With more than one million tickets sold, a host of star athletes signed up, more than 41,000 volunteer applications received and dozens of sold out events, anticipation for the Commonwealth Games in July is high.
The games in Birmingham will be the first major international multisport event with spectators since the start of the pandemic, meaning the pressure is on to get it right, but the feeling of excitement is palpable.
“This is the biggest thing that’s going to happen in the UK so people want to get involved,” says Ian Reid, the event’s chief executive. “Considering we started asking people to buy tickets about a year out and with all the uncertainty around Covid, and now we’re sat here having sold over one million tickets, it gives us real comfort that we’re going to have pretty much full stadiums at the vast majority of our events. The city’s going to be really jumping.”
Layla Guscoth, who plays netball for England, is one of many athletes who believe the absence of crowds has been a major loss for sporting events since Covid. “The past couple of years have been a bit of a car crash for international sport in terms of restrictions and travelling,” she says.
“It’s so exciting to think about having a major championship in England, with spectators, fingers crossed. Hopefully, for a couple of weeks, it can just enthral us all.”
The Omicron variant and its implication for international travel and large-scale events has naturally caused organisers some concern, particularly after a period when it seemed the worst of the pandemic was over. “We have invested a huge amount of time, resources and money planning for various Covid scenarios,” says Reid.
Welcoming people from abroad is likely to be one of the biggest worries, but organisers are expecting at least 90% of spectators to be from the UK.
“There are now safety precautions like [vaccine] passports we can put in place and there’s clearly an advantage of the event taking place in summer. Everyone’s very confident that visitors will be coming to Birmingham, and we will put on a full sport programme with full stadiums,” Reid says.
Despite the challenges of organising the event in constantly changing circumstances, the team is aiming for the biggest Commonwealth Games, with 286 sessions of sport in the two-week event.
It will also be the first time a multisport event has more medal events for women than men (the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in 2018 had an equal number). It will feature women’s cricket for the first time and T20 cricket makes it debut. “The growth of women’s cricket around the Commonwealth has been incredible,” says Reid.
“The International Cricket Council is right behind us, they see this as the biggest event for women’s cricket ever. We’re hoping to put that sport right in the spotlight, and cricket is a Commonwealth sport so the quality will be really high.”
The games will also feature more para sports than before and unlike at the Olympics will be fully integrated into the main timetable. Reid says: “We treat every athlete competing in our games exactly the same, they’re on exactly the same stage. We don’t look at it as a para programme and an able-bodied programme, we look at it as a single event.
“The great thing about that is we introduce huge numbers of people to elite para sport that perhaps they have not engaged with before, because you may watch an able-bodied 100m race followed by a wheelchair race.”
It is being hailed as Birmingham’s big opportunity to showcase itself on the world stage, and building work is increasing rapidly. Alexander Stadium in Perry Barr, which will host the athletics as well as the opening and closing ceremonies, is having a £72m revamp to increase capacity to about 30,000. Sandwell Aquatics Centre is the only venue being built for the games, hosting 11 days of swimming, para swimming and diving, and is due to be completed in the spring.
Guscoth, who is from Birmingham, says she is looking forward to the often underrated city welcoming so many visitors. “Birmingham gets put down all the time but it has so much to offer – it’s so vibrant, it’s so multicultural, there’s a huge amount to do,” she says.
“I’m pleased the athletics stadium has been rebuilt and other things are popping up around the city which I hope will continue to encourage young people to get involved in sports.”
Birmingham has the youngest population of any city in Europe, with under-25s accounting for nearly 40% of its residents, and Reid believes the games will make a real effort to engage with its youthful audience. The city centre Smithfield site will host beach volleyball and, in a first for the Commonwealth Games, 3x3 basketball.
“Rather than the traditional 5x5 basketball, 3x3 basketball uses a single net,” says Reid. “It’s a bit more urban, it’s really fast and it’s a really engaging sport, and the fact it’s sold out so quickly shows there’s a huge appetite for it.
“There will also be DJs and music performances on that site, much more of a party atmosphere.”
Guscoth said the opportunity to inspire young people after two years of Covid is one of the main things she is excited to see. “I’d hate to think how many kids over the last two years have dropped out of sports, because it’s not been there to be played,” she said.
“It’s really tough to maintain interest and to keep up with fitness when gyms have been shut and clubs and school sports have been stopped, so hopefully this will reinvest a bit of energy and enthusiasm in sports.
“For me, it’s seeing the faces of young women in the crowd and people that I know look up to us as role models. It’s nice to know that the next generation are going to be able to witness that again.”
Organisers said ticket sales were given a big boost by the Olympics last summer, which coincided with the launch of the first ticket ballot. A number of athletes who competed in Tokyo, including swimmer Adam Peaty, sprinter Dina Asher-Smith, middle-distance runner Laura Muir and the para sport athlete Kadeena Cox, have signed up to compete.
“We’ve undoubtedly been helped by the Tokyo Olympics. People have been watching those athletes compete and then want to watch them in person at a home games,” says Reid.
“We just want to put on a really incredible celebration and feel like we’re getting back to, hopefully, some degree of normality.”