Gary Newbon has become one of the first sports personalities to sign for Birmingham’s new
sports web portal, or ‘ Sportal’’. Newbon will be a regular blogger on the Sportal - a gateway
to sports for people in Birmingham - and will also be hosting a live Q&A session. Other
celebrity bloggers who will be regularly contributing to the Sportal include Ian Danter,
formerly of BRMB and Heart FM and now a presenter with TalkSPORT.
In addition to commentary from sports personalities, people across Birmingham will be able
to access live news feeds of the latest local and national sports news, reviews, opinions,
expert insights, competition updates and forums via the Sportal at:
www.visitbirmingham.com/sport. Within the next few months, users will also be able to
post their own blogs, photos and videos as well as create their own profiles. The unique
‘ Fancy a Game?’ facility will allow teams to post requests for players, individuals to offer their
services to teams or simply match players for games across the city.
The launch of the Sportal marks the beginning of the second phase of Marketing
Birmingham’s sports campaign, ‘1Birmingham: We Love our Sport’. The campaign began in
Autumn 2006, and represents a connected city partnership, ranging from individual clubs to
the ‘House of Sport’, a dedicated sports team at Birmingham City Council.
Dave Hodgson, marketing director, Marketing Birmingham, said: “Birmingham is a true
sporting city. From its famous sporting teams and associations to the hundreds of diverse
grass-roots sports clubs throughout the city, Birmingham has it all. The Sportal is a great new resource for the people of Birmingham because it provides a city wide sport forum that
enables them to get involved and make the most of Birmingham’s sports clubs and facilities.”
Birmingham will be welcoming thousands of sporting fans to major sporting events being
hosted in the city, including BBC Sports Personality of the Year, which is returning to the city
in December. When the NEC hosted the event in 2006, it was both the first time in the show’s
history that it had been staged outside of London, and that a studio audience had been
present. Roger Mosey, Director of Sport, BBC Sport said: “We look forward to returning to
The NEC where we enjoyed a very successful initial year away from the studio at TV Centre.”
Following the success of last year’s event, the BBC has made 3,000 more audience tickets
available, bringing the total to 8,000.
Birmingham has a rich sporting heritage and enjoys a worldwide reputation for staging major
sporting events, from the European Athletics Indoor Championships, to the Davis Cup and
international cricket. More World and European Championships are held in Birmingham than
any other UK city. No other city has more sporting venues. Not one to rest on its laurels,
Birmingham continues to build on this impressive track record and future plans include
hosting Olympic football at Villa Park in 2012.
The 1Birmingham: We Love our Sport campaign focuses on consumer, lifestyle, sport and
travel to attract yet more high quality sporting events to Birmingham and increase the
number of visitors and overnight stays in the city. The events it will support in the remainder
of 2007 include BBC Sports Personality of the Year, Horse of the Year Show, Men’s World Cup Judo, Birmingham Triathlon, English Grand Prix Squash and Sportsfest.
For more information, visit www.visitbirmingham.com/sport.
Birmingham and its sporting credentials: Did you know…?
Sporting Venues
- The National Indoor Arena (NIA) and National Exhibition Centre (NEC) are two of the busiest, large scale indoor sporting venues in Europe
- The Alexander Stadium, host to top flight athletics events including the AAA's Championships and Olympic trials, is the home of The Birchfield Harriers, the UK’s premier athletics club
- Aston Villa’s Villa Park Stadium has seen several international games, including matches in the 1966 World Cup, 1995 Umbro Cup and the 1996 European Championships. The ground will host Olympic football in 2012
Sporting Facts and Figures
- 46 per cent of the UK’s sporting events take place in Birmingham
- 23 World and 11 European championships in 20 different sports have been staged in Birmingham since 1991. These include World Gymnastics Championships, World Figure Skating Championships, World Indoor Athletics Championships, the World Gymnastics Cup, Junior World Wheelchair Basketball Championships, the World Judo Cup and the European Indoor Athletics Championships- the most important athletics event in the UK before the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games
- Birmingham was the first city to be awarded the title National City of Sport and has been awarded the title European City of Sport for All
Sporting Milestones
- Lawn tennis originated in Birmingham in 1865; the Edgbaston Archery and Lawn Tennis Society, founded in 1860, is the oldest surviving lawn tennis club in the world
- The English football league, the oldest in the world was invented in Birmingham in 1888
- Birmingham University was the first University to introduce a sporting option for all students and at the last Olympics in Athens, six graduates and one current Birmingham student competed
- Edgbaston Cricket Ground, Birmingham’s oldest international sports venue, has been staging Test matches since 1902
For further press information: Tara Sinclair, Marketing Birmingham. 0121 202 5001 or email us.
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