North of England could bid to host the Olympic Games, reveals mayor Kim McGuinness

Great Britain's Kieran Reilly during the Men's BMX Freestyle Final
-Credit: (Image: PA)


A bid to bring the Olympic Games to the North of England could be on the cards, as the North East attempts to become the UK’s official Region of Sport.

North East mayor Kim McGuinness has revealed that leaders from across the North have discussed the prospect of launching a joint effort to host the world’s biggest celebration of sport. It had been suggested last year that the North could step in to stage the Commonwealth Games after the Australian state of Victoria pulled out, potentially using existing venues like Gateshead International Stadium, Sheffield’s Ponds Forge swimming complex and Manchester’s National Cycling Centre.

But Ms McGuinness disclosed to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) on Tuesday that there have been talks about going a step further by bidding for a “Great North Olympics”. It comes after the seven metro mayors from across the North announced plans in September to unite under the ‘Great North’ banner, hoping to tap into the success of the world-famous Great North Run to champion the regions and market themselves on a global scale.

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The Great Run Company has also been brought in to help the North East build a case to be designated as the UK’s first Region of Sport by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). At a meeting of the North East Combined Authority (NECA) on Tuesday, leaders backed plans to spend £500,000 to help increase community engagement around the opening match of the Women’s Rugby World Cup that is due to be held at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light next August.

That fixture, the Euro 2028 football matches at Newcastle’s St James’ Park, and Durham Cricket’s successful bid to establish one of only eight professional women’s teams in the country are all seen as key test cases to prove that the North East can create a lasting legacy from major sporting showpieces and use them to drive up grassroots participation.

As well as staging the world’s biggest half marathon every September, the North East has played host to a number of major events – including Olympic football in 2012, rugby’s Champions Cup final, England cricket matches, the World Transplant Games and cycling’s Tour of Britain. Politicians are hoping to harness the region’s passion for sport, and the appeal of local stars like Lioness Jill Scott and Olympic BMX medallist Kieran Reilly, to boost visitor numbers and double the size of the North East’s £6.1 billion tourism industry by 2034.

Speaking to the LDRS about the Region of Sport vision after the NECA meeting in Morpeth, Ms McGuinness said: “It is about growing homegrown events that are involving people at a grassroots level in sport and in culture, as well as making sure we are bringing those big headline events like the Women’s Rugby World Cup to the region so that kids growing up here can see what the art of the possible is.

“We have had some real success in our component parts at hosting really fantastic events in the region. We have had the Rugby World Cup, we have had the Heineken Cup, we are well known for the Great North Run. We know that we can do more and that when people come here they receive an outstanding welcome, we do really well with them.

“There are also conversations as a joined-up North, the Great North, about what we can do together. And it is fair to say that in those rooms we have discussed some of the real big events, as far as discussing whether there is a possibility for a Great North Olympics at some point in the future.”

The next summer Olympics will be held in Los Angeles in 2028, followed by Brisbane in 2032. So the earliest tournaments that the North of England would be able to consider making a bid for would be in 2036 or 2040.

At Tuesday’s NECA meeting, Gateshead Council leader Martin Gannon expressed pride in the North East’s record at hosting big occasions, calling the Great North Run the “best sporting event in the world”. He also referenced previous hopes of bringing the 2026 European Championships, which would have combined the European Athletics Championships with competitions in other sports including swimming, cycling, gymnastics, rowing and triathlon, in Newcastle and Gateshead.

That bid fell flat after local councils were unable to secure £25 million from the former Government to help pay for the games, while the 2026 European Athletics Championships has now been awarded to Birmingham. Past talk of Newcastle putting itself forward for the 2022 Commonwealth Games, which ultimately went to Birmingham too, also went cold and a formal bid never submitted.

Coun Gannon said: “I am really excited about what is being proposed here in terms of making us the Region of Sport. I was enormously disappointed a few years ago when we were on the brink of making a bid for hosting the European Games in the North East of England, in Gateshead.

“We had support across the spectrum. We met with the European Athletics organisation and World Athletics, we met with UK Sport, Sport England, DCMS, and ultimately the previous Government failed to give us support to make a bid.

“Think about something like that, the European Games – a global audience of a billion, 1,700 hours of live television coverage, a fortnight of world sporting excellence. Yet the previous Government would not make an investment of £25 million in the North East of England to make that happen. Let’s make things like that happen in the future.”