English National Stadium (West Midlands)

Last updated May 06, 2024

The English National Stadium (West Midlands) was a proposed multi-purpose stadium that would have been built on a site next to the National Exhibition Centre on the Meriden Gap in the Borough of Solihull in the English West Midlands region.^[1]

Background

With the 2001 announcement that the original Wembley Stadium was to be demolished, bids were put forward for a new national stadium for England. The West Midlands bid became the main rival to the eventual winning bid to build a new stadium on the site of the old Wembley.

Proposal

The proposal was for an 85,000 capacity saddle shaped bowl stadium designed by stadia specialists ArupSport priced at around £324m. The stadium was to be jointly owned by a new company formed from the two councils - Birmingham and Solihull, the NEC group, and event owners such as the FA.^[2]

Advocates of the stadium highlighted numerous benefits:

Location - The stadium would be in the centre of England and therefore more easily accessible to those living in the North than a stadium in London.
Cost - The anticipated cost was lower than other bids, including the stadium in London.^[1]
Transport Connections - As part of the wider NEC site the stadium would have had access to a dedicated rail station - Birmingham International railway station - an airport - Birmingham Airport - and excellent motorway links, to the South East via the M42 and the M40 the South West via the M5, and the North via the M6.^[1]
Surrounding attractions - The area is already well served by hotels, and has a number of other attractions next to the proposed site, including the National Exhibition Centre, Resorts World Arena, and more recently a Casino, Cinema and Outlet Shopping Centre.^[1]

Support

The proposal received support from a large cross section of people, including business personalities such as Karren Brady, high profile figures in football such as Doug Ellis, and more than two-thirds of fans surveyed by the Football Supporters' Association.

A cross party parliamentary motion for support of the stadium bid received over 100 signatures.^[3]

Result

A decision was taken not to go ahead with the stadium, and to instead re-build Wembley Stadium in London. The decision was met with criticism, with accusations the government had bent the rules to allow the Wembley bid to win at the expense of the West Midlands bid.^[4]

Related Research Articles

West Midlands is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the larger West Midlands region of England. A landlocked county, it is bordered by Staffordshire to the north and west, Worcestershire to the south, and is surrounded by Warwickshire to the east. The largest settlement is the city of Birmingham.

Wembley is a large suburb in the London Borough of Brent, north-west London, 8 miles (13 km) northwest of Charing Cross. It includes the neighbourhoods of Alperton, North Wembley, Preston, Sudbury, Tokyngton and Wembley Park. The population was 102,856 in 2011.

Birmingham International is a railway station known by code "BHI" in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in the West Midlands of England, just east of Birmingham. It is on the Rugby–Birmingham–Stafford line 14 km (8.7 mi) east of Birmingham New Street railway station. BHI serves Birmingham Airport, the National Exhibition Centre, the Resorts World Arena, and Resorts World Birmingham.

The West Midlands Metro is a light-rail/tram system in the county of West Midlands, England. The network has 33 stops with a total of 14 miles (23 km) of track; it currently consists of a single route, Line 1, which operates between the cities of Birmingham and Wolverhampton via the towns of Bilston, West Bromwich and Wednesbury, on a mixture of former railway lines and urban on-street running. The system is owned by the public body Transport for West Midlands, and operated by Midland Metro Limited, a company wholly owned by the West Midlands Combined Authority.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Birmingham Airport</span> International airport in Birmingham, England

Birmingham Airport, formerly Birmingham International Airport, is an international airport located 7 nautical miles east-southeast of Birmingham city centre, 9.5 nautical miles west-northwest of Coventry slightly north of Bickenhill village, in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, England.

The National Exhibition Centre (NEC) is an exhibition centre located in Marston Green, England, near to Birmingham and Solihull. It is near junction 6 of the M42 motorway, and is adjacent to Birmingham Airport and Birmingham International railway station. It was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1976.

Birmingham is a major transport hub, due in part to its location in central England. The city is well connected by rail, road, and water. Public transport and key highways in the city are overseen by Transport for West Midlands (TfWM).

Marston Green is a village in the civil parish of Bickenhill and Marston Green, in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in the West Midlands. It lies within the historic county of Warwickshire. The Parish which includes the village had a population of 7432 in the 2021 Census.

The City of Birmingham Stadium was a proposed multi-purpose stadium in the Saltley area of Birmingham, England, originally for Warwickshire County Cricket Club and Birmingham City F.C. to replace the current Edgbaston Cricket Ground and St Andrew's Stadium respectively.

Olton is an area/suburban village within the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in the West Midlands, England. In the 13th century, the Lords of the Manor moved their seat and formed a new settlement, at the junction of two major roads. It was then that Ulverlei was being referred to as ‘Oulton’ to distinguish itself from nearby Solihull. Historically within the county of Warwickshire, the village has gradually become contiguous with Solihull to the southeast, though it retains the character of a large independent village.

Bickenhill is a village in the civil parish of Bickenhill and Marston Green, in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, in the West Midlands county, England, on the eastern fringe of the West Midlands conurbation. Bickenhill is also a ward and was within the historic county of Warwickshire. Birmingham Airport is also located within the civil parish.

Solihull is a market town and the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, in the West Midlands, England. Solihull is situated on the River Blythe in the Forest of Arden area. The town had a population of 126,577 at the 2021 Census, and its wider borough had a population of 216,240. The town is located 8 miles (12 km) southeast of Birmingham and 13 miles (21 km) west of Coventry.

High Speed 2 (HS2) is a high-speed railway which is under construction in England. The route will be between Handsacre, in southern Staffordshire, and London, with a spur to Birmingham. HS2 is to be Britain's second purpose-built high-speed railway after High Speed 1, which connects London to the Channel Tunnel. The majority of the project is planned to be completed between 2029 and 2033.

The 2022 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Birmingham 2022, was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth of Nations that took place in Birmingham, England between 28 July and 8 August 2022. It was the third and seventh time England and the United Kingdom hosted the Commonwealth Games, respectively.

Birmingham Interchange is a planned High Speed 2 railway station in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, West Midlands, England, expected to open in 2026.

The Resorts World Arena is a multipurpose indoor arena located at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) in Solihull, England. It has a capacity of 15,685 seats. The venue was built as the seventh hall of the NEC complex. After 18 months of construction, the arena opened as the "Birmingham International Arena" in December 1980 with a concert by Queen.

The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) is the combined authority for the West Midlands metropolitan county in the United Kingdom. It was established by statutory instrument under the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009. It is a strategic authority with powers over transport, economic development and regeneration. The authority formally came into being on 17 June 2016.

The venues for the 2022 Commonwealth Games will be based in Birmingham, Cannock Chase, Coventry, Royal Leamington Spa, Sandwell, Solihull, Warwick, Wolverhampton, and London.

The NHS Nightingale Hospital Birmingham was the second of the temporary NHS Nightingale Hospitals set up by NHS England to help to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. It was constructed inside the National Exhibition Centre, Solihull, and opened on 16 April 2020. It cost £66.4 million to set up and was the most expensive of all the Nightingale temporary hospitals. On 1 April 2021 the hospital closed without ever treating a patient.

The HS2 automated people mover is a planned automated people mover (APM) in Solihull, England being built in conjunction with the High Speed 2 project in order to improve connections between HS2's upcoming Interchange station, Birmingham Airport, and other rail and community infrastructure.

References

1 2 3 4 "Birmingham outlines stadium bid". BBC News. 2001-08-31. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
↑ "Birmingham unveils National Stadium proposal | Leisure Opportunities news". www.leisureopportunities.co.uk. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
↑ "NATIONAL FOOTBALL STADIUM IN THE WEST MIDLANDS - Early Day Motions - UK Parliament". edm.parliament.uk. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
↑ "Birmingham 'let down' on stadium". BBC News. 2002-05-07. Retrieved 25 June 2021.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[BBC2001-1] 1 2 3 4 "Birmingham outlines stadium bid". BBC News. 2001-08-31. Retrieved 25 June 2021.

[2] "Birmingham unveils National Stadium proposal | Leisure Opportunities news". www.leisureopportunities.co.uk. Retrieved 25 June 2021.

[3] "NATIONAL FOOTBALL STADIUM IN THE WEST MIDLANDS - Early Day Motions - UK Parliament". edm.parliament.uk. Retrieved 25 June 2021.

[4] "Birmingham 'let down' on stadium". BBC News. 2002-05-07. Retrieved 25 June 2021.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]