Liverpool 2026

The Mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson, announced yesterday that Liverpool intended to bid to host the Commonwealth Games in 2026.
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This is a bold ambition, and as is to be expected the usual naysayers have already poured their cold water on the idea.
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It will take determination, a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck to first of all persuade the UK government to give us the kind of financial backing that was given to London 2012, even though the sums involved are a fraction of those demanded by the Olympics; secondly to win the UK nomination, then to win the support of the Commonwealth nations to win the hosting rights, and finally to actually stage a successful games in ten years time.
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Ambitious yes, but Liverpool has a history of taking ambitious leaps of faith to progress the city.
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In 1709 the then Town Council mortgaged the entire town, everything, to build the world's first commercial dock. That was such a success that it led to us having the most extensive, and profitable dock system in the world, indeed such was Liverpool's success that at times during the 19th century our Custom House was the largest single contributer to the Exchequer, and Liverpool's wealth surpassed that of the capital.
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In 1830 in order that the burgeoning port could have faster access to the industrial north west the world's first intercity railway was built to link Liverpool and Manchester.
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The list of firsts includes the world's first School of Tropical Medicine; Britain's first municipal housing; the world's first overhead electric railway. In the 20th century we built Britain's largest cathedral, the world's longest underwater road tunnel (a record held for 40 years); the first port radar system. The list goes on!
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In 2003 we beat 5 other cities to be named European Capital of Culture for 2008. Many scoffed, but it's widely acknowledged to have been the most successful ECoC programme ever delivered with 9.7m visitors to the city generating £754m for our economy.  The visitor/tourism economy now supports 43,000 jobs and generates £4bn annually.
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More recently in 2014 one million people visited the city in one weekend to see "Memories of August 1914" as we launched our WW1 commemorations; and in 2015 1.2m people lined the banks of the Mersey as Cunard celebrated its 175th anniversary.
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In 2014 and again this year the International Festival of Business has seen a total of over 100,000 delegates from 100 countries meet in Liverpool.
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We can, and we do, host major national and international events, conferences and celebrations.  We can put on a successful 2026 Commonwealth Games and if our history is anything to go by, we will.