Organisers of Birmingham’s push for the 2022 Commonwealth Games have released a series of images to illustrate how the rejuvenated Alexander Stadium would be transformed if the English city were to secure hosting rights to the multi-sport event.
The proposal includes plans to expand the venue’s permanent capacity to 25,000 seats, with the ability to increase this to 40,000 during the Games through the use of temporary seating.
The Alexander Stadium currently has a capacity of 12,700 and regularly stages athletics events such as the British championships and team trials, as well as Diamond League international contests.
In addition, the US Olympic Team was based at the venue during the 2012 summer Olympic Games in London and will use the facility as a training base for this year’s World Athletics Championships.
Niels de Vos, chief executive of UK Athletics and member of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Steering Group, said: “We have seen World, Olympic, Paralympic and Commonwealth champions compete in the stadium and we regularly see youngsters from sports and community clubs participating at a grassroots level.
“The enhanced and refurbished stadium that will result from a Birmingham 2022 Games will help to continue our sport’s legacy and benefit future generations of athletes.”
Birmingham faces competition from Liverpool to be the UK’s bid city for the Games, which had initially been awarded to Durban in South Africa, but later had the rights withdrawn due to ongoing concerns over financial problems.
Various other countries and cities have also expressed an interest in replacing Durban as host, with Australia, Malaysia and Canada in contention.
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