It looks increasingly likely that the hugely successful 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games could prove to be the very last ever (Out of time? Unloved Commonwealth Games faces uphill battle to survive, 4 December).
This doesn’t need to be so. The way forward is to follow the example of the 1948 London Olympic Games, often referred to as “the Austerity Games”, which proved that huge amounts of money do not need to be spent on staging major sporting events.
Future Commonwealth Games should focus on the sports and not on lavishing huge amounts of money providing hospitality to VIPs in the form of extravagant hotels, business-class air fares and limousines to ferry them to and from venues. We should not be sidetracked by grandiose opening and closing ceremonies. And where possible, existing sports venues should be used.
The Commonwealth Games play a vital role in giving sports stars of the future the perfect stepping stone towards representing their country in world championships and Olympic Games. Many sports depend on the exposure and sporting opportunities the Commonwealth Games present. It would be a tragedy if they are allowed to fade away.
David Judson Viner
Stourbridge, West Midlands
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