Alexander Stadium is handed over for final leg of Games-time preparations

Almost three years of work to redevelop the city’s Alexander Stadium has reached its most significant milestone yet – with the venue handed over by the city council to Birmingham 2022 for this summer’s Commonwealth Games.

The council has overseen the £72million project to revamp the stadium ahead of the biggest event in the city’s history.

Alexander Stadium Redevelopment Making Great Progress

The full event schedule for Birmingham 2022 has been released, allowing sports fans to see the detail of exactly which events will be held in each of the 286 sessions that will feature at next summer’s Games. Women’s cricket T20, basketball 3x3, wheelchair basketball 3x3 and mixed synchronised diving will all debut in Birmingham, with the schedule set to includes two ‘Super Sundays’ for spectators to look forward to, with the second set to be the ultimate showcase of women’s sport.

With limited opportunities to attend live sports events in recent months, a huge amount of interest in tickets for the Games is expected, especially as the sports programme is the biggest in Commonwealth history and from today Birmingham 2022 ticket accounts can now be set up. The event schedule was launched with the help of Team England hopefuls who visited the host city’s Alexander Stadium - an important Games venue currently undergoing a £72 million refurbishment which is on budget and on schedule to be completed in Spring 2022.

Birmingham City Council Leader, Councillor Ian Ward, said: “The summer of 2022 is set for a spectacular Commonwealth Games, with 11 days of world-class sport in our city and wider region. The redeveloped Alexander Stadium will be at the heart of the Games, as the venue will not only host the athletics but the opening and closing ceremonies.

“The Alexander Stadium redevelopment is progressing at a lightning speed, with the roof of the new West Stand now complete. Once finished the Alexander Stadium will be truly befitting for the world’s best track and field athletes and as a bold centre piece of leisure, health and well-being activity in a regenerated Perry Barr.” 

“To see a world-class stadium developing on budget is fantastic, said Director of Sport for Birmingham 2022, Matt Kidson. “With more detail for our sports programme now revealed, the Games is really taking shape and it’s time for people to start planning which sessions they want to attend next summer, as our tickets will go on sale very soon,” he continued.

Aspiring Team GB Olympic heavyweight Delicious Orie said: "Some say I'm the new Anthony Joshua, but one day I aim to be even better and dominate." Raised in Russia, built in Wolverhampton, in Britain, the Super-Heavyweight England Boxing National Amateur Champion is targeting Birmingham 2022 and Paris 2024.

“This is a dream period in my life,” he said. “I originally played basketball and knew nothing about boxing. Away from the ring the calm and humble Delicious is appreciative of the sacrifices his family made to give him the chance of a better life away from racism in Russia.

He said: "I was born in Moscow and life was harder out there. We didn't have a lot of money and some people didn't like me purely because of the colour of my skin.

"I was seven when we moved to the UK and although it was difficult because I didn't speak the language and there were cultural differences, I could see there were more opportunities for kids to succeed." His father, Justin, left Nigeria in 1995 hoping for a better life in Russia and although he met his wife Natalie while studying, he had arrived in a country where Black people were often subjected to severe discrimination.

Orie, 23, found a love of sport as soon as he came to the UK and settled in Wolverhampton, but he had not even considered boxing before turning 18. "My first love was basketball and I looked up to Luol Deng,” he recalls.

“Born in Sudan, he was ‘killing it’ in the NBA. I knew nothing about boxing until I was introduced to the Wolverhampton Amateur Boxing Club. Now I aim to do the same in my sport”. Orie's ultimate target is an Olympic title for his adopted nation at Paris 2024, but first he must secure British citizenship.

“With 19 different sports and eight Para sports, we have such a rich and varied programme and there will be medal moments on every single day of competition,” says Matt Kitson. “We also have a really interesting mix of venues, with established facilities like the NEC and Arena Birmingham, beautiful parks like St Nicholas Park and West Park and exciting redevelopments like the Alexander Stadium, where the progress in the last 12 months has been phenomenal.”

As a new Alexander Stadium is coming on in leaps-and-bounds, Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games just can’t come soon enough!

Alexander Stadium revamp contract awarded to McLaughlin & Harvey

The contract to redevelop Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium into a high-quality venue for diverse sporting, leisure, community and cultural events has been awarded by Birmingham City Council to McLaughlin & Harvey.

McLaughlin & Harvey has a strong track record in undertaking large prestigious projects across the UK and has previously successfully completed projects for major games events, including the London Olympics, and sporting developments for numerous football and rugby clubs.

The Alexander Stadium project, a scheme worth an overall £72million, received unanimous support from the Birmingham City Council Planning Committee in January 2020. It will see the venue’s permanent capacity increased from 12,700 to 18,000 – with the ability to temporarily increase up to a maximum of 40,000 for major events.

The regeneration of Perry Barr, which has the stadium at the centre, represents more than £500million of investment in the coming years, the wider plans for the area also include new housing, improved transport and related upgrades to infrastructure and public space.

The revamped stadium is set to host a range of tenants including the world-famous Birchfield Harriers Athletics Club and Birmingham City University.  Acting as the new home for the university’s sports and exercise students, it will bring an exciting new partnership and purpose to the stadium beyond athletics.

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All Blacks and Springboks preparing for history

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All-Rounder Russell retiring from West Indies' international set-up

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Altitude International announces partnership with the largest youth soccer club network in the world

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RUSH Soccer is a national competitive youth soccer club that administers boys’ and girls’ teams internationally (the “RUSH Programs”) with proprietary training methodology, documentation and materials (the “RUSH Material”), proprietary technologies and platforms (the “RUSH Technologies”), and a database of individuals (the “RUSH Database”).

AlUla Camel Cup set to be the pinnacle of the Saudi Arabian camel-racing season

The Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU), in collaboration with the Saudi Camel Racing Federation (SCRF), announced today that the inaugural AlUla Camel Cup will be held from March 14-17, 2023.

The tournament will crown a ‘Champion of Champions’ and will complete with a grand prize pool of USD 21.33M. With the highest prize pots in the world per round of camel racing, the tournament honours the Kingdom’s revered sport in the stunning backdrop of AlUla, a place of extraordinary human and natural heritage.

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American three-time Olympic medallist and ex-world champion Tori Bowie dies

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An eloquent and thought-provoking book on racism and prejudice by Liverpool and England legend John Barnes.

He spent the first dozen years of his life in Jamaica before moving to the UK with his family in 1975. Six years later he was a professional footballer, distinguishing himself for Watford, Liverpool and England, and in the process becoming this country's most prominent Black player.

An international field is welcome for the adidas Manchester Marathon

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An open letter to Wasps RFC fans, partners, staff and community from CEO, Stephen Vaughan

As everyone is aware, we are living through extraordinary times and none of us can predict the future or speculate when the current situation will end.

As a club and business, we are having to make difficult decisions to navigate these unchartered waters and ensure the Club is in a position to continue its exciting journey when we come through this global emergency.  

We would all love the season to be back underway immediately, but all Rugby activities are currently suspended and there are no guarantees as to when we might start playing again. In light of the latest advice and information from the Government, along with the pattern of escalation we have seen in the last few days, businesses around the world are being heavily impacted and we, Wasps, are no different.

With this in mind, we need to take some extremely difficult and significant action to reduce costs immediately so we can resume doing what we love when this is all over. The impact of these decisions is going to be felt across the whole business.

Having discussed this situation at length with my colleagues from across the league, as well as Premiership Rugby, we are putting in place salary reductions of 25 per cent across the majority of the Rugby department until we are playing Gallagher Premiership matches again.

These measures will take effect from 1 April 2020. A number of lower paid staff will be excluded from these salary reductions.

I spoke with Lee Blackett and senior members of the playing squad last night, and we then communicated this message to the wider team and colleagues. I could not be more proud of their response, understanding and determination to help the Club in such testing times. The same is true of the players’ efforts to support our wider community stay connected and keep talking, which I am sure you will be aware of.

These are extraordinary times which call for extraordinary and robust measures. We do not know with any certainty how long these reductions will be in place, but we will review the situation on an ongoing basis and continue to keep the entire Wasps family up to date with developments.

This great Club has a proud history spanning over 150 years and, with everyone working together, we will ensure it has a great future.

An open letter to Wasps RFC fans, partners, staff and community from CEO, Stephen Vaughan

As everyone is aware, we are living through extraordinary times and none of us can predict the future or speculate when the current situation will end.
  
As a club and business, we have to make difficult decisions to navigate these unchartered waters and ensure the Club is in a position to continue its exciting journey when we come through this global emergency.  
 
We would all love the season to be back underway immediately, but all rugby activities are currently suspended and there are no guarantees as to when we might start playing again.

In light of the latest advice and information from the government, along with the pattern of escalation we have seen in the last few days, businesses around the world are being heavily impacted and we, Wasps, are no different.
 
With this in mind, we need to take some extremely difficult and significant action to reduce costs immediately so we can resume doing what we love when this is all over. The impact of these decisions is going to be felt across the whole business.
 
Having discussed this situation at length with my colleagues from across the league, as well as Premiership Rugby, we are putting in place salary reductions of 25 per cent across the majority of the Rugby department until we are playing Gallagher Premiership matches again.

These measures have taken effect from 1 April 2020. A number of lower paid staff has been excluded from these salary reductions.
  
I spoke with Lee Blackett and senior members of the playing squad and we then communicated this message to the wider team and colleagues. I could not be more proud of their response, understanding and determination to help the Club in such testing times. The same is true of the players’ efforts to support our wider community stay connected and keep talking, which I am sure you will be aware of.
 
These are extraordinary times which call for extraordinary and robust measures. We do not know with any certainty how long these reductions will be in place, but we will review the situation on an ongoing basis and continue to keep the entire Wasps family up to date with developments.
 
This great Club has a proud history spanning over 150 years and, with everyone working together, we will ensure it has a great future.