Birmingham is to centre its Commonwealth Games 2022 bid on existing indoor arenas including the NEC and Barclaycard Arena.
Organisers said four venues, also including the Genting Arena and Symphony Hall, were selected following careful assessment of Commonwealth Games Federation guidelines regarding athletes’ needs, the technical specifications, seating capacity and Games-time logistics.
As part of the selection process, the bid committee said it looked closely at how to utilise Birmingham and Solihull’s “wealth of existing sports venues and facilities, ensuring connectivity and accessibility and maximising spectator numbers”.
Three of the NEC’s largest halls will host boxing, judo, table tennis and freestyle wrestling. Organisers said Halls 1, 4 and 5 have been selected to “provide an optimal configuration, creating a compact multi-sport venue requiring minimal build requirements”. The NEC, part of the NEC Group, has almost 2,000 employees providing event management services, and back of house infrastructure and facilities.
The NEC Group has over 40 years’ experience, operating 750 major events and attracting seven million visitors each year. In addition to the NEC, its group also manages the Genting Arena, which would host badminton, and the Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham’s city centre, which would host artistic and rhythmic gymnastics.
Phil Mead, managing director of NEC Group Arenas, and member of the Birmingham 2022 Steering Group, said: “We have a wealth of fantastic venues ready and able to deliver world-class events for 2022 including the NEC, Genting Arena and Barclaycard Arena and we are currently gearing up to host the IAAF World Indoor Athletics Championships in 2018 which further demonstrates our credibility and capability.
“We have also invested significantly into our venues in recent years to set us apart from our competitors.
“We saw at the London 2012 Olympics how a major indoor venue could successfully host multiple sports events and how the public and athletes thrived on the opportunity to experience so many sports in close proximity with a compact Games proposition.
“We can deliver this and more and believe Birmingham is the only city that can deliver this for 2022. Not only that, but with exciting development across the city and our own ambitious plans to add new physical assets and leisure content which will build on the opening of Resorts World Birmingham on the NEC site, there will be even more on offer for visitors.”
These four existing indoor venues alone will provide spectators with more than 500,000 opportunities to watch the action during Games time.
Birmingham is vying with rival bid from Liverpool for the opportunity to host the 2022 Games.
Image: Birmingham 2022
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