Winner due on 拢70m job early next year

Two firms are left in the running to redevelop Alexander Stadium ahead of the 2022 Commonwealth Games being held in Birmingham.

好色先生TV understands that McLaughlin & Harvey and McLaren are now battling it out for the 拢70m scheme after a pitch from Buckingham, whose recent projects include the roof of the new Spurs ground, was dropped.

The pair have been building up their expertise in the sports market in recent years with Northern Irish firm McLaughlin & Harvey building a new 拢23m ground for rugby league side St Helens while it has worked on the redevelopment of Bristol City鈥檚 Ashton Gate ground. It also built Wilkinson Eyre鈥檚 temporary basketball arena for the 2012 Olympic Games at a cost of 拢7m.

McLaren is building a new training centre for Premier League title chasers Leicester City, which is set to finish next summer, and also completed the new training facilities for Tottenham Hotspur back in 2012.

The pair will find out next spring who has won the job with work to start shortly afterwards. Work is expected to finish at the end of 2021.

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The stadium will hold 40,000 fans during the games

Arup is behind the redesign of the stadium, which will host all the games鈥 athletics events, plus the opening and closing ceremonies. Mace is project manager on the scheme while Arcadis is the QS.

The revamp of the stadium, which is already home to governing body UK Athletics, will increase capacity from 12,700 to 40,000 for the duration of the event.

The back straight stand, which was built in 2012 with a capacity of 5,000, will remain but the other three stands will be demolished and rebuilt.

The new stand, which will replace the three that are demolished, will increase the permanent capacity after the games to 20,000.