The Commonwealth Games have 'mind blowing' potential, according to the chairman of its Organising Committee - who claims it would have been a 'tragedy' if Birmingham had not been chosen to host the event.

It was announced in December last year that Birmingham would be the location of the 2022 Games, despite mounting financial pressures on the city.

The council's finances have been subject to the scrutiny of an independent improvement panel since 2015, after a 2014 report found it must 'radically improve'.

But despite this Birmingham City Council's finances have continued to be poor , with the authority using £117 million in reserves to stay afloat over the past two years.

It will also need to cut a further £123 million from its budget over the next three years, leader Ian Ward has said.

Organising Committee Chairman John Crabtree, centre, at the announcement of the official venues of the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Organising Committee Chairman John Crabtree, centre, at the announcement of the official venues of the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

This precarious financial position has led many to believe that the city will not be able to afford the 2022 Games, with one national newspaper predicting a that hosting the event could bankrupt the city.

However John Crabtree, chairman of the 2022 Games' Organising Committee, disagrees.

Mr Crabtree, who was born and raised in Birmingham, has also been chairman of the improvement panel since it was formed, and he said he knows first hand the state of the council's finances.

And he believes the Games is all about investment, describing it as a 'unique opportunity'.

"I’m an investor," he said at a recent event to announce the official venues for the event.

"I believe if you invest in things you get a return. And I think that obviously Birmingham City Council has its financial pressures, we know that. And we know the reasons for it.

"And you could say ‘different things could be done at different times’, but in my business life if you took away 50 per cent of my revenue and increased the demand for services, I would struggle with that.

"So I've got lots of empathy for why that’s happened. But I’d also be thinking all the time, ‘if I bought this piece of blunt machinery, what return would I get on it'.

"So I'm looking at this, and I'm thinking ‘if I put my quarter into this Games, what could that achieve for the citizens of this city?’ I think that’s just a unique opportunity.

"We’ve still got to make that investment work, but the potential upside is just mind-blowing isn’t it? So for Birmingham to say ‘oh we’re just a couple of million quid short around the corner, we better not do this’ would have been a tragedy."