A North of England Olympic Games? Why not argues Sir Howard Bernstein

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

One of the driving forces behind bringing the 2002 Commonwealth Games to Manchester has championed a 'North of England Olympics' amid reports London is planning a bid to bring the Olympic and Paralympic Games back to the capital, possibly in 2036.

Sir Howard Bernstein, the chief executive of Manchester city council at the time, floated the idea as he reminisced on Manchester's Commonwealth Games 20 years on.

He said he believes a cross-county Olympics here would be supported by the public. Cities including Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield would be involved together with Manchester, he argued, with sports - and the economic benefits and inspiration they bring - shared around stadia.

Sir Howard said to him, the current Olympic model seemed outdated. READ MORE: Brilliant photos show how Commonwealth Games took over the city 20 years ago "I think the opportunities for one single city, even a big city, to do all of that stuff from scratch, I think is quite remote, he told the Manchester Evening News. "I think that if you are going to look at Olympics, you have got to start to address how you do it across cities. "The idea of Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield, whatever, doing something like that in the future, I think that would be a far better option than London doing it again in 2036 quite frankly, as is being spoken about. "A North of England Olympics.