Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games

It is more than 20 years since Manchester hosted the Commonwealth Games. One of the aims of the Games was to leave a lasting legacy of new sporting facilities as well as social, physical and economic regeneration, particularly around Sportcity in the east of the city.

The initiative for staging the 2002 Commonwealth Games came from the City Council, which led on the regeneration and legacy plans and was responsible for developing the facilities. The council delegated operational responsibility for organising the Games to a limited company. The staging of the Commonwealth Games was made possible because of the facilities developed forManchester’s bid for the 2000 Olympics and
Paralympic Games. The Aquatics Centre and the City of Manchester Stadium (now Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium) were new venues built for the Games, but many existing venues were also used.

The public investment in the Games and associated regeneration infrastructure and activity was £670 million at 2002 prices, including £100 million funding for the stadium. While the Games themselves were delivered within budget, capital costs ran £30 million over budget and the Games organisers struggled to find commercial
sponsorship.

Manchester City Council bore the financial risk associated with hosting the Games, with MPs later criticising this arrangement, stating:

“Major events concentrated in one city have imposed a considerable and unfair burden on the relevant city authority. Those authorities are expected to be responsible for some facility costs, to subsidise and under-write the running costs and to meet many of the hidden costs associated with events. This burden is most apparent in the inheritance of debt for the City of Sheffield from the 1991 World Student Games. The commitment of local government to staging sporting events is often crucial to their success. However, major events are not municipal, but national. The Government and national bodies must now recognise this and take a more leading role themselves in partnership with host local authorities.”

It is estimated that by 2007, 6,300 full-time equivalent jobs were directly attributable to the Games, amounting to 10 jobs for each £1 million of public investment. Evaluations suggest that 2,050 jobs were created before the Games started, 250 during the Games, with a further 4,000 arising from developments after the Games. The planning, delivery and legacy activities of the Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games were also subject to scrutiny by the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee.

There is consensus that the Games were a catalyst for the regeneration of East Manchester, an area which had been largely derelict since the closure of mills and heavy industry. Hosting the 2002 Commonwealth Games has helped Manchester’s journey to come the prosperous, vibrant city it is today. As well as the development of Sportcity, the Games brought new commercial developments to East Manchester including a regional retail centre, a four-star hotel, offices and new housing developments. The Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games also helped build the UK’s reputation as a country that could host major sporting events, and it is unlikely that London would have won the right to host the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games without the success of
Manchester.

There was a commitment to learn from the success of the Games and a number of internal and external evaluations were commissioned. The evaluations highlighted the need for better knowledge transfer from previous Games. Factors that contributed to the success of the Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games included:

• Leadership from Manchester City Council in the planning and delivery of the Games and legacy activities. As one of the largest local authorities in the UK it was the right organisation to lead the Games.
• The personal support of the prime minister and a dedicated team within the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (as was), although central government was also criticised for not doing enough to use the Games to promote international tourism.
• The integration of the Games into Manchester’s wider regeneration plans, which meant that impact and legacy were considered from the start and throughout the planning and delivery stages.
• Shared goals and good relationships between the council and its operational partners, including those
  involved in running impact and legacy activities.
• An agreement with the BBC that secured extensive media coverage and the involvement of the BBC in
  the cultural programme of the Games. The cultural programme successfully engaged local residents,
  while the television coverage of the Games reached an international audience of one billion people,
  boosting the UK’s soft power.
• A communication strategy that reached local residents, without overpromising what the Games would achieve. This secured the buy-in and support of local residents who saw the Games as part of wider regeneration activities of relevance to their lives.

Youth Charter

One of the significant legacy elements of Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games was Youth Charter (www.youthcharter.org), which aims to engage young people with sport, art, culture and digital activity, equipping them with a greater awareness of their skills and potential and empowering them to aspire to further and higher education, employment and entrepreneurship.

Almost three decades on, the Charter continues to operate as a global movement for sport development and has been associated with a number of the major events referenced in this report, including Liverpool Capital of Culture, Hull UK City of Culture, the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games and the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.

One of the key successes of the Charter is the Community Campus and Social Coach Leadership Programme, funded as part of the Sport England Commonwealth Active Communities Fund, which seeks to support young people around three key themes: Somewhere to Go; Something to Do; Someone to Show Them.

A Community Campus is made up of hub facilities, such as schools, community centres, youth clubs, sports centres, further and higher education institutions or any facility delivering youth cultural engagement, which are quality assured to deliver the programme. The programme supports a number of social coaches, individuals who are empowered to deliver activities and mentoring in their communities with the aim of:

• Engaging young people through sport, art, culture and digital activity;
• Equipping them with mental, physical and emotional life skills and resilience;
• Empowering them with the aspiration for further and higher education, employment and
  entrepreneurship.

A Community Campus has most recently been established in Birmingham.