Alexander Stadium is a

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

athletics stadium in Perry Park,

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

, England. It hosted the athletics and opening/closing ceremonies of the

2022 Commonwealth Games The 2022 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Birmingham 2022, was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth of Nations that took place in Birmingham, England b ...

. Other events held there include the annual

British Grand Prix The British Grand Prix is a Grand Prix motor race organised in the United Kingdom by the Royal Automobile Club. First held in 1926, the British Grand Prix has been held annually since 1948 and has been a round of the FIA Formula One World Cha ...

between 2011 and 2019 and in 2022, the

Amateur Athletics Association The Amateur Athletic Association of England or AAA (pronounced 'three As') is the oldest national governing body for athletics in the world, having been established on 24 April 1880. Historically it effectively oversaw athletics throughout Brita ...

Championships, 1998 Disability World Athletics Championships, and

English Schools' Athletics Championships The English Schools' Athletics Championships are annual national athletics competitions organised by the English Schools' Athletic Association ESAA for students in England aged 12–18 for track and field, cross country and race walking. The e ...

. Original construction began in 1975 and the stadium opened in 1976. It is owned and operated by

Birmingham City Council Birmingham City Council is the local government body responsible for the governance of the City of Birmingham in England, which has been a metropolitan district since 1974. It is the most populated local council area in the United Kingdom ...

Birchfield Harriers Birchfield Harriers is an athletics club, founded in 1877. Its home is at Birmingham's Alexander Stadium, England. As well as welcoming recreational runners they cater for all levels of experience up to and including Olympic athletes whether a ...

use it as their home stadium, replacing their former home at Alexander Sports Ground. The stadium underwent a renovation between 2019 and 2022, to prepare it for hosting the Commonwealth Games.

Structure

The stadium has a nine-lane synthetic surface track with a blue surface. Before redevelopment, there were 7,000 covered seats in three separate stands called Main, Knowles (after

Dick Knowles Sir Richard Marchant Knowles (20 May 1917 – 18 February 2008) was a British politician known for his work in local government in Birmingham. He led the Labour Party administration on Birmingham City Council from 1984 to 1993. Knowles was br ...

) and Nelson (after Doris Nelson Neal OBE), and a 5,000-seater stand on the rear straight.

Diamond League

Since 2011 Alexander Stadium has hosted the prestigious world athletics

Diamond League The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field athletic competitions comprising fourteen of the best invitational athletics meetings. The series sits in the top tier of the World Athletics (formerly known as the IAAF) one-day mee ...

tour until 2019 ahead of the redevelopment. Birmingham held the 2nd series of the 2022 tour on May 21st 2022.

Music events

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 including

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Natasha Bedingfield Natasha Anne Bedingfield (born 26 November 1981) is a British singer and songwriter. Bedingfield released her debut album, '' Unwritten'', in 2004, which contained primarily up-tempo pop songs and was influenced by R&B music. It enjoyed intern ...

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ...

Sugababes Sugababes are a British girl group composed of Mutya Buena, Keisha Buchanan and Siobhán Donaghy. The lineup changed three times before returning to the original lineup in 2011. Formed in 1998 by All Saints manager Ron Tom, Sugababes releas ...

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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.

Expansion

2011

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. The new stand has also become home to the offices of

UK Athletics UK Athletics (UKA) is the governing body for the sport of athletics in the United Kingdom. It is responsible for overseeing the governance of athletics events in the UK as well as athletes, their development, and athletics officials. The org ...

. The stand was completed in June 2011, in time to host the

in July 2011.

2017–present

In June 2017, during the preparation of the Birmingham bid for the 2022 Commonwealth Games, the Birmingham bid committee proposed to renovate Alexander Stadium and use it for hosting the athletics and ceremonies of the Games. On 11 April 2018, British Prime Minister

Theresa May Theresa Mary May, Lady May (; née Brasier; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served in David Cameron's cab ...

announced that £70 million (approx. USD $90 million) of investment would be earmarked to transform the Alexander Stadium into a world-class athletics venue for the 2022 Commonwealth Games, during which it will seat 40,000 spectators. In October 2018, British engineering and designing firm Arup was chosen by the

to redesign the stadium. British construction firm Mace was chosen to manage the stadium renovation project. On 21 June 2019,

released the images and plans for renovating the Alexander Stadium and claimed that it would create a legacy asset for the Perry Barr area. On 30 January 2020, Birmingham City Council's planning committee approved the renovation plans of the Alexander Stadium which would cost £72 million. After the games, the temporary stands around the track bends will be removed, leaving the two permanent stands seating 18,000, with the option of extending to 40,000 for major events. In March 2020, the city council chose the Northern Irish firm

McLaughlin & Harvey McLaughlin & Harvey is a building and civil engineering firm founded in 1853. It operates all over UK and Ireland from its head offices located in Mallusk, just north of Belfast. History Henry McLaughlin and William Harvey first establishe ...

to redevelop the stadium.

Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games

Alexander Stadium was the main venue for athletics, para-athletics as well as holding the opening and closing ceremonie

The redeveloped stadium included temporary seating and facilities to accommodate the games. Birmingham City Council will remove these and reopen the stadium in legacy format by April 202

Alexander Stadium Temporary Stand

Future Use

Following the awarding of the 2026 European Athletics Championships to Birmingham, Alexander Stadium will serve as the venue for the championships

Incidents

On 22 March 2016 fell-runner

Lauren Jeska use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) --> , death_place = , death_cause = , body_discovered = , resting_place = , resting_place_coordinates ...

from Lancaster attacked UK Athletics official

Ralph Knibbs Ralph Andrew Knibbs is an English former rugby union player who played for Bristol. Rugby career He made his debut as a seventeen-year-old against Pontypridd RFC in 1982, scoring with his first touch of the ball.Lauren Jeska jailed for Alexander Stadium stabbings - BBC News
/ref>Fell-runner Lauren Jeska tried to kill British athletics official because she feared the body would revoke her titles over transgender status
/ref> She was also convicted of causing

actual bodily harm Assault occasioning actual bodily harm (often abbreviated to Assault OABH, AOABH or simply ABH) is a statutory offence of aggravated assault in England and Wales, Northern Ireland, the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Hong Kong and th ...

to two bystanders who tried to defend Knibbs.

References

External links

Birmingham City Council page on the stadiumRuntrackdir.com
{{Authority control Sports venues in Birmingham, West Midlands Athletics (track and field) venues in England Sports venues completed in 1976 Birchfield Harriers 1976 establishments in England Perry Barr American football venues in England Diamond League venues 2022 Commonwealth Games venues Athletics at the 2022 Commonwealth Games