Should the Commonwealth Games move permanently to the UK?
There are growing calls for the commonwealth games to be held permanently in the Uk. This comes after the state of Victoria, Australia pulled out due to budgetary concerns. Birmingham and London are being muted due to their recent experience in holding big sporting events.
Just twelve months ago the commonwealth games were held in Birmingham and they were certainly considered a massive success.
Last week the the government of state of Victoria, Australia pulled out. They cited costs as the reason, citing a figure somewhere around three billion pounds.
Birmingham and the West Midlands hosted the games for a quarter of that expected cost however Birmingham City Council currently has its own financial woes to deal with and the ruling Labour group don’t seem keen on hosting the games again. London has been muted but their mayor sadiq khan says it would require a big cash injection.
While the commonwealth games don’t have the kudos of events like the Olympics or World Cup there is strong support for keeping them going. But with the costs of hosting the games running into the billions finding a host who can support them looks to be increasingly more difficult.
Just twelve months ago the commonwealth games were held in Birmingham and they were certainly considered a massive success.
Last week the the government of state of Victoria, Australia pulled out. They cited costs as the reason, citing a figure somewhere around three billion pounds.
Birmingham and the West Midlands hosted the games for a quarter of that expected cost however Birmingham City Council currently has its own financial woes to deal with and the ruling Labour group don’t seem keen on hosting the games again. London has been muted but their mayor sadiq khan says it would require a big cash injection.
While the commonwealth games don’t have the kudos of events like the Olympics or World Cup there is strong support for keeping them going. But with the costs of hosting the games running into the billions finding a host who can support them looks to be increasingly more difficult.
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00:00 Just 12 months ago, the Commonwealth Games were held in Birmingham and they were certainly considered a massive success.
00:07 But last week in Australia, the government of the state of Victoria pulled out of the Games.
00:12 They cited costs as the reason, complaining that they would cost them somewhere in the region of £3 billion to host.
00:19 Now, Birmingham and the West Midlands hosted the Games for a quarter of that cost last year.
00:24 Andy Street is the Mayor of the West Midlands. He oversaw last year's Games.
00:28 Speaking to Australia's ABC News, he believes the country should still try to hold the Games.
00:35 We did it incredibly efficiently in terms of total cost.
00:39 We were in budget, under budget and we actually did it for a lot less than the Gold Coast.
00:43 So one of our gifts was to prove it could be done competitively.
00:47 Australia has to decide how they're going to honour this.
00:49 Birmingham City Council currently has its own financial woes to deal with
00:53 and the ruling Labour group don't seem keen on hosting the Games again.
00:57 London has been muted but their Mayor, Sadiq Khan, says it would require a big cash injection from the government.
01:03 It's well noted that when you hold a major sporting event, I'm talking about the Olympic Games, the World Cup and the Commonwealth Games,
01:11 which of course is well down the pecking order, that there is some sort of economic benefit in terms of increased tourism.
01:17 But of course you've got to balance that against the disruption that's caused by the amount of effort that it requires to put them on in the first place, policing and so on and so forth.
01:26 So I think the difficulty we'd have if it became a permanent fixture in Birmingham, with all the costs,
01:33 I think the interest would wane. Part of the attraction of hosting major sporting events is it moves around
01:40 and so everyone gets a slice of the questionable pie that's on offer.
01:45 But as we've seen in the Commonwealth Games, the amount of money it takes to put these on is really, really significant.
01:51 One issue for the Games is its foundation and links to the British Empire, with many countries wishing to move away from their colonial past.
01:59 The first Empire Games as they were in those days was in Hamilton in Canada in 1930.
02:04 Well, we're talking the best part of a century ago. Britain still had the legacy of its empire and all that came with it.
02:12 So I think there is a view, and this has been expressed in recent years, that the Commonwealth Games are seen to be something of an anachronism.
02:19 They're kind of out of their time. The idea that only athletes compete from nations that were once part of this empire
02:26 is really sort of problematic for some and indeed seem to be a bit exclusive.
02:31 And indeed, we've seen the fact that increasingly fewer and fewer countries of the former Commonwealth,
02:36 or also those that are still in it, are willing to put them on.
02:39 And do we end up in a situation where the Commonwealth Games only exist in Britain?
02:44 It becomes a little bit self-serving.
02:46 While the Commonwealth Games don't have the kudos of events like the Olympics or World Cup, there is a strong support for keeping them going.
02:53 But with the costs of hosting the Games running into the potential billions,
02:57 finding a host who can support and afford them looks to be an increasingly more difficult ask.