Ticket sales defy low-profile start to accidental Commonwealth Games | Rob Harris
While one wag referred to it this week as “a party you had forgotten your partner had organised”, ticket sales surprisingly point to this week’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham as the most attended of all previous 22 editions.
And with more than 1.2 million tickets sold already despite a lacklustre build-up, the accidental Games will attract more fans than Glasgow 2014 and Gold Coast 2018 . Television rights holders estimate an audience of 1 billion over the 11 days of competition. Richie Anderson takes part in The Queen’s Baton Relay as it visits Sandwell Aquatics as part of the Birmingham 2022 Queens Baton Relay in Birmingham on July 25.The mascot is Perry the Bull - who has horns, trotters and multi-coloured hexagons all over him. The animal has had a long association with the city.
Dame Louise Martin, president of the Commonwealth Games Federation, has said herself that the event has been in an existential crisis for the last decade.“In recent times, our federation has done a lot of soul-searching to look at our impact and meaning,” she said in 2018. “The Commonwealth Sport Movement reached a challenging chapter in its existence – when the very word and purpose of the ‘Commonwealth’ was questioned and the negative impacts of a Games on a host community were highlighted.
Maintaining a social justice theme, organisers plan to directly challenge the participating nations which still outlaw homosexuality with the establishment of a Pride House. There are 35 Commonwealth countries where homosexuality is illegal, 13 of which punish homosexual acts with imprisonment or the death penalty.Martin Green, chief creative officer of Birmingham Commonwealth Games 2022, said that would be referenced in the opening ceremony directly.
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