Business of Sport: Imagine having a weekly radio listenership of 6.25 million and an annual budget of £32 million to get the best sports rights and give the best sports coverage on the airwaves.

Welcome to the job Bob Shennan has as controller of BBC Radio 5 Live, which celebrates its 10th birthday tomorrow. And in that period it has become a hugely successful station.

Before the days of the Premiership on TodayFM in Ireland, remember having to strain on a Saturday afternoon to medium wave to catch live games? Today 5 Live is one of the leaders in sports radio.

While there is more competition, the success of 5 Live continues. Its weekly audience is up two million from 1994 and its highest-rated programme is its live Premiership commentary on Saturday afternoons with 2.5 million tuning in. As for its success, Shennan points out the importance of having a valuable rights portfolio and a big infrastructure for news output, but the overriding factor has been the style of the station.

"We moved away from the centre and how things were done traditionally," explains Shennan. "We developed what became an uncomplicated, informed and informal, conversational and democratic style of radio that appealed to listeners.

"When we were launching there was an anxiety around 'how does one cover news and not in the style of Radio 4?' But we showed it could be done and in a somewhat revolutionary step we told our news programmes to sound more like our sports ones and for news presenters to sound like John Inverdale."

The more relaxed style is appealing and 5 Live can boast a younger, more diverse audience than any BBC radio station.

Given the average output of 28 hours of sport each week, people might be surprised to learn that 75 per cent of what the station covers is in fact news.

Being able to broadcast the likes of the Olympics and the World Cup is a vital ingredient for 5 Live as it seeks to hold onto its valuable rights portfolio, which includes the Premiership, Champions League games, England internationals and Six Nations rugby as well as F1 and boxing title bouts.

But the Premiership rights are its most important and the station is in a fierce battle as its three-year £45 million deal expires at the end of this season.

What effect will the smoking ban have on sport come Monday? Will people be less inclined to go to the pub to watch the match, choosing instead the confines of their homes? Will sports fans around the country suddenly become non-smokers now restaurants and pubs are out of bounds for them?

Paradoxically, one knock-on effect could be an increase in GAA, rugby and soccer attendances, as sports grounds are still among the few places left where people can enjoy total freedom to smoke.

As mentioned before in this column, there is little or no will or inclination from Irish sports organisations to ban smoking from their stadiums; the Department of Health is not concerned with it and there are not even special smoking sections designated in sports grounds in Ireland.

And this despite more and more Premiership clubs in Britain making their stadiums non-smoking and even UEFA banning smoking from the technical areas of grounds.

Politicians have pointed out to this column that one can't enforce a ban in a ground and if one starts there then one might as well ban people from smoking when walking down the street.

To which Prof Luke Clancy, chairman of ASH (the non-smoking campaigning group), makes the point that banning smoking in stadiums is an enforceable issue if the will is there.

"I welcome a ban and would call on one to be introduced in sports grounds," says Prof Clancy. "After all, what choice does one have when you're in the vicinity of a smoker in a stand? You can't move elsewhere and you're forced to inhale cigarette or cigar smoke for the next hour and a half at least.

"Each stadium needs to take the initiative itself and introduce its own ban," says Clancy. "Aside from the health dangers that are posed there is also the considerable nuisance factor.

"It is seldom now that I go to games in Lansdowne because of the experiences I have had there with smoke."

And how many of us have been in similar situations at games where a smoker is close by and no matter what way the wind blows, smoke seems to drift past you for the duration of the game?

Even if there is a free seat elsewhere, it is likely that smokers will be in that section as well.

Croke Park stadium director Peter McKenna has told this column previously there are a number of complaints made each year about other spectators smoking but all that can be done is to accommodate the aggrieved person and offer an alternative seat or else ask the smoker to stop.

Aside from the nuisance factor, the health risk is very real, says Prof Clancy.

Some of the simple proven facts are that second-hand smoke causes heart attacks, strokes and lung cancer.

However, there is no data for the affects of passive smoking in sports stadiums and direct correlations are hard to come by.

But Prof Clancy points out it is possible that by merely inhaling cigarette smoke it can trigger a heart attack or stroke, such is the effect tobacco smoke can have on some people's blood vessels.

While studies also show that during World Cups the rate of heart attacks and stokes increases - which can mainly be attributed to the stresses and strains of watching the matches - there is also a possible link to the numbers of people attending the games where smoking is allowed during a tournament.

So, on health and nuisance grounds, Prof Clancy says smoking should be banned in our sports stadiums and wouldn't the majority of us agree?

While we pat ourselves on the back over the introduction of the smoking ban in pubs, restaurants and elsewhere come Monday, ask yourself why sports grounds won't be next on the list.

And if we see 10,000 people attending the next Eircom League game or 80,000 at the next GAA club finals maybe we can hazard a guess why: sports grounds have become the last bastion of the smoker.

Note: the stewards who do work in stadiums during matches and are most at ongoing risk from the ill effects of smoke do not have a union to represent them, as inquiries to SIPTU and ICTU revealed this week.

Email the Business of Sport on bizofsport@eircom.net

Celtic FC - 73.5p. Celtic's share price, up 14 per cent in the last month, continues to rise as their European adventure continues £185 million - annual budget for BBC Radio; £32 million annual budget for 5 Live

"If you'll not settle for anything less than your best, you will be amazed at what you can accomplish in your lives."