BIRMINGHAM — Olympian and TV commentator Martin Gillingham has slammed the organisers of the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham, saying they got the ticket pricing “horribly wrong” and have failed athletes due to poor attendance.

The first three days of action at Alexander Stadium have often seen athletes run, jump and throw in front of half-empty stands and Gillingham, who is working on the event for TNT Sports, believes British Athletics chiefs have got it badly wrong.

“They’ve so far blown it,” he said. “Unfortunately, British Athletics has got a habit of letting down its athletes. It seems as if someone has very badly miscalculated.

“There’s nothing better for an Amy Hunt or Keely Hodgkinson to arrive at a home event in a largely full stadium to be cheered on by a home crowd. It shouldn’t be beyond the sport to create a pricing model for an event like this – the first time Britain has ever hosted the Europeans – and to have a full house for every evening session.”

Organisers said 13,623 fans were in attendance on Monday evening as Great Britain’s Amy Hunt claimed 100m gold, far below the stadium’s 23,000 capacity, while 14,098 attended last night’s session.

A Birmingham 2026 spokesperson said they were “delighted” with ticket sales and highlighted that the Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening sessions are “approaching sell-out”, with other sessions close to capacity.

“I suspect the attendances will be much better at the weekend but you could argue the damage has been done,” said Gillingham. “Having a seven-day event, you’ve got to get it right from day one to create a lasting, positive impression. In that respect, the sport has failed.”

Earlier in the week, Category A tickets in the main stand were priced at £110 with Category B tickets £90, while Category A tickets later in the week cost £150. Some of the cheaper tickets in the Category C and D categories have actually been the hardest to shift, and many have pointed to a lack of promotion around the city to help connect with more casual fans.

A day at the athletics

(Based on a family of four at the European Athletics Championships this weekend)

• Category A tickets (no junior concessions offered) – £600

• Park and ride: £22.50
• Four bratwurst dogs: £60
• Two coffees and two soft drinks: £14.30
• Sweets to share: £4.40

Total: £701.20

The timing is unfortunate for those behind the bid to bring the 2029 World Championships to London, with the final presentation set to be made to World Athletics tomorrow.

Organisers stressed that half of tickets across the seven-day event had been priced at £30 and lower, with some adult tickets starting at £10.

“There are still opportunities to be part of the Championships at incredibly good value,” they said, highlighting that the “Mondo” £6.31 children’s ticket for Friday morning – named in honour of Mondo Duplantis’s pole vault world record – allowed a family of four to attend for just £30.

The i Paper spoke with various fans in Birmingham on Wednesday who expressed similar sentiments – that the costs of attending were considerable. One middle-aged couple from Birmingham, who have been attending major championships for over 30 years, said there was a noticeable rise in ticket prices in Birmingham compared to recent editions.

“The tickets are too expensive and that’s why you’ve got half-empty stands, unfortunately,” said Phillip Harris, who was attending with his wife, brother and young daughter. “If you want full stands, you’ve got to have cheap tickets.”

Harris noted how in 2023, his brother had a very different experience attending the World Championships in Budapest. “It was £10 to £15 a ticket and it was full,” he said. “If the rest of the world is looking on and they see empty stands, it just doesn’t look good. Some tickets were £150. For a family of four, that’s £600. Nobody is paying that.”

Harris paid £60 for each ticket for Wednesday’s night session and given the absence of parking around the stadium, he utilised the park-and-ride scheme, which cost £22.50. Another fan said he rented a parking space for the week in a residential area a 10-minute walk from the stadium, which cost £211.

Former Aston Villa striker Stan Collymore wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the pricing was “tone-deaf”, adding: “Weather is amazing and the sport needs as many eyeballs as possible so kids for a quid!! £150/£100/£70 for the 3 categories at the weekend is aimed at who? Not families and kids who may want to be athletes!”

Gillingham believes the seven-day schedule is too long given the number of events, with finals spread too thinly across the week. He also pointed to a “ludicrous” system implemented by European Athletics that allows the top 12 athletes by ranking to bypass the heats in sprint events, meaning many star names have been absent from morning sessions.

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“That’s fundamentally unfair too for the sport, along with not being good for spectators,” he said.

He pointed to the women’s 200m heats on Wednesday morning, which did not feature any of Britain’s three entrants: Amy Hunt, Dina Asher-Smith or Success Eduan.

“It’s bonkers if you want to make something attractive for British families in particular who want to cheer on a British vest,” he said. “The principle is also fundamentally wrong and unfair. The sport is letting the athletes down.”