The Manchester bid for the 2000 Summer Olympics and Paralympics was an unsuccessful campaign, first presented to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on 1 February 1993. Ultimately it lost, having made it to the third round of voting with Sydney, Australia, going on to win the right to host the 2000 Summer Olympics.
Bid details
The bid was headed by Bob Scott, who also led the previous bid by Manchester for the 1996 Summer Olympics. The bid document was presented to the IOC on 1 February 1993, and was presented on 17 February 1993 by Prime Minister John Major in a press conference at 10 Downing Street to officially launch Manchester's bid. Major continued to show his support for the Manchester bid when prompted in interviews. Manchester's Olympic budget for their bid was £5.5 million.
The overall cost of the Manchester Olympics was estimated at £1.5 billion, with the entire cost to come from private funding but the shortfall was to come from the British taxpayer.
Venues
The venues included buildings which were already constructed as part of the previous Manchester bid for the 1996 Games. This included venues such as the Manchester Velodrome which cost £3 million, and other sites around East Manchester. Manchester Arena was to have hosted the gymnastics and the basketball, at the cost of £50 million, and was to be built regardless of the fate of Manchester's bid.
Old Trafford Cricket Ground was to have held the baseball events, and a swimming and diving centre would have been built in Wigan following a successful bid. Northern association football stadiums would have hosted the football events including Old Trafford, Goodison Park, Elland Road, Hillsborough, St James' Park, City Ground and Villa Park.
The Olympic Stadium itself was costed at £100 million, and would have seated 80,000 spectators. AMEC plc would have been tasked with organising the construction of the stadium had it been built from designs by architects including Arup Group Limited and Norman Foster. Some forty businesses were issued with compulsory purchase orders in order to free up the space to build the stadium, in the area around Eastlands towards the east of Manchester.
The table tennis and fencing events were to take place in Liverpool and the sailing events were to take place in Pwllheli, Wales.
The full list of venues were as follow:
Archery - Carden Park, Cheshire (35 mn from OV, 5,000 spectators) Athletics - Olympic Stadium at Barton Cross (access by foot from OV, 80,000 spectators) - built for the Games Badminton - Ordsall Stadium in Salford (10 mn from OV, 5,000 spectators) - modular stadium (i.e. multi-purpose stadium) built for the Games Baseball - Old Trafford (15 mn from OV, 20,000) existing + Wytheshawe Park (10 mn, 10,000) new Basketball - new Manchester arena (15 mn, 12,000) - modular stadium built for the Games Boxing - Zeri stadium in Huncoat (20 mn, 12,000) - planned Canoeing - flat water on a planned extended lake at Pennington Flash (20 mn, 30,000), and whitewater in Burrs (20 mn) Cycling - Tameside Velodrome (20 mn) Swimming - Olympic Swimming Pool at Barton Cross (access by foot from OV, 8,000 for diving, 10,000 for swimming) - purpose built Equestrian - Haydock Park (15 mn, 40,000) Fencing - Festival Hall in Liverpool (4,000) Football - Old Trafford, Anfield, Goodison Park, Maine Road Gymnastics - the Olympic Arena at Barton Cross (access by foot, 20,000) - purpose built Handball - Oldham stadium (20 mn, 6,000) finals at the Olympic Arena - existing Hockey - Bolton (20 mn, 20,000) Judo - Modular Stadium of Platt Fields (15 mn, 5,000) Modern Pentathlon - Carden Park, Cheshire (running, shooting), Festival Hall in Liverpool (fencing), Haydock Park (equestrian), swimming at the Olympic Swimming Pool Rowing - planned extended lake at Pennington Flash (20 mn, 30,000) Shooting - Carden Park, Cheshire Table Tennis - King's Dock Stadium in Liverpool (30 mn, 10,000) Tennis - Matchpoint, Bramhall (20 mn, 10,000 + 2 * 3,000) Volleyball - G Mex (15 mn, 5,000) + finals at the Olympic Arena - under refurbishment Weightlifting - Granada Centre (10 mn, 6,000) - under construction Wrestling - Bolton Stadium (20 mn, 5,000) - to be built (Reebok Stadium) Sailing - Pwllheli
Olympic village
The Olympic village was to have been built along the Manchester Ship Canal in converted warehouses close to the sporting venues which would give athletes the ability to walk to 14 of the 25 venues. Every athlete would have had an individual bedroom in the properties.