Huge expansion of current venue at heart of Birmingham’s 2022 Games bid
THESE are the first images of the major transformation Alexander Stadium will undergo if the 2022 Commonwealth Games are staged in Birmingham.
If realised it will become a state-ofthe-art global sporting hub.
The stadium, in Perry Park, would be upgraded into a 40,000-seat arena for the Games – a fitting venue for some of the world’s leading track and field athletes.
Birmingham is going head-to-head with Liverpool in the battle to be the UK’s candidate for the 2022 Games – and Alexander Stadium is at the heart of our bid.
The proposals include a perma- nent increase in capacity to 25,000 seats, lifted to over 40,000 for the duration of the Games through temporary seating. A 400-metre warmup track will also be developed.
This would leave the stadium wellplaced to become the home of UK athletics – hosting all the major national and international competitions – after the Games.
A Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games bid spokeswoman said: “An enhanced and refurbished Alexander Stadium will be pivotal to the Birmingham 2022 Games.
“Already established as an international athletics venue and home to UK athletics, Birmingham will strengthen its reputation as the ‘City of Running’ by improving competition and training facilities at the stadium and increasing permanent seating capacity. The refurbished stadium will provide a legacy to a core Commonwealth Games sport, benefitting future generations of athletes, which cannot be achieved when athletics takes place on a temporary track in a football stadium.”
Alexander Stadium would also remain a fitting home to hugely successful Birchfield Harriers, winners of the 2016 British Athletics League Premiership.
In contrast, rival Liverpool proposes a temporary running track around the pitch at Everton Football Club’s new stadium.
Alexander Stadium, currently with a 12,700-seat capacity, already hosts, among other events, the British championships and team trials and international Diamond League contests. It is the headquarters of UK Athletics.
It is also due to host the US Track and Field team as they train ahead of this summer’s World Athletics Championships in London.
And next year the World Indoor Athletics Championships comes to the Barclaycard Arena.
Birmingham’s 2022 Commonwealth Games bid has been securing endorsements from the world of sport.
Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson DBE, who lived in Birmingham for four years, training in the city ahead of the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games, said: “I think the Commonwealth Games should come to Birmingham.
“I trained for Sydney in Birmingham and it’s a really good city that’s passionate about sport. It has a lot of great facilities already so you wouldn’t have to build from scratch. And if it’s good enough for Usain Bolt...”
Commonwealth Games judges will visit Birmingham this month to assess quality of bid. The UK decision to be announced in autumn followed by the Commonwealth Games Federation final decision.