Nowhere big enough in Bristol to stage Lee Haskins fight
BRISTOLIAN bantamweight boxing champion Lee Haskins, pictured, has been told he cannot defend his European title in his home city – because there is no suitable venue to stage the fight.
His manager Chris Sanigar has hit out at the city's lack of sporting facilities after Haskins was forced to concede home advantage in defence of the title he won in July.
-
Lee Haskins celebrates his win over Stuart Hall at the Hand Arena, Clevedon, but now he'll have to go further afield
Lockleaze-based southpaw Haskins, who beat Darlington's Stuart Hall to win the vacant European Boxing Union (EBU) crown, has been ordered to make his first defence against Belgium's Stephane Jamoye before the end of the year.
But Mr Sanigar, who won a bid to stage the title fight in this country, says he has been unable to find a suitable venue in the Bristol area.
Business Cards From Only £10.95 Delivered www.myprint-247.co.uk
View detailsOur heavyweight cards have FREE UV silk coating, FREE next day delivery & VAT included. Choose from 1000's of pre-designed templates or upload your own artwork. Orders dispatched within 24hrs.
Terms: Visit our site for more products: Business Cards, Compliment Slips, Letterheads, Leaflets, Postcards, Posters & much more. All items are free next day delivery. www.myprint-247.co.uk
Contact: 01858 468192
Valid until: Wednesday, May 22 2013
Despite strenuous efforts to find an indoor arena with seating for 2,000 people, he has now run out of time and the EBU has awarded the fight to the opposition camp, meaning Haskins will have to travel to the Continent to face Jamoye in his own backyard in Liege.
Mr Sanigar said: "Lee Haskins is the first Bristolian ever to win a European boxing championship and it is extremely disappointing he cannot defend his title in his home town. I have searched high and low for a suitable venue ever since I won the right to stage the fight.
"But there is simply nothing in and around Bristol that would be suitable. I've looked at lots of different options, but none that would work for a boxing show of this magnitude."
Haskins won the title at Clevedon Hands Arena Equestrian Centre last summer, appearing as chief support to heavyweight prospect Tyson Fury on a televised show staged by Mr Sanigar and London-based promoter Mick Hennessey.
But it has been impossible to forge an alliance with Mr Hennessey to stage Haskins versus Jamoye, owing to a lack of available TV dates.
Mr Sanigar explained: "We need a TV deal to make a small hall show pay. But there are no dates available and Mick Hennessey cannot help us on this occasion. Without the TV money, we would need to sell close to 3,000 tickets just to break even and an indoor arena of that size simply does not exist in Bristol.
"It is the same old story. This is one of the largest cities in the country, yet we lag behind similar-sized cities in terms of our facilities."
Comments
by FromMendip
Tuesday, October 30 2012, 7:07PM
“And how does Cardiff get all these facilities? From the public purse.
Bristol is one of those cities deemed too wealthy to need help, unlike Merseyside, the Northeast and South Wales (via the Westminster grant to the Wales Government so they can organise giveways like free prescriptions for Wales and pour money into their capital city).
Not only that but Bristol's business rates go into the central government pot and are then resdistributed with Bristol getting less out than it puts in whereas the areas I mentioned above get more out than they put in because of their so-called deserving status.
So Bristol is helping to subsidise cities in these areas to get facilities it hasn't got itself. Liverpool, for example, a few years ago had an arena costing £150 million paid for entirely by the public purse including £50 million from the EU. Bristol couldn't even get the promise of about £10 million to bridge any funding gap in the arena it tried to build because it was deemed too wealthy a city to need such help.
If Bristol was on the opposite bank of the Severn it would have all the facilities that Cardiff has because Bristol's size and history would mean it would be the capital city of Wales and it could then stick its snout into the public gravy train good and proper.
I haven't got recent figures but two or three years ago it was certainly the case that Cardiff received eight times the amount of public money in subsidies and grants than Bristol received and Bristoll is a larger city with more residents.”
by nickthompson
Tuesday, October 30 2012, 4:33PM
“Just pop over the French owned bridge to Cardiff.”
by westywardy
Tuesday, October 30 2012, 3:49PM
“An absolute shambles. years behind Cities that are half the size of Bristol.”
by killermansm
Tuesday, October 30 2012, 2:12PM
“I blame the NIMBYs.
BCC need to sit themselves down and have a debate on how they have disgraced themselves to one of Bristol's sons.
It's not very often that we get a major star from around here, and for a city of this magnitude it is very poor indeed we do not have a venue to showcase our talent.
BCC SORT IT OUT!”
by JJoee
Tuesday, October 30 2012, 1:27PM
“It's ridiculous. I walk past about 20 empty office buildings every day and also a couple of new ones being built yet we have nowhere to watch a big sporting event, or somewhere to watch a band on an arena tour. Sort it out, Bristol or I'm moving to Cardiff.”
by Shas_J
Tuesday, October 30 2012, 11:02AM
“Proof again that Bristol needs a large arena for events like this .... ?!?”
by nogbutt
Tuesday, October 30 2012, 7:44AM
“he should fight on the suspension bridge. not many seats, but the tv companies would show it world-wide... if maybe only for highlights.”