A great deal of heat and light is going to be generated in the near future over the proposed Birmingham Sports Village.
It may cost around #300 million, but would also create thousands of jobs and be a massive boost to Birmingham?s sporting prestige.
The only credible reservation is a moral one. Opponents of gambling will baulk at the idea of a massive casino being a part of the project. Without a cash injection of around #117 million from the Las Vegas Sands casino company, the deal would be dead in the water and, even then, it?s still reliant on the Gambling Commission granting a casino licence.
The moral minority should not be ignored. To some, gambling is a blot on society and runs counter to religious principles. Prominent members of the Muslim community who live in the Saltley area ? where the scheme is proposed ? need to be treated sympathetically by Birmingham City Football Club and Birmingham City Council, who would be the principal beneficiaries of the stadium complex. And, yes, Las Vegas Sands aren?t in this one for philanthropic reasons.
It may be that moral issues over gambling will hold sway as the debate among city councillors gathers momentum. Certainly, there seem to be divisions of opinion among key figures on the council about the merits of the casino but they need to look at the bigger picture.
The casino constitutes only five per cent of the whole impressive project. Those who stand to lose out the most from the presence of a casino were canvassed recently by an independent research company ? the ?Not In My Backyard? brigade was significantly few in number.
People living in the Wheels Park area heavily supported the whole project ? only 11 per cent demurred. A mere 12 per cent were against a new stadium and 57 per cent had no complaint with the casino side of the project.
A total of 61 per cent of those canvassed felt the scheme would regenerate the whole area while 78 per cent said they?d use the sports complex.
And so they should. It?s a marvellous project, the perfect platform to attract international athletes preparing for the 2012 Olympic Games in this country and the ideal location for a Commonwealth Games, following in the footsteps of the magnificent City of Manchester Stadium that was such a success a couple of years ago.
The Manchester stadium and the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff have regenerated those two cities and brought long-term employment there. The Birmingham scheme would create about 6,000 jobs and 2,500 new homes.
It would be the only stadium in the country capable of holding football, cricket, athletics and rugby. Blues? fans should know that the football stadium would house 55,000 ? double the capacity of antiquated St Andrew?s.
The massive injection of extra revenue to the club would project Birmingham City into a higher status than it has ever enjoyed since it was founded in 1875.
Look at Manchester City?s marvellous attendances since it moved into the new sporting arena two years ago and check out that club?s recent financial statement as it rebuilds its fortunes on average gates of 44,000.
The National Exhibition Centre is also bidding with a rival casino bid and, after losing the Motor Show and various prestigious rock concerts, it is desperate for a shot in the arm. Yet it would just be an add-on to the NEC, surrounded by car parks and the motorway network. The Wheels Park concept would be a complete regeneration of a 59-acre site with a direct railway line to New Street Station one mile away.
At the moment, Wheels Park is just a massive, contaminated derelict site, no use to anyone. The Sports Village would be a huge public relations coup for Birmingham, building on the excellent, visionary work of the past decade around Broad Street.
The proposed retractable pitch means that within two hours of a pop concert finishing, sport at the highest level can be played on the surface.
The plusses from a retractable roof are also obvious at a time when at last the needs and comfort of the paying public are being monitored more closely.
The city council needs to focus on the benefits to the area of the Sports Village project and apply to the Gaming Commission for the licence.
It would mean guaranteed revenue ?ad infinitum?, without any need for the council to fork out money in the long term, apart from an initial grant. The council will get its cut from expected annual profits of between #3m-5m.
The more partisan Aston Villa fans will say that they?ll do nothing to aid the despised Bluenoses. Well, such tribalism has no part in a visionary plan that will make Brummies proud of their city, irrespective of which football team they support.
Many of us in the local sports media have had our disputes with Birmingham City FC in recent years, with the club at times guilty of crass manipulation of the fans? affections by a concentration on squeezing more and more money out of them while the facilities at St Andrew?s remain archaic. This isn?t the time for a narrow-minded response.
About 84 per cent of the local people favoured the proposed Sports Village. That?s more than double the percentage of voters who have returned Tony Blair to Downing Street in the last three general elections.
As the Americans are fond of saying, it?s a no-brainer, provided the ramifications of having a casino are thought through with sensitivity and due consultation.
Monty finally conquers most durable opponent
Colin Montgomerie?s achievement in winning his eighth Order of Merit is quite remarkable.
You win it by sheer dogged consistency around Europe?s golf courses, month after month. It?s the equivalent to a football team winning the Premiership, when you just can?t argue about the alleged superiority of the runners-up for too long, because the chances are there over a sustained period and if they are spurned, well, that?s tough.
It?s not like getting lucky and winning the FA Cup when you?re on a hot streak. It takes ten months and 25 tournaments to win the Order of Merit. To paraphrase Gary Player, the harder you work at it, the more successful you become.
What?s astonishing about Montgomerie?s latest triumph is that it?s six years since he won his seventh Order of Merit. At the age of 42 he was judged to be on the slide after a marvellous career.
He?s never been one to hide his emotions and his divorce clearly hit him hard. Ice doesn?t run through Montgomerie?s veins and it appeared as if his personal distractions, plus a deteriorating back problem and chronic putting frailties, had conspired to usher him towards an honourable, lucrative career on the Seniors? Tournament.
But he came roaring back to play his usual inspirational part in the last Ryder Cup. He came second to Tiger Woods in the Open, won the Dunhill Links Challenge and came third in the World Matchplay. That?s a mightily impressive body of work for a golfer ten years younger than Montgomerie, who lacked any of the personal baggage that?s dogged him in recent years.
Now he says he?s playing better than ever. He?s probably relishing his psychological revival so much that he offers that opinion. Only he knows if that really is the case. Perhaps he may, after all, win that first elusive major before the inspiration finally fades.
I suspect it won?t now matter to Montgomerie as much as it did in the past. He has conquered his most durable opponent ? himself.
He?s a shoo-in for next year?s Ryder Cup in Ireland where he?ll be as implacable an opponent as ever to the body of golfers and supporters who?ve never really rated him ? the Americans.
Montgomerie's touching renaissance underlines that all the natural talent in the world adds up to little unless you have the steel and ego to utilise it.
Honest Best not in need of our pity
George Best?s latest battle for life has sparked off the usual bout of nostalgia over his utter brilliance as a footballer and his enviable success with the fair sex.
But sympathy for him should not be doled out unreservedly on a trowel for the sound reason that he does not expect or wish it. One of Best?s more attractive traits in later life has been his refusal to seek justification for his self-indulgences, those behavioural defects that will eventually kill him prematurely.
His mother, also an alcoholic, died young, but he has never sought pity, or suggested that her plight was genetically passed on to him and that he was therefore never in a position to resist the lure of alcohol.
He has always known what he was about, a fact that has been confirmed in countless interviews down the years, including a couple with this columnist.
Perhaps those who are beating the breast about Best?s inexorable slide are bemoaning their own lost youth, tapping into an era when life seemed more na?ve, enjoyable and optimistic.
The man in question certainly lived out all our fantasies and good luck to him. He also entranced us with his magical ability as a footballer.
He also had a nice line in self-deprecation.
He once quipped, ?I reckon I spent fifty per cent of my money on booze, forty per cent on the birds ? and the rest I wasted?.
So one man who won?t be bemoaning his luck is someone who knows George Best intimately. Himself.
Chairmen's turn to manage nicely
Today sees a significant milestone in the history of Premiership football. If none of the 20 managers is sacked in the next 24 hours, this season will be the longest without one getting the boot.
At last the chairmen seem to be getting the message, that tapping-up of managers of other clubs and responding in knee-jerk fashion to poor results is dim. Mercifully, things have calmed down since Sir Bobby Robson was sacked by Newcastle United after three Premiership matches last season.
In the first year of the Premiership, Peter Reid was axed by Manchester City after a mere six matches ? City were fifth at the time. They?d have been putting out bunting all over Moss Side since then if the team had reached those dizzy heights.
The likes of Alan Pardew have rewarded their directors by sticking to the task, turning around the team?s fortunes and sticking to their beliefs.
Why do you think Wigan are doing so well this season? Because the chairman, Dave Whelan, knows he?s very lucky to have a manager of Paul Jewell?s calibre.
Get the right man in and stick by him. Forget the diatribe on the phone-ins. Go down to the training ground and see how the manager?s coping. That?s where he earns his handsome salary.
Could the first Premiership manager to leave this season be Sir Alex Ferguson? The gleeful cackling from the neutrals would be heard all the way to Malcolm Glazer?s condominium. Stranger things have happened in football.
