Birmingham City Council faces £25m Commonwealth Games funding gap

With only six months to go before the scheduled start of the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, the city’s council faces a shortfall of £25 million ($34 million) in its funding for the tournament.

Documents have shown that unless the gap is plugged in the next few months, the body will have to use emergency funding to help pay for the event, which is scheduled to run from July 28 to August 8.

The issue has been caused by fewer commercial partners putting in funding than the council expected.

The council expected to secure in the region of £75 million ($102 million) from partners but has so far only brought in £50 million ($68 million).

In total, Birmingham City Council is expected to fund £184.2 million ($250 million) out of the total games cost of $778 million ($1 billion).

The council stated in the documents mentioned above: “The council’s initial expectation was that partner funding contributions towards the council’s share of the cost of the Games would be secured to the value of at least £75 million ($102 million).

“Despite extensive engagement over a number of years at both political and senior officer levels, to date, it has only been possible to secure partner contributions amounting to £50 million ($68 million).”

The council’s Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee met to discuss the matter yesterday (January 20).

Worryingly for the Games, the council documents also say that it is “extremely unlikely that any further partner contributions will be secured.”

However, the council goes on to say that they agreed last year to set aside the £25 million ($34 million) from their corporate capital contingency in preparation for this type of situation when the possibility of a shortfall first arose.

Earlier this month, Ian Ward, leader of Birmingham City Council, said his organization is “determined that we will deliver not only the best Commonwealth Games but the most accessible Commonwealth Games there has ever been.”

Ward said the games were planning for full attendance at all venues, and that building projects were on time and expected to be completed.

The city was awarded the games in late 2017, when Durban in South Africa pulled out, meaning Birmingham has had less time than a host city would expect to complete preparations and venue-building.