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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Alex Spink

Birmingham on track for biggest Commonwealth Games with 1.2m tickets already sold

Birmingham is on course to be the biggest and best supported Commonwealth Games - with 1.2 million tickets already bought.

With 16 days until the opening ceremony, organisers are confident of topping the 1.3m tickets sold for Glasgow in 2014.

Manchester sold 900,000 in 2002, Delhi shifted 597,000 in 2010 and Gold Coast hit the 1.2m mark four years ago.

Birmingham 2022 bosses hope another 150,000 will be snapped up before the likes of Dame Laura Kenny, Adam Peaty and Dina Asher-Smith get going - of which 100,000 will be priced at £22 for adults and £8 for kids.

London 2012 sold 11 million tickets for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, but that was a multi-sport competition on an altogether different scale.

While Birmingham has 20 sports in competition over 11 days, the Olympics had 302 events across 36 sports - and the Paras a further 20.

Adam Peaty with his 100m breaststroke gold medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast (Getty Images AsiaPac)

What makes Birmingham’s numbers particularly impressive is that the nation is experiencing a cost of living crisis and still emerging from a pandemic.

Local hero Peaty, who is winning his fitness race to compete at the Sandwell Aquatics Centre, says the opportunity to compete in front of a home crowd has been a huge inspiration during his recovery from a broken foot.

The swimming star told the BBC : "I grew up 45-50 minutes away from Birmingham so to race in that arena, it doesn't get much closer to home than that.

"It gives me goose bumps thinking about it."

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