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AGENDAMatthew Glendinning on the fall-out from the UK coalitiongovernment’s bonfire of the Regional Development Agencies.THE CITY OF MANCHESTER,ranked in the top ten host cities forsport in the 2010 SportBusinessUltimate Sports City awards,will find it tough to maintain itsprestige position now that a keysports funding partner is headingfor the scrap heap.The Northwest RegionalDevelopment Agency (NWDA), oneof nine such regional developmentagencies (RDAs) in England, wasinstrumental in launching themajor events strategy that helpedposition the north-west of Englandas a leading destination for hostingmajor events - with Manchester asits venue hub.Manchester has attracted aprestigious line-up of events inrecent years, including the FINAWorld Swimming Championships,the UCI Track Cycling WorldChampionships, the UEFA CupFinal (all 2008) and, since 2005,the annual Paralympic World Cup.But with the UK’s coalitiongovernment winding down allRDAs by March 2010, fundsfor sports hosting and venueconstruction are sure to contract.The NWDA has already announcedthat all funding will cease foruncommitted (not yet contracted)projects in 2010-11 and thatthere will be no new financialcommitments in the same period.But according to ManchesterCity Councillor Mike Amesbury,executive member for Arts andLeisure, Manchester can still striveto stay ahead of the game. “TheNWDA has been a key partnerand success has bred success, butthings have now moved on,” hetells SportBusiness International.“It’s a different ball gamenow. This age of austerity will bechallenging and we’ll have to workin partnership with the new LocalEnterprise Partnerships (LEPs)scheme which will focus solely onthe Greater Manchester area.”The budget for these LEPswill become clearer when thegovernment announces its ownspending review on October 20,but losing the NWDA budget putsimmediate pressure on majorevents earmarked for the city.“Obviously, the NWDA has beena key partner in terms of leverageUEFA signage adorns Manchester Town Hall in 2008 - Getty Images SportCOUNTING THE COST OF CUTSand funding for the Netball WorldChampionships 2015 bid and we’llhave to work with another partnerand make the economic case forsuch an event,” says Amesbury.“A substantial amount offunding for the Paralympic WorldCup has also come from theNWDA and we are now workinghard behind the scenes to havethe funding up to 2012 [when thecurrent contract runs out].”With the governmentcommitted to an Olympic agendaup to London 2012, it’s conceivablethat central funds will be madeavailable keep the Paralympicevent in Manchester.But, more generally, the city willhave to find other ways to drive asport and culture agenda that hasbeen key to the city’s renaissancein recent years. Amesburyremains bullish about the city’sprospects: “We have the ROWEBritish Grand Prix Squash and theBritish International TaekwondoChampionships this month[September]. We are always lookingto host new events but maybenow we’ll be a bit more relaxedabout commercial partners andsponsorship arrangements.”Across England however, thepicture may be less rosy.Yorkshire Forward, the RDA thatplayed a partnership role with theNational Ice Skating Association(NISA) to bring the EuropeanFigure Skating Championshipsto the Sheffield Arena in 2012, iscommitted to the event.But what about funding forevents similar in stature to the2009-10 Clipper Round the WorldYacht Race hosted by Hull, or the2009 Tour of Britain cycling race,which pedalled off from unheraldedScunthorpe, under the new regime?Likewise, the Advantage WestMidlands RDA was instrumentalin getting Coventry’s Ricoh Arenaoff the ground through a crucialinjection of £5 million five yearsago, without which, the agencysays, the stadium would neverhave been built.Further south, however, thereappears to be less sporting concernover the bonfire of the RDAs. TheLondon Development Agency(LDA)’s senior press officer RobertBeasley admits that criticism of itsproposed abolition has come morefrom the business community thanthe sports sector.“Outside of the Olympic Games,our role has been fairly small insport,” he says. “The Tour de FranceGrand Depart in London in 2007,for example, was only partiallyfunded by us with the majoritycoming from Transport for London.”Yet the London DevelopmentAgency played a key role insupporting the London 2012Olympic bid: it not only committed awhopping £1.2 billion to buy up theland for the Olympic site, but spenta further £17 million on upgrades tothe Crystal Palace Stadium to keepinternational athletics in the pre-Games spotlight in the capital.Beasley points out that London’sMayor Boris Johnson has proposedthat the functions of the LDAshould be rolled into the Mayor’sGreater London Authority. Echoinga familiar refrain country-wide, headds, “the key question then is howmuch money we’ll get.”12 SportBusiness International • No.161 • 10.10