From badminton in Bangor to triathlon in Tredegar, towns and cities across Wales could have hosted top-level international sport under now-scrapped plans for a Welsh 2026 Commonwealth Games bid.
Earlier this year, the Government announced it had decided not to bid for the event , which could also have seen swimming in Swansea and lawn bowls in Llandrindod Wells and which would have come with a price tag of up to £1.5bn.
However, a major feasibility study by the Welsh Government found hosting the Games was not viable and would not have given Wales any significant economic boost – although Economy Secretary Ken Skates has insisted he still wanted Wales to host a Games one day.
The decision not to bid to host the 2026 event – for the first time in Wales since its incarnation as the Empire Games in 1958 – was met with some disappointment.
But the feasibility study said that while hosting the Games may have boosted Wales’s reputation on the global stage, it would not register with target markets such as Germany and the US, neither of which are members of the Commonwealth.
There were three sets of options for hosting the Games – one pan-Wales, one concentrated in the North East and South East, and one just in the South East of Wales.
Including a new athletics stadium being built in Wrexham , the all-Wales option – which was eventually dismissed as being the least viable – would have seen 12 of Wales’ local authority areas hosting sports.
The former Llanwern steelworks site in Newport would have housed the South Wales athletes’ village, while rugby sevens would have been at Parc Eirias in Colwyn Bay rather than Cardiff ’s Principality Stadium.
Potential hosts under the all-Wales option
• Cardiff : opening and closing ceremonies at Principality Stadium; boxing at the Motorpoint Arena; gymnastics at a new arena and netball at Ice Arena Wales
• Swansea : hockey and swimming at Swansea University
• Newport : an athletes’ village at Llanwern; weightlifting at Celtic Manor
• Rhondda Cynon Taff : possibly diving in Aberdare; judo and wrestling in Treforest
• Blaenau Gwent : pistol and full bore shooting in Cwm, triathlon in Tredegar
• Caerphilly : clay target shooting in Blackwood
• Monmouthshire : road cycling in Abergavenny
• Powys : full bore shooting at the Ministry of Defence site in Sennybridge, lawn bowls in Llandrindod Wells
• Ceredigion : squash in Aberystwyth
• Wrexham : an athletes’ village, athletics, mountain biking and table tennis; also archery in Chirk
• Conwy : beach volleyball and rugby sevens in Colwyn Bay
• Gwynedd : badminton and possibly diving in Bangor
The pan-Wales option was dismissed because of how spread out the events would have been and the lack of a centralised hub, as was the case for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
A South East Wales model – which would also have included sports in Ebbw Vale, Margam and Llandarcy – was the preferred option for any bid.
Should Wales have bid to host 2026 Games?
Ebbw Vale could have hosted lawn bowls, and Lee Thomas, chairman of the RTB Ebbw Vale Bowls Club, said the Games could have provided a major boost to the town.
“It would have been a massive event to be a part of,” he said.
“It’s not just the obvious things, such as extra visitors locally, which would have been good for businesses. But as far as the club is concerned it could have helped with costs and the upkeep of the green, and helped towards funding for improvements.”
Speaking in July, after the Government announced it would not be bidding, Olympic and Commonwealth long jump gold medallist Lynn Davies said : “I think it would have been a great opportunity to promote Wales to the world.
“One of our targets as a country is to now work very closely with the Commonwealth countries – they could become a very big market for us.”
Announcing the decision, Mr Skates said the costs of hosting the Games would involve “a huge additional financial commitment from Welsh Government over three Assembly terms”.
He said: “Given the high cost, our understanding that an all-Wales bid was less likely to be supported and the current funding uncertainty following the vote to leave the EU, we have reluctantly concluded that the bid for the 2026 Commonwealth Games is not feasible.”
But he added: “Hosting a future Commonwealth Games remains a Welsh ambition and we will continue to discuss flexible delivery options for future bid cycles.”
The feasibility study also outlined some of the disadvantages of not bidding for the Games, including “reputational damage to the Welsh Government and to Wales on the global sporting stage as a result of being seen as unable to bid for and hold this major sporting event”.
And it pointed out: “Not bidding might mean that desired investment in new or refurbished sporting facilities such as a new athletics stadium, aquatics centre and velodrome will not be taken forward either.”
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/colwyn-bay-cardiff-how-commonwealth-12022706