"Do you get it now?"

When it comes to the World Student Games it is very clear that Ernest Hooker (Star, Monday 16), does not understand the difference between funding a special event and a long-term capital investment for the benefit of the people of Sheffield and the economic regeneration of our City.

Well for his information and all those who think similarly, the World Student was a major event attracted to Sheffield to launch the city’s long-term regeneration plans. It was an event which attracted almost 5,000 athletes and officials for 10 days at a cost to Sheffield Council of £10.2 million which was paid for out of reserves in 1993 and which according to Hallam University brought over £10m to the city in secondary spend.

The investment in building seven major facilities at a cost of £152m capital, had a much more long-term goal – remember our city had lost 50,000 jobs and had an unemployment rate of 15.2 per cent with the Don Valley laying derelict. The objectives being:

Lift the image and profile of the city, attracting many more events to the city bringing TV and media coverage.

To attract tourists and visitors – the fastest growing industry in the world.

Improve the environment, removing two centuries of industrial pollution.

Provide new excellent sport and cultural facilities for the people Sheffield creating sporting opportunities.

Attract inward investment and make Sheffield a decision centre for sport.

Help develop young sports men and women reach their potential.

Restore civic pride.

Because of the Games and the Sporting investment, Sheffield won the competition to be the home of the English Institute for Sport and a grant to build our National Ice Dance Centre.

In the first 10 years after the games Sheffield hosted 605 major events attracting 576,000 extra visitors and generated £33.6m in additional spend and created 900FTE job years according to a Hallam University Reach project.

More than 20 hotels have been built in Sheffield and our city continues to attract major events. Hardly a month goes by without a sporting event in our city and the last time I looked nine sport governing bodies had moved their headquarters to Sheffield.

In 2012 just before the Olympic Games the following appeared in the Star Letters:-

“Over the past 12 months the city has hosted eight World Championships, three European Championships, 20 National Championships and four mass participation events, many attracting TV coverage, helping to fill our hotels and bringing in over £6m into our economy.

Nine sports governing bodies or their elite squads have now moved to Sheffield and we have 13 countries using our city as a base for the Olympics, plus four UK sport teams.

More than 10,000 people are now employed in our sport and cCultural Industries, helping us to cope with the current recession a little better than we did back in the 1980s which left Sheffield with dereliction and unemployment levels approaching 16 per cent.

The economic impact within the Sheffield economy, of our investment in sport and culture in 1991 is now considerable.

A quote from the Daily Express, not a normal supporter of Sheffield. “Sheffield where the transformation in recent years is verging on the unbelievable and where a sense of hope has replaced the anger and despair that followed the run down of the steel industry”.

Get it now Mr Hooker.