Northern mayors urge U.K. to back a multi-city Olympics bid anchored outside London

On a February morning more than a decade before any Olympic flame could arrive, a group of northern English mayors tried to change where that torch might land.

Eleven regional leaders, working together under the banner “The Great North,” have asked the U.K. government to back a future Olympic and Paralympic Games bid based not in London but across the cities and counties of northern England, using a multi-city model that would be a first for Britain and a test case for the reformed Olympic bidding system.

In a joint letter sent Feb. 8 to Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Lisa Nandy, the mayors called for any future U.K. bid to be “anchored in the North of England” and for ministers to fund early feasibility work and legacy planning. While the letter does not fix on a specific edition of the Games, several signatories and national media have framed the campaign around the 2036 and 2040 Olympic cycles—years already being eyed by rival bidders abroad and by London Mayor Sadiq Khan at home.

The move sets up a long-term contest over where Britain’s next global sporting showcase should be staged and whether it can double as a “levelling up” project to rebalance investment away from the capital.

“The north of England has a sporting history and prowess like no other place in the world,” Kim McGuinness, mayor of the North East and chair of The Great North, said in a statement announcing the campaign. “The Olympics and Paralympics would be our moment for the North to stand tall on the international stage.”

Who is backing the plan

The letter’s signatories include Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham; Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram; West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin; South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard; Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen; York and North Yorkshire Mayor David Skaith; Luke Campbell, the Reform UK mayor of Hull and East Yorkshire and a former Olympic boxing gold medalist; and local leaders from Cheshire and Warrington, Lancashire and Cumbria.

They argue that northern England already has a “compelling proposition” based on existing and planned venues in cities such as Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield and Hull, as well as established sporting infrastructure in the North East and across Yorkshire, Cheshire, Lancashire and Cumbria.

Burnham, whose city hosted the 2002 Commonwealth Games, said the North could put forward “a compelling proposition to the British Olympic Association and the International Olympic Committee, using facilities that are already in place or planned.” He has previously described a northern Games as a “defining moment for the North” and contrasted it with the idea of London hosting a fourth Olympics.

“It wouldn’t be fair or right for London to host the Games for a fourth time,” Burnham said in comments reported by national media.

A multi-city Olympics—made possible by IOC reforms

The model being proposed would depart from the single-host-city structure that defined previous U.K. bids. Under changes approved by the International Olympic Committee in 2019, Games can now be spread across multiple cities, regions or even countries, and potential hosts are encouraged to reuse existing venues where possible.

Northern leaders want to exploit that flexibility. The broad concept outlined so far would lean on facilities such as:

• Manchester: the Etihad Stadium and Etihad Campus, the National Cycling Centre velodrome, Manchester Aquatics Centre and other Commonwealth Games legacy venues.
• Liverpool: Premier League football grounds, arenas and waterfront event spaces.
• Sheffield: the English Institute of Sport, Ponds Forge and Olympic Legacy Park.
• North East: stadiums and road courses along the Great North Run corridor between Newcastle, Gateshead and South Shields.

Outdoor events could be staged in coastal locations and national parks in North Yorkshire and Cumbria.

Supporters say distributing events would cut down on the need for new construction and share visitor spending more widely across the region. It would, however, depend heavily on long-promised transport schemes such as Northern Powerhouse Rail to move athletes, officials and spectators between far-flung venues.

No formal bid yet—and London is also positioning

For now, there is no formal bid. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has acknowledged receiving the letter but emphasized that the British Olympic Association (BOA), not ministers, is responsible for selecting and pursuing any Olympic candidature.

A DCMS spokesperson said the government “welcomes ambitions from across the country to host major sporting events” but noted that decisions on possible Olympic bids would be taken by the BOA in consultation with the IOC.

The BOA has not committed to a northern concept or any specific timetable. Historically, it has fronted failed bids for Birmingham and Manchester before successfully backing London’s campaign for the 2012 Games.

The northern push also comes as London positions itself for a return to the Olympic stage. Khan has said he wants the capital to bid for the 2040 Games, which would make London the first city to host the summer Olympics four times after 1908, 1948 and 2012. He has argued that with permanent venues in Stratford and elsewhere already in place, London could stage the event “very cheaply” and reap “humongous” benefits.

Polling by Ipsos last year found that a majority of Britons and about two-thirds of Londoners would support a London bid for 2040. Advocates of a northern Games say that public funding and international attention should not default to the capital simply because it won in 2012.

Former distance runner and Great North Run founder Brendan Foster, who has endorsed the northern initiative, said the debate is “about a fairer distribution of major international sporting events across our country.” London’s great events were “rightly celebrated,” he said, but when public money is involved, “we should be making sure the benefits are shared.”

The promise—and the risk—of a ‘levelling up’ Games

The northern mayors frame their proposal as both a sporting and economic strategy. The letter sent to Nandy calls a Games “a once-in-a-generation opportunity to accelerate regeneration, rebalance the economy, and reset international perceptions of England.” They link the idea to wider aims such as boosting jobs in construction, tourism and creative industries; improving housing and transport; and expanding access to grassroots sport.

Rotheram said a northern Olympics could inspire young people from towns and estates that rarely see elite events on their doorstep.

“This is about our moment to go for gold,” he said. “We want kids in places like Bootle, Barnsley and Byker to see that someone like them can go all the way.”

The record of past mega-events suggests both potential and pitfalls. Manchester’s 2002 Commonwealth Games are widely credited with helping to regenerate parts of East Manchester and burnish the city’s international image. London 2012 delivered new housing and parkland in the East End and is often cited by politicians as a legacy success.

But the cost of the London Games rose from an initial £2.4 billion estimate to around £8.8 billion, and academic studies have highlighted gentrification pressures and uneven community benefits. Recent research has described the legacy as a “cautionary tale” about relying on mega-events to solve deep-seated social and economic problems.

Northern leaders say they want to build legacy considerations into any Olympic planning from the outset, rather than retrofit them later. The letter to Nandy calls for early agreement on measurable legacy objectives and for a broader policy to relocate more major sports and cultural events to the North even before any Games are awarded.

What happens next

The scale and complexity of what is being proposed are likely to draw scrutiny. Coordinating a Games across multiple combined authorities and councils would require new governance structures and clear lines of accountability. The IOC would still demand firm financial guarantees, and any U.K. bid would compete internationally with interest from countries including India, Qatar and Germany for the 2036 edition.

It will also test national politics. The Great North coalition brings together Labour, Conservative and Reform UK mayors, giving the project a regional character that cuts across party lines. But it also pits a group of largely Labour northern leaders against a Labour London mayor and asks a Labour government to choose, or at least to pick a direction for long-term planning.

For now, the campaign is in its early stages, more a statement of intent than a technical dossier. The IOC’s new “continuous dialogue” approach to future hosts means that conversations about 2036 and 2040 will unfold quietly and over years rather than through a single, high-profile vote seven years out.

By writing to Nandy now, the northern mayors are seeking to ensure that when those talks intensify, the case for a Games stitched along the Mersey, Tyne, Irwell and Humber is on the table alongside another turn in Stratford. Whether Britain’s next Olympic cauldron is lit in the capital or across the North, the outcome will help decide where the country chooses to place its biggest bets on infrastructure, image and national pride in the decades ahead.