Alexander Stadium
Alexander Stadium | |
Location | Perry Park, Perry Barr, Birmingham, England |
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Coordinates | 52°31′49″N 1°54′20″W / 52.53033°N 1.90561°W / 52.53033; -1.90561Coordinates: 52°31′49″N 1°54′20″W / 52.53033°N 1.90561°W / 52.53033; -1.90561 |
Operator | Birmingham City Council |
Capacity | 12,700 (proposed increasing for 50,000 and 25,000 permanently for 2022 Commonwealth Games) |
Construction | |
Broke ground | 1975 |
Opened | 1976 (1976) |
Expanded | 2011, (proposed 2019-2021) |
Tenants | |
Birchfield Harriers England Monarchs (NFL Europe) (1998) | |
Website | |
www.birmingham.gov.uk/alexander |
Alexander Stadium is an international athletics stadium located within Perry Park in Perry Barr, Birmingham, England, at grid reference SP065925. It has staged the Amateur Athletics Association Championships, and was the venue of the 1998 Disability World Athletics Championships. It hosted one England Monarchs game in 1998 with an attendance of 8,000. It frequently hosts the English Schools' Athletics Championships, alternating every few years with Gateshead. 2019 will be the last year the ESAA Championships will be held there due to its demolition and rebuild for the commonwealth games[1].It hosts the annual British Grand Prix and will be the main athletics venue of the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
The construction of the stadium began in 1975 and it opened in 1976. It is the home of Birchfield Harriers, one of the best known athletics clubs in the United Kingdom, replacing their former home at Alexander Sports Ground.[2]
Contents
1 Structure
2 Music event
3 Expansion
3.1 Redevelopment for Commonwealth Games
4 References
5 External links
Structure
It has an eight-lane synthetic surface track with a ten lane straight. There are 7,000 covered seats in 3 separate stands called Main, Knowles (after Dick Knowles) and Nelson (after Doris Nelson Neal OBE) and a 5,000 seater main stand in the rear straight.
Event type | Capacity |
---|---|
Sporting events | 12,700 (seated) |
Live music events | Approx 20,000 |
Music event
The stadium has held many music events, including a one-day festival called Party in the Park run by BRMB (now Free Radio Birmingham) radio that featured acts like Nelly Furtado, Westlife, Natasha Bedingfield, Blue, Sugababes, Girls Aloud and The Calling. The event was later moved to Cannon Hill Park where it was in a more central part of the city and so made it easier for people from south Birmingham to attend. This event, however, was later cancelled although it returned in 2010.
Expansion
In 2011 Alexander Stadium underwent a £12.5 million expansion and refurbishment, including the building of a 5,000 seater stand opposite the current main stand. This took the capacity to 12,700.[3] The new stand has also become home to the offices of UK Athletics.[4]
The stand was completed in June 2011, in time to host the Diamond League British Grand Prix in July 2011.[5]
Redevelopment for Commonwealth Games
On 25 December 2017, the Commonwealth Games Federation announced Birmingham as the host of the 2022 Commonwealth Games.[6] The Alexander stadium will host athletics, opening and closing ceremonies of the Games.[7] The stadium would undergo a renovation, with the stadium's capacity increased to 40,000 with 25,000 permanent seats. The renovated stadium is also set to include community sports facilities within the new stand, a permanent warm-up track and a new conference meeting space created to host business and cultural events.[8] On 11 April 2018, British Prime Minister Theresa May announced that £70 million (approx. USD $90 million) of investment will be earmarked to transform the stadium into a world-class athletics venue for the 2022 Commonwealth Games.[9] British engineering and designing firm Arup was chosen by the Birmingham City Council to redesign the stadium.[10] British construction firm Mace was chosen by the city council to manage the stadium renovation project.[11]
References
^ "English schools 2019". ESAA..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
^ Alexander, William O; Morgan, Wilfred (1988). The History of Birchfield Harriers 1877–1988. Birchfield Harriers. ISBN 0-9514082-0-8.
^ "Alexander Stadium's bid to be UK Athletics base". BBC. 2010-09-22. Retrieved 2011-05-08.
^ "UK Athletics heading for a grandstand view of the Alexander Stadium". Inside the Games. 2011-07-15. Retrieved 2011-07-15.
^ "Top athletes set for Birmingham Grand Prix Meeting". BBC. 2010-10-22. Retrieved 2011-06-08.
^ Sport, Telegraph (2017-12-21). "Birmingham named 2022 Commonwealth Games host city". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2019-03-18.
^ "Stadium expansion at heart of 2022 bid". 20 June 2017 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
^ Turton, Andrew. "Birmingham's Alexander Stadium to get £70m revamp ahead of 2022 Commonwealth Games". www.expressandstar.com. Retrieved 2019-03-18.
^ "PM announces £70 million to transform Birmingham stadium for 2022 Commonwealth Games". GOV.UK. Retrieved 2019-03-18.
^ Marshall2018-10-25T09:39:00+01:00, Jordan. "Arup wins design contract for £70m revamp of Commonwealth Games stadium". Building. Retrieved 2019-03-18.
^ "Mace to project manage Birmingham Commonwealth Games stadium". Infrastructure Intelligence. Retrieved 2019-03-18.
External links
- Birmingham City Council page on the stadium
- Runtrackdir.com