Some leisure companies may be in disarray - perfectly normal fallout in a growing market where people jump on popular band wagons with ill thought-out or executed schemes. But do you really think Branson would be investing in it if there was no money in it?
The fact remains though: why can't this casino effort be a major council-owned leisure facility without having to drag gambling into it, if the only reason to have the gambling is to attract capital? Why can't the council find the funds, or do some variant of PFI and bring in a private company to do it if necessary? Or you could expand the point and say why not, instead of one mega development, have a chain of smaller developments city-wide? This city is not well enough endowed with high quality affordable leisure centres. Withington, Didsbury and Chorlton for starters have outdated facilities.
