the Premiership and the Championship, together with referees, coaches and medics.

Date set for first opening of Olympic park
The southern end of the Olympic park will open to the public in April, according to the London Legacy Development Corporation. The body responsible for development and delivery the post-Games legacy projects in the park described the planned opening as a “huge moment in our vision to create a new heart of east London”. However, ahead of this date the Lee Valley VeloPark will host a meeting of the Revolution track cycling series on 14 and 15 March.

British Museum’s boasts biggest numbers
On Friday 16 August 2013 33,848 people visited the British Museum. This proved to be the busiest day in the museum’s busiest year. In 2013 there were 6.7 million visits, which exceeds the previous record, set in 2008, by 800,000 and beats the 2012 figure by 20%. The museum ascribes the growth in visitor numbers to successful exhibitions, including Life and Death in Pompeii, which attracted some 470,000 people, and a post-Olympics bounce in comparison to 2012 visitor numbers. It is also notable that the proportion of UK visitors has increased, from an overseas/UK ratio of 75/25 in 2012 to almost 60/40 in 2013.

GLL takes over Sporthouse
GLL has acquired Sporthouse Sports Club in Dagenham, the UK's largest sports club and a 2012 London Games training venue, and plans to spend an initial £100,000 on a “facelift” for the facility’s reception, health and fitness changing rooms as well as upgraded studios and new IT systems. The addition of Sporthouse to the GLL stable means that GLL now runs leisure facilities in all six of the original Olympic host boroughs. GLL works in partnership with more than 30 local authorities, managing more than 140 facilities with 450,000 members and 6,000 staff. Sporthouse will join Charlton Lido and Lifestyle Club in South London and the Better Gyms chain as part of GLL’s wholly owned facilities portfolio.

News even briefer

Cally Pool in Islington, north London has reopened following a £350,000 refurbishment to facilities. APSE, the Association for Public Service Excellence, is inviting entries for its annual service awards for local authorities and their public sector partners across the UK; entries need to be received by APSE no later than 14 March. Lewes Leisure Centre has undergone a £160,000 revamp to provide an extended gym and dedicated free weights area for its members. Quality and health and safety specialist Right Directions has achieved the internationally recognised OHSAS 18001 award for its own health and safety procedures. Sensitive Water Solutions are offering a full range of swimming pool and spa water treatment pool plant operators’ courses at Llantrisant Leisure Centre in south Wales during the period 24-27 February. Quest is holding its fourth annual Quest and National Benchmarking Service conference on 27 February at Holywell Park, Loughborough; the event is open to anyone interested in the Quest quality scheme and the NBS, whether they’ve already signed up or are simply considering it.