Concerns and controversies at the 2022 Commonwealth Games

London stadium was rejected by the Birmingham bid committee and city council to host the athletics

In June 2017, during the preparation of the Birmingham bid for the 2022 Commonwealth Games, the Birmingham bid committee proposed to renovate the Alexander Stadium and use it for hosting the athletics and ceremonies of the Games.[1] But in August 2017, former UK Athletics (UKA) Chief Ed Warner proposed London Stadium in London to host the athletic events while Birmingham and West Midlands to host the rest of the sporting events of the Games. The London Stadium hosted the athletics and the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics as well as the 2017 World Athletic Championships and Para Athletics Championships. Ed Warner claimed that enough funds could be saved by using the London Stadium rather than renovating the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham.[2]

On 11 April 2018, British Prime Minister Theresa May visited the Alexander Stadium and announced that the stadium would be renovated for the Games at a cost of £70 million. She said that the investment would benefit the local community and the West Midlands region.[3][4]

In February 2019, Councillor Paul Tilsley claimed that the refurbished Alexander Stadium would become a white elephant after the Games as no long-term tenant for the stadium was identified. He was also concerned about the funding arrangement of the Games and claimed that spending funds in organizing the Games could put the council into very heavy debt.[5][6]

On 21 June 2019, the Birmingham City Council released the images and plans for renovating the Alexander Stadium and claimed that it would create a legacy asset for the Perry Barr area. The council claimed that the stadium could become the permanent home for the UKA and host major athletics events such as the Diamond League meeting which is currently held at the London Stadium.[7] But former UKA chief Ed Warner claimed that moving the main athletic events from London to Birmingham would be unattractive for the UKA both financially and in terms of the sport's profile. A UKA spokesperson also told the Press Association Sport that the UKA had no plans to take athletics events out of London Stadium.[8]

On 30 January 2020, the Birmingham City Council's planning committee approved the renovation plans of the Alexander Stadium which would cost £72 million. The revamped stadium would also host a range of tenants including the Birchfield Harriers Athletics Club and Birmingham City University.[9][10][11]

The track cycling of the 2022 Commonwealth Games will be hosted at the Lee Valley VeloPark velodrome in London which is 136 miles (218 km) away from the Games host city Birmingham. This was confirmed by Ian Ward, Leader of the Birmingham City Council and Head of the Birmingham 2022 bid, on the day of Games host city announcement. He cited the reason that West Midlands do not have a suitable facility to host track cycling. The Birmingham bid committee had investigated using the Derby Arena in Derby to hold track cycling or converting the Arena Birmingham into a temporary velodrome but instead chose to use the Lee Valley VeloPark velodrome in London. The Lee Valley VeloPark is situated on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, East London and has previously hosted the track cycling of the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics as well as the 2016 UCI Track Cycling World Championships.[12][13]

The people of Birmingham and the West Midlands were shocked and unhappy with the bid committee's decision as the people from Midlands would have to travel 136 miles to London to watch the track cycling event of the 2022 Commonwealth Games. In January 2018, a petition addressed to Ian Ward was launched by Charlie Dickens, a citizen from West Midlands, on Change.org, calling for a velodrome to be constructed in the West Midlands for use at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. It claimed that the construction of a venue would help to develop the sport in the West Midlands region with a population of 5.6 million people with no indoor velodrome. The petition named four-time world champion and Commonwealth Games gold medallist Hugh Porter and Olympians Jess Varnish and Andy Tennant as cyclists who have come from the region to compete at the highest level of the sport. The petition asserted that velodromes could be used as a multi-sport facility by hosting basketball, netball, table tennis and boxing, as well as staging non-sporting events, such as music concerts.[14] Over 5,000 people had signed the petition within four months from the date of bid committee's decision and former International Cycling Union President Brian Cookson and Olympic gold medallist Chris Boardman also supported the petition of bringing a velodrome to the West Midlands.[15][16]

Derby Arena was rejected by the Birmingham organising committee to host track cycling

In September 2018, Ian Ward defended the committee's decision of selecting the velodrome in London rather than constructing a new velodrome in the West Midlands and also claimed that the decision was reached in consultation with British Cycling and Sport England. He said that constructing a new velodrome would cost £50 million which could have disturbed the Games' as well as the council's budget. Further he added that the bid committee had asked the Origin Sports Group to carry out feasibility work to assess the viability of installing a temporary track to ensure track cycling would be part of the Games. They also continued to explore both temporary options in the city as well as looking at venues within the region, such as Derby Arena. To meet the CGF's venue requirements for hosting track cycling, minimum seating capacity must be 4,000 which ruled out the temporary options that were being explored in the city, as well as Derby Arena. The only suitable velodromes in the country are Lee Valley VeloPark velodrome London, which has 6,500 seats, and Manchester Velodrome, which could install sufficient temporary seating to meet the 4,000 minimum capacity. The organising committee finally agreed with the Lee Valley VeloPark in London to host the track cycling events of the Games. He also added that the construction of a £50 million velodrome would have made staging the Games, as a whole, an unviable proposition, which he meant that the city and region would have missed out the legacy benefits of new housing, better transport and a repositioned international profile.[17][18]

In March 2020, British Cycling issued a "Cycling Facility Assessment" which stated that building a new velodrome in Birmingham was not considered a “high priority” and did not have an adequately stable strategic or business case to support such an investment.[19]

In September 2018, it was speculated that the 2022 Commonwealth Games could bankrupt the Birmingham City Council. An audit report revealed that the city council had an £84 million debt at that time when vast sums of its emergency reserves were spent. The audit report also stated that the city had spent £116 million in emergency reserves in the previous two years just to run the council and that £52 million in savings were needed for the next complete year. The report also revealed that the council's emergency savings at one point dropped to £72 million.[20]

It was decided between the British Government and the city council that the Government would pay the 75% of the total £750 million cost of hosting the Games while the rest 25% would be covered by the city council which is nearly £180 million.[21] While the city council was ready to cover the Games' 25% cost, some members of the council believed that covering such cost could put the council into very heavy debt.[22] Some feared that Birmingham, being Europe's largest local authority with an annual budget of £3 billion, could face insolvency in the next few years if its finances were not improved. Councillor Meirion Jenkins, the shadow cabinet member for resources and finance, described the Birmingham City Council's financial position as “very poor” and said the situation was not helped by hosting the upcoming 2022 Commonwealth Games. City council leader Ian Ward denied that the Games would bankrupt the authority. The council admitted that they would have to cut £5 million for Birmingham Children's Trust which supported disadvantaged children, and £1.6 million from transport for the mobility-impaired and concessionary travel for old people and children. In order to save funds, the city council planned to cut £2.4 million from the service for adults who suffer life-changing events and shut 21 children's centres. Over £80,000 was costing the council due to an argument with the binmen of Birmingham. Ian Ward said that they were working on their budget proposals for the next year such that the Games could provide a positive legacy to the city and the West Midlands.[23]

In order to avoid to bankruptcy, the Birmingham City Council proposed to impose a 'hotel tax', to help pay 25% cost for the Commonwealth Games. A hotel tax could mean charging visitors to Birmingham £1 per night for the privilege of staying in a city hotel, potentially raising £15 million over three years to help fund the Games.[24]

During the cabinet meeting of the Birmingham City Council, held on 11 February 2020, the council's draft financial plan unveiled that they were facing cost pressures which meant that the Athletes' Village in Perry Barr would not be build within its estimated £492.6 million cost.[25] The financial plan also explained that the cost pressure was due to the "constrained timescales" to build the village and hence its expected cost might increase.[26] The Athletes' Village is expected to house over 6,500 athletes and officials during the Games, before being converted into 1,400 homes for the community as part of a long-term regeneration plan for Perry Barr known as the Perry Barr Regeneration Scheme.[27][28][29]

During the budget consultation on how the council should deliver services differently, over 255 people submitted views where 11 per cent of the comments urged the authority to reduce or cease funding for the Commonwealth Games. Councillor Rob Alden (Erdington), leader of the Conservative opposition, said that the city council must decide the accurate cost of the Games so that the residents could know what they could get behind the Games. Council leader Ian Ward commented that the British Government had prevented the authority from being transparent about the full cost of the Games and said promises of help to mitigate the financial pressure of hosting the event 'had not been forthcoming'. He also added that the Perry Barr Regeneration Scheme would be monitored and reviewed to ensure it was progressing in line with relevant goals, targets, time-scales and costs.[30]

On 10 March 2020, it was reported that the cost of the Athletes Village would rise to £91.8 million due to its construction cost price inflation and increased demand for building workers, as said by the Birmingham City Council.[31] Due to cost pressures, the bed space requirement of the village was reduced from 6,500 to 6,320. The city council also announced it would aim to lower the additional £ 91.8 million costs by £25 million by undertaking legacy retrofit and demolition after the Games, while both plots 2 and 11 of the project will be delivered later.[32] Birmingham MP Gary Sambrook commented that the British Government should take over the charge for the delivery of the athlete's village as the city council was not able to manage the budget.[33]

National Shooting Centre in Bisley, Surrey was rejected by the Birmingham organising committee to host shooting

In January 2018, CEO of the CGF David Grevemberg confirmed that Shooting, which is an optional sport according to the CGF constitution, would not feature at the 2022 Commonwealth Games as the organising committee of the Games decided to exclude the sport.[34] This sparked an anger among the athletes from India and the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) as India performed well in shooting during the previous edition of the Games at Gold Coast in 2018 by winning 16 medals, including 7 golds. The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) president Raninder Singh was unhappy with the decision of removal of shooting and wanted the Indian government to boycott the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Meanwhile, the IOA requested the CGF and the Organising Committee of the 2022 Commonwealth Games to include Shooting in the event. On 20 June 2019, during the CGF board meeting in Birmingham, the CGF confirmed that the Shooting sport has been excluded from the 2022 Commonwealth Games as no suitable venue has been found in the host city Birmingham and in the West Midlands region.[35] On 27 July 2019, IOA president Narinder Batra wrote a letter to the Indian Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju to discuss about the boycott of the 2022 Games as the organising committee did not add shooting in the Games. In regarding to protest, Batra said that the IOA has pulled out from the CGF General Assembly which was held in Kigali, Rwanda in September 2019 and also the IOA had withdrawn the nomination of its secretary general Rajeev Mehta for the election of a regional vice-president as well as that of Namdev Shiragaonkar for sports committee member in CGF. Batra also commented that the CGF has an "India bashing mindset" and "try to change rules" whenever the country (India) does well in the Commonwealth Games.[36]

On 30 July 2019, Ian Reid, CEO of Birmingham 2022 published a statement in the Games official website stating that shooting was not included in Birmingham's bid and in September 2018, five sports that were not included in the original bid – shooting, archery, beach volleyball, para table tennis and cricket – expressed their desire to be part of the Games. He also stated that the Birmingham 2022 Board committed to conducting a review, offering each sport a chance to be included and the process they conducted was fair, logical and transparent and the assessment panel included senior representatives from key Games Partners including Birmingham 2022, Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport; Commonwealth Games England and Birmingham City Council. Shooting scored highly on some of the key criteria and the Panel recognised the submission from the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF), the International Confederation of Fullbore Rifle Associations (ICFRA) and British Shooting (BS). But the Panel determined that the proposed location for shooting at National Shooting Centre in Bisley, Surrey which is 130 miles away from the Games host city Birmingham, offered very little benefit to the West Midlands, in a Games with a significant proportion of funding coming from the region. The Panel did offer the opportunity for the sport to submit an alternative Birmingham based proposal – most likely two disciplines in one Birmingham venue – but the ISSF, ICFRA and BS were not ready to submit a proposal that did not include all four disciplines in a single Bisley-based venue. As a result of that review, Birmingham 2022 proposed adding three sports – women's cricket, para table tennis and beach volleyball – all of which could be staged in venues in Birmingham or the West Midlands and could bring additional benefits to a region that is providing substantial funding for the Games.[37][38][39]

On 14 November 2019, President of the CGF Dame Louise Martin and Chief Executive of the CGF David Grevemberg met with Narinder Batra, Kiren Rijiju and other IOA officials in Delhi to discuss about the exclusion of shooting sport and to find a solution about it.[40][41] After the discussion, Louise Martin revealed that the CGF team will attend the ISSF Extraordinary General Assembly in Munich, Germany in December 2019 to discuss how the sport can be involved in the 2022 Games.[42] Narinder Batra revealed they will wait for the meeting between the CGF and the ISSF before taking any decision on whether to boycott the 2022 Games in Birmingham.[43] Later, the NRAI expressed its commitment to hosting a shooting competition in India before Birmingham 2022 and endorsed the idea of the IOA to allow medals won there to count towards the overall 2022 Commonwealth Games table.[44] On 30 December 2019, the IOA announced in its Annual General Meeting in Delhi that they will participate in the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and will also bid for the 2026 or 2030 Commonwealth Games.[45]

In January 2020 it was proposed that shooting and archery competitions would take place in India some time before the Birmingham Games but count in the medal table.[46] The ISSF and the World Archery supported the decision.[47][48] It was announced in the CGF's website that they would review the decision of inclusion of shooting and archery with the Games partners by January or February 2020.[49] In an interview with the BBC Sport, British Sports Minister Nigel Adams commented that prospect of India missing the 2022 Commonwealth Games over the absence of shooting was "absolutely bonkers". He also told that he was "delighted" India was appeased through the possibility of hosting its own events four months before the Games begin.[50]

On 4 February 2020, the British House of Lords endorsed India's proposal to host the additional shooting and archery events for the 2022 Commonwealth Games.[51] On 24 February 2020, the CGF announced that they had accepted the India's proposal of hosting the archery and shooting events in India for the 2022 Commonwealth Games, but the two sports will be conducted as a separate event called as the Commonwealth Archery and Shooting Championships, which will be hosted in Chandigarh in January 2022. The CGF also confirmed that the medals won in the championships will be counted in the final medal table of the 2022 Commonwealth Games.[52] Grevemberg claimed that such proposals could be replicated in future Commonwealth Games.[53]

The Birmingham City Council had found that the preparations of the Games could be affected due to the worldwide 2019-20 coronavirus pandemic in which the UK was also severely affected. The city council revealed that the Games preparations, which include the construction of the Athletes' Village and the demolition of the Perry Barr flyover, could possibly face unexpected delays. Such delays could happen due to the 20 per cent reduction in the workforce as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.[54]

The 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, due to be held from 23 July to 3 August and 25 August to 6 September respectively in 2020 in Tokyo, Japan, were postponed by one year due to the coronavirus pandemic. The new dates were confirmed on 30 March 2020 by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).[55][56] Other sporting events which were going to be held in 2021 were postponed or planned to be postponed to next year in order to avoid clash with the Olympics and Paralympics. It was speculated that the postponement of the 2021 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, United States and 2021 World Aquatic Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, respectively, to 2022 could clash with the dates of the 2022 Commonwealth Games.[57] If the dates are clashed, then the top athletes for athletics and swimming sports from the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth Nations could miss the Games in order to participate in the World Championships. The CGF said they were in talks with the World Athletics and International Swimming Federation (FINA) to avoid the clashing of World Championships with the Commonwealth Games.[58]

On 3 April 2020, the World Athletics announced that the World Athletic Championships in Eugene, United States, planned to be held from 6 to 15 August in 2021, was postponed to 15 to 24 July in 2022. The new dates were chosen in such a way that the Championships doesn't clash with the 2022 Commonwealth Games.[59] On 4 May 2020, FINA announced that the World Aquatic Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, planned to be held from 16 July to 1 August 2021, was postponed to 13 to 29 May 2022.[60]