City to clinch 2022 event after previous setback

BIRMINGHAM is set to be confirmed as the 2022 Commonwealth Games host – offering a massive £750 million boost to the West Midlands economy.

Rumours have been circulating around the bid that a deal between the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and Birmingham City Council was close to being struck.

Now confirmation will be given on Thursday at a press conference at the Alexander Stadium in Perry Barr to be attended by CGF President Louise Martin.

After securing the UK government’s backing in September, the Birmingham bid stalled amid behindthe-scenes wrangling over the cost of staging the Games.

But the deadlock appears to have been broken following the pledge of a hotel tax to raise money, without tapping into the council’s main services budget.

With final preparations now being made, it means Birmingham is set to become the first English city since Manchester in 2002 to host the Commonwealth Games.

As well as an 11-day festival of sport, the summer of 2022 will see major investment in sporting arenas around the city, including the upgrade of Alexander Stadium at Perry Barr and a new competition standard swimming pool in Sandwell. It will see an estimated £750 million pumped into the regional economy – including hundreds of new homes at Perry Barr – and see transport investment brought forward to ensure new Metro Tram lines and rapid bus systems are in place.

With talks in the final stages, those close to the bid were unwilling to comment, especially as the Birmingham bid has endured a rocky road to get to this stage. After seeing off rival Liverpool to secure the UK Government’s backing, Birmingham emerged as the only city to submit a bid at the end of September.

But the Commonwealth Games Federation, having stripped South African city Durban of the 2022 Games a few months earlier due to its failure to meet financial concluded Birmingham’s was not ‘fully compliant’.

It extended the deadline to the end of November, but still failed to attract a bid to rival Birmingham.

Meanwhile, talks between the various backers of the Birmingham bid – which included the West Midlands Combined Authority, business investment groups and the city’s sports industry – and the Government finally delivered a compliant bid, with the hotel tax and land ownership issues around the athletes’ village site the final hurdles to be crossed.

The government is paying 75 per cent of the bill, with the rest coming from the Birmingham backers. More details of the finances are expected to be revealed once the deal is signed. deadlines, bid also