As a national newspaper sports journalist, former colleague of Paul Hayward and fellow Brighton resident, I endorse everything he said about Brighton and Hove's record on sport and sports facilities. I'm sure he was being diplomatic in not being more critical.

As someone who has visited all the Football League towns of England, I cannot think of any town of similar size with worse sports facilities. How can Brighton and Hove be so far behind places such as Guildford, Basingstoke, Southampton, Nottingham, Preston, Sunderland and others?

Brighton's main swimming pool is so poorly managed and depressing I can no longer bear to take my children there. My son and daughter love ice skating but, for all the hard work of the proprietors, the Sussex Square rink is not going to tempt them very often. The city has no rugby club of national standing, no football stadium and a charming but dilapidated cricket ground. The only good news lately is that the racecourse will be staging a race of top quality this flat season.

Imagine a new football stadium, ice rink, permanent home for the basketball team, athletics track, swimming pool and so on, all at the same place. Just a dream but, sometimes, it's nice to dream. Of course money would be a problem, but so was it a problem in all the other cities, at home and abroad, which have sports facilitites that put Brighton to shame.

-Brian Oliver, Sports Editor, The Observer