Two UK cities have been plunged into an unlikely rivalry over bids to host the 2022 Commonwealth Games after Durban was withdrawn as the host destination over concerns that South Africa could not afford to deliver the tournament.
Liverpool and Birmingham are locked in a battle to prove to the government that they can be relied upon to prepare for 5,000 athletes and hundreds of thousands of visitors in record time.
Both had already expressed interest in hosting in 2026, and just two months after the government confirmed it would bid for the 2022 games, the two cities had submitted their official applications to be the UK’s entry. “It was an opportunity too good to miss to be frank,” said Liverpool’s mayor, Joe Anderson.
Earlier this week a 15-strong panel from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport visited Liverpool to assess its bid. The Liverpool Echo newspaper welcomed the judges with a front page letter urging them to chose the city. “Birmingham?” it read. “As the Capital of HS2, and so close to the gold-paved streets of London, they don’t need any further help.”
The same panel will visit Birmingham next week, before taking their assessments back to the government. The successful city will be chosen by the culture secretary in the autumn and the final host will be selected by the Commonwealth Games Federation by the end of the year. The UK’s entry is expected to be up against applicants from Canada, Australia and Malaysia, but it is thought an English city is the safest bet to win the competition.
Birmingham’s bid makes much of its preexisting facilities, of which there are many. It would refurbish the Alexander stadium, currently the home of UK Athletics, expanding its permanent seating capacity to 25,000. It stresses its track record of hosting large international sporting events, including The Ashes at Edgbaston, Rugby World Cup fixtures at Villa Park and the Diamond League meeting at Alexander stadium.
The city insists that it is 95% ready to host the games. Though they won’t confirm their plans, the 5% presumably includes a competitive standard Olympic size swimming pool, something Sport England has identified as being needed in the Birmingham area.
Liverpool’s proposal centres on continuing the regeneration of its docks. Those behind the bid envisage the famous Pier Head providing as iconic a backdrop to the games as was provided in 1992 Barcelona Olympics, when divers leapt in front of a panoramic view of the city.
The bid includes the creation of a 50 metre pool, floating in one of Liverpool’s docks, which would stay in place after the games had ended. The city would host the triple jump, long jump and pole vault in a adapted dry dock a stone’s throw away. As well as the preexisting arena and convention centre, Anfield stadium and St George’s Hall, Everton’s soon-to-be-built new stadium would house a temporary athletics track.
The city would also make use of sister city Manchester’s Old Trafford cricket ground and its velodrome, home to British Cycling. Both Liverpool and Birmingham are proposing to build athletes villages, which would then become high quality housing.
“Unusually, because of how Durban fell out, there is a limited time to prepare the facilities, so it is really, really important this time around – given what the Commonwealth Games Federation have gone through – that the bid is believable,” said Andy Street, the West Midlands metro mayor. “And our bid, with the huge majority of the facilities all in place, is eminently believable.”
Although they say their focus is on fulfilling the government’s desire for a “low cost, low risk and high quality games”, Birmingham rejects the idea that their bid is not as bold and creative as Liverpool’s. “I think we’re being creative where it’s really appropriate and makes a difference,” said Street. “But we’re actually very credible where some of the basics have got to be provided.”
Liverpool insists they too are low cost and low risk. They say they are more than capable of delivering their plans in time – pointing to their success as European Capital of Culture in 2008.
“[Birmingham] might be able to say that they’ve got a safe box ticked in the Alexander stadium, but what’s the legacy for that?” said Joe Anderson. “At the end of the day, Liverpool’s legacy is going to be a brand new, fantastic stadium on the waterfront and that’s of huge importance.”
Both cities claim that their history and multicultural populations make them ideal hosts for the Commonwealth’s official sporting event. The West Midlands is home to 300,000 people who were born in Commonwealth countries and has legitimate claims to being the most diverse city outside of London.
“We are the youngest city in Europe. 40% of our population is under the age of 25 and, of course, the Commonwealth Games aren’t just a celebration of sport and sporting excellence, it’s a celebration of youth,” said Ian Ward, deputy leader of Birmingham City council.
Liverpool, on the other hand, was “the second city of the Empire”, said Anderson, and the city would hold the games on the waterfront, once the hub for trade with Britain’s colonies. “Liverpool’s Commonwealth past was based on negativity in terms of the slave trade,” he said. “This is an opportunity for us to engage with the 71 different countries [that take part in the games] and provide new cultural links.”
Despite being 100 miles apart, the Birmingham and Liverpool teams both claim their cities are ideally located in the centre of the country. “If you look at where we’re positioned on the west coast of the country, often people talk about Birmingham as being the centre of England, but actually Liverpool is the centre of the UK, in terms of Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland,” Anderson said.
“If I go anywhere in the world, the brand of Liverpool is recognised,” he added. “It’s a global brand, not just for The Beatles and Liverpool football club, but for our history... People don’t have to ask where Liverpool is, though they may say ‘where’s Birmingham?’” Street, unsurprisingly, said the suggestion Birmingham is less well known internationally is “nonsense”.
Birmingham, said Ward, is a city that has “always been reluctant to shout about its successes”. He added: “We’ve not made the most of what we do best in the past and think that hosting the Commonwealth Games is an opportunity to change that.”
Midlands v Merseyside
The numbers
Birmingham, a city of more than 1.1 million people, has one of the largest ethnic minority populations in the UK, with one in four people describing themselves as Asian. Liverpool is almost half the size, with a population of less than 500,000. It has a similar youthful mix, but nearly 90% of the population describe themselves as white.
Sporting heritage
Merseyside’s two Premier League football clubs, Liverpool and Everton, dominate the sporting achievements. Birmingham is home to the world’s oldest cricket league and has hosted the Ashes, Rugby World Cup fixtures and Diamond League Athletics. Usain Bolt has even given it his blessing, having trained there before the London 2012 Olympics.
The mayors
Merseyside’s leader, Joe Anderson, is a Labour politician and lifelong Everton FC fan. The West Midlands mayor, Andy Street, is a Tory who studied politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford, like David Cameron. Unlike the former prime minister, he has not claimed to support either Aston Villa or West Ham.
Marianna Spring
• This article was amended on 10 July 2017. An editing error resulted in the original piece incorrectly stating that South Africa’s sports minister had withdrawn Durban as the host city. The decision was actually taken by the Commonwealth Games Federation. This has been corrected.
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