i wish i was a little bit taller

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times....

After meeting with BoJo's people this week, there is a lot of hope for the future of basketball in the city of London and how it can be better used by at-risk youths as well looking at ways to funnel good players toward the elite level without having to leave the country. Facilities, were at the core of the talks as was funds and participation. London has good intentions but is light years behind other major cities and with the Olympics looming we can only hope that the grassroots portion of sport isn't ignored.

One of the main problems is the bureaucratic nightmare that restricts what city hall can do. In London there are 33, basically, autonomous boroughs, and each delegates its funds (mostly generated from 'council tax') as they see fit. Sport will receive a certain portion of this money usually in the form of 'leisure centres' (basically slightly cheaper health clubs for adults with a few activities for schools), but there hasn't been a push to make affordable centres for kids. The boroughs also have money put aside annually for grants toward organizations or club teams who they feel make a difference in the community, however this normally hovers around a paltry £150,000 for the entire borough for the year. 

The mayor's office (quick fact, surprising enough the post 'mayor of london' has only existed for 12 years, hence the power of the boroughs) has quite a bit of resources and they've just delegated £15 million for 3 years towards finding ways to increase participation in sport with basketball, tennis, judo and athletics being a focus. However to actually build new facilities or reduce costs of current ones they have to negotiate with individual boroughs who often feel resources and time are better spent elsewhere. Hence, oftentimes, they are left with hands tied forced to search for other solutions.

In contrast, Los Angeles, where I grew up hoping to be the next Bo Jackson and Magic Johson there are facilities throughout the city called Park and Recreation centres (possibly 40 in the city). These centres are youth and family based, with open gym time, field time for kids under 16 and the option to sign up for leagues in various sports at a small fee. The courts and fields are also open to anyone else who wants to use them free of charge during weekends or nights. These centres are funded and run by the city and become hubs for the community. An example http://friendsofexpo.org/expocenter.html

Park and Rec facilities are mostly financed through property tax (generating $30 million a year) and tobacco tax. The city has long ago seen the benefit of proper low cost facilities. E.g. If you build it they will come! Americans do a lot of things wrong and Europeans love to point that out, but one of the things Americans do very right is the understanding that small resources doesn't mean that sports centres can't be funded. Because ultimately you have to spend the money one way or another, so it might as well be beneficially and preemptively used.

Despite the difficulties in London there has  been a recent push amongst the people who understand the dilemma to open sports centres for youths and anyone else who wants to use them at very little cost. The flagship (and only one of its kind) is the Lilian Baylis centre in Kenington, a derelict school gutted and refurbished with football field, tennis courts, boxing gym, and basketball courts and well as a technology suite. Initially funded almost entirely by private donors. Recently there was even a study overseen by a Belgian think-tank to surmise the benefit of this new sports centre. They figured out that for every pound spend you receive 8 in return, through lower police costs, lower strain on health services and general happiness of the community. Seems logical enough to you and me, not sure we needed a study to show us that, but the local borough did, and not until they saw this study did they decide to help fund the upkeep of the centre.

So there we are, London seems to be stuck between a rock and hard place. Beauracracy running rampant while we contine to pay £40 for an hour to use a court. Of course, there are lots of good people on the job who want to see changes but the process is slow and space is limited. The battle rages.