Commonwealth Games bid timescale announced.
The Commonwealth Games Federation has announced the timescale for cities wishing to bid to host the 2022 Commonwealth Games. The move follows the announcement in March that the South African city of Durban, the original host, was to be stripped of the right to hold the Games owing to organisational and financial difficulties.
Birmingham, which was considering a bid to stage the following Games, in 2026, subsequently stated that it was interested in hosting the 2022 event. The city is currently awaiting the outcome, expected later this month, of a feasibility study and options appraisal being carried out by London based Origin Sports.
The CGF have now announced that all prospective hosts must express their interest no later than Friday, April 28th. Owing to the short time involved normal Games bidding processes will be suspended, with no limits on the number of applicant cities from any Commonwealth Games Federation. Two other English cities, Liverpool and Manchester, are expected to bid, while Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Adelaide are possible Australian contenders, with Toronto (Canada), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and Singapore also vowed as potential contenders.
Some form of national government support will be a pre-requisite for any bidding city, although no firm financial guarantees will be expected to be in place by the initial late April deadline.
The CGE’s bidding process allows Commonwealth Games England to put forward more than one candidate, thus effectively exempting them, or the British Government, from having to choose a candidate from amongst the three potential English hosts, with a tacit expression of support for each likely to suffice at this stage. A CGF review team will examine each candidate before making a recommendation to the Commonwealth Games Executive Board for a final decision.
So for Birmingham decision time over whether to bid for a Games in 2022 is fast approaching, and with the Commonwealth Games Federation also stating that they would expect to make a final decision on selecting a host city by mid-summer, should Birmingham decide to bid, its success or otherwise will be known sooner rather than later.
