Birmingham Commonwealth Games cancel affordable housing

Hamilton track and field advocate Kevin Gonci has been raising some red flags about Hamilton’s Commonwealth Games bid. Gonci is heading a coalition of amateur sports organizations who are proposing to develop a field house complex for amateur sports in Hamilton that he says would pay its way through user fees. In his latest submission to Hamilton Council, Gonci suggested the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games are running into cost overruns and have had to cancel plans to build a 1,000-unit athletes village that would then be converted to affordable housing. A legacy of affordable housing has formed a significant part of the Hamilton 2026 pitch. In his submission, Gonci quoted the Hamilton 2026 bid organizers as saying “The Hamilton 100 group has utilized the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games budget as a baseline in calculating the estimated costs of hosting the 2030 Commonwealth Games”. Gonci’s submission says that Birmingham has experienced cost overruns, for which it had to raise taxes and  borrow money. His full report is here.