Bids for the 2022 Commonwealth Games
The city of Durban, South Africa was initially elected as the host for the 2022 Commonwealth Games on 2 September 2015, at a General Assembly in Auckland, New Zealand. It was reported in February 2017 however, Durban may be unable to host the games due to financial constraints. On 13 March 2017, the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) stripped Durban of their rights to host. On 21 December 2017, Birmingham was awarded for the 2022 Games as Durban's replacement host. Louise Martin, president of the Commonwealth Games Federation, made the official announcement at a  press conference at the Arena Academy in Birmingham. Bids for the 1st election. Official bids. Two cities had made confirmed bids for the games; Durban, South Africa and Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Edmonton withdrew its bid in February 2015, leaving Durban as the only bid to go forward to CGF General Assembly in September 2015. Proposed bids which did not go to application. The following cities proposed bidding; however, they did not bid or even formally announce their intentions to bid. Initial concerns over lack of hosting interest. On 22 January 2014, The BBC reported that the organisers of the Commonwealth  Games were concerned about the future of the event, after no member country had expressed serious interest in hosting the 2022 edition with only two months to go before the March 2014 deadline for applicant cities. The high cost of the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, with reports of between £500 million and £1 billion, damage to the reputation of the competition following the 2010 Games and disputes between the Commonwealth Games Federation board and member states' sporting federations were all said to be factors in why no serious hosting intentions were being made. Cardiff, who were pursuing  a bid for the 2026 games, said it would be "unlikely" for them to bring their bid forward to 2022. An emergency general meeting was held in Kuala Lumpur on 24 January to try and resolve these issues and ensure the future of the games. On 31 January 2014 Gideon Sam, vice-president of the Commonwealth Games Federation, was quoted in "The Namibian" stating intentions of holding the 2022 games in Africa following meetings in Kuala Lumpur: "We decided that 2022 will be Africa’s time. Africa makes up a huge number of Commonwealth countries and we now appeal to  African leaders to be brave, to club together and to come forward so that we can host the Commonwealth Games" "We cannot continue doing what we did in the past, when we voted with Asia, Oceania or the Americas and not for ourselves. The time has come to show the world that there are no lions roaming the streets or naked people walking around"