North East and Cumbria: Sports funding

Richard Moss Political Correspondent , North East and Cumbria

From jogging giraffes to serious athletes, the Great North Run is the event which tempts thousands of people from the region to don their running shoes.

But there is growing concern that the North may struggle to produce sporting champions on a World stage if more funds don't come to the region.

Runners stream over the Tyne Bridge

The biggest recent blow was the withdrawal of funds for a sporting academy in Tyneside.

£6.5m of lottery money had been earmarked to develop the centre for excellence at the Gateshead International Stadium.

It was destined to be one of nine academies operating alongside the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield.

But whereas some of those have already got their funding, Gateshead has missed the boat.

Sport England says the project could still go ahead some time in the future.

Lottery funding declines

But it says the plans had to go back to the starting blocks because of a decline in lottery ticket sales.

It is true that the amount of money available to sport has been hit by our boredom with Lotto, Thunderball et al.

But others in the region are concerned the North's failure to win funds could be the beginning of a pattern.

They suspect sports officials have their eyes and their wallets trained on a bigger prize, a London Olympics.

Barbara Cassani regards herself as a Londoner

The bid to bring the World's biggest sports event to Britain in 2012 will need large amounts of money over the next few years, and some of our MPs and sports stars fear that will be at the expense of grass roots development in the North East.

Tyne Bridge MP David Clelland thinks the Gateshead decision could mark the beginning of that process.

And supporters of athletics in this part of the World say it will be no use winning the Olympic bid if potential medallists in the regions are let down by a lack of facilities.

It is not all bleak as investment in specialist sports schools like West Gate Community College in Newcastle is helping to nurture stars of the future.

But athletes fear without the help that would have been on offer at a Gateshead sports institute they might not clear the next hurdle, becoming world class performers.

Sport England promises that the area won't be neglected.

And the people behind the London Olympic bid believe it could be the making of British sport in every corner of the country.

But politicians and sports clubs will be watching carefully to see if they will pay the price for the pursuit of the Games.

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