In 2017, Liverpool was considering a bid for the 2026 Commonwealth Games when the South African city of Durban, originally chosen to host the 2022 games, withdrew due to a financial crisis. Liverpool, along with Birmingham, stepped in to compete for the vacated slot.
Ambitious waterfront vision
Liverpool's bid centred on regenerating its historic docks. Plans included a 50-metre floating pool, events at Anfield and St George's Hall, and an athletics track at Everton's proposed new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock. The bid was chaired by former Football Association boss Brian Barwick and backed by sporting figures Tony Bellew, Beth Tweddle and Stephen Parry.
One person involved with the bid acknowledged the timeline was "very tight". They said: "We knew the timelines were really, really tight. It was predicated on having a fair win on things that we weren't in control of."
The committee visit
Professor Michael Parkinson, who served on the bid committee, recalled a visit by a 15-strong panel from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. "Liverpool had a fantastic story to tell. It told it fantastically well," he said. The committee toured Anfield, Aintree and Hope University. Former mayor Joe Anderson, leading the charge, was "at his best" and "had the committee eating out of the palm of his hand", according to Parkinson.
But the turning point came during a ferry trip to view the Bramley-Moore Dock site. "It was a derelict site next to a sewage plant, full of weeds and birds. And you could see every member of the committee went pale and I just thought, they are not coming here - we can't have the Commonwealth Games without a stadium," Parkinson said.
Stadium stumbling block
The official involved agreed the stadium was the key issue: "The issue was the stadium, no one involved wasn't aware of that. But we had to go for what was put in front of us - we didn't have the luxury of choice, we had to be in it to win it." The official added: "The demands on any council at any given time, especially during austerity, resources are limited - so to pull it off would have been Herculean."
Birmingham ultimately won the bid and hosted the 2022 games. While the event was a success, it later emerged that a director appointed to tackle Birmingham's financial difficulties said hosting the games was "a challenge too far" for the council, which effectively declared bankruptcy a year later. The same Max Caller was later drafted in to oversee Liverpool City Council in 2021 after a corruption probe.
Some involved in Liverpool's bid felt missing out was a blessing. The official said: "I remember someone saying, we dodged a bullet there after we weren't chosen."
