Alexander Stadium was sold-out and buzzing for six days, so why do we struggle to fill the stands for Diamond Leagues and national championships?

Around 360,000 people packed into the Alexander Stadium to watch athletics at this month’s Commonwealth Games. Falling 10 years after the London Olympics and Paralympics, Birmingham came close to replicating the atmosphere and feel-good factor in a smaller arena. Altogether it was a huge success, but the burning question is: how can the sport bottle up the magic and repeat it at other events?

Seb Coe arrived in the West Midlands from the World Under-20 Champs in Colombia for the final weekend of the Games and he must have been wondering why the global governing body’s Diamond League series struggles to attract similar crowds. Even last month’s World Championships – the sport’s flagship event in the self-proclaimed ‘Track Town’ of Eugene, Oregon – did not enjoy the same crowds and atmosphere as Britain’s second city did in recent days.

A few sessions at the World Champs were sold out, but even during busy sessions there were plenty of empty seats when the action was in full swing. The theory was that American spectators prefer to drift around the arena, watching the sport on TV screens in the concourse or queuing for hotdogs, popcorn and beer.

Still, it was the World Championships, in all its splendour. Logically it should have been able to attract bigger and more vibrant crowds than a mere Commonwealth Games which has been viewed in some quarters as struggling for relevance given its out-dated ethos and links to the British empire.

What’s more, the Games were hit by a number of big-name athlete drop-outs due to injuries or indifference. Athletes had not surprisingly prioritised Eugene and in some notable cases had to withdraw from the Commonwealths, whereas others skipped the event to focus on the Diamond League.

So why is the Commonwealth Games still so popular? Birmingham is not an anomaly either as events in Glasgow in 2014, Manchester in 2002 and Australia in 2006 and 2018 were also superbly busy.

Firstly it has a solid brand, it has been covered extensively on mainstream television for decades and is embedded in the consciousness of people from Commonwealth countries. Its history dates back to Hamilton in 1930 and over that time it has built the reputation as the ‘friendly games’. Its multi-sport nature also means the host city is buzzing with sporting activity.

With a population of 1.145 million, Birmingham is much bigger than Eugene (population: 170,500). Unlike the European Championships, which take place in Munich next week, the Commonwealth Games has resisted the temptation to go biennial or to mess around too much with its own tried-and-trusted format. When it comes to championship timescales, the action-packed six days in Birmingham was more fan-friendly than the drawn out 10 days of Eugene.

It sounds basic and largely beyond the control of organisers, but weather is important too. Most days in Birmingham were sunny and warm, yet not too hot. Thursday evening at the Games was different, though, as chilly temperatures of 14C meant spectators were shivering in the stands and it coincided with a particularly thin programme of events that night.

It’s easy to forget that particularly poor day at the Games now and of course Birmingham didn’t get everything right. Some dodgy timetabling aside (100m hurdles final at 10.25am Sunday morning!?) transportation to the stadium was, at best, a bit of a chore and slightly chaotic. Thankfully the British public do not mind queuing, though, especially when assisted by incredibly cheery volunteers. Plus, my daily trip to Hayward Field in Eugene took well over an hour because the AW team was staying in Corvallis due to pricey accommodation in the host city (central Birmingham wasn’t much cheaper, mind).

So what can the Diamond League series learn from the Commonwealth Games? Why did British Athletics struggle to sell tickets for the Diamond League in Birmingham in May, or the fixtures in Gateshead last summer? Even worse is the UK Championships, where attendances in Manchester have been disappointing to say the least.

The main problem the Diamond League has is that the competitions do not ‘mean’ anything. Athletes use the events to warm-up for a major championship, or to earn some money or chase a PB at a post-championship event. They are simply exhibition events and nothing more. Even Dina Asher-Smith said before Eugene that no one remembers the winners of Diamond Leagues. At major championships like Birmingham 2022, though, athletes are chasing medals.

Athletics audiences are shamelessly patriotic and love to cheer home favourites as well and in Birmingham they had plenty. Even despite the limited size of the host England team, there were athletes from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. One of the biggest cheers of the week, in fact, was for 400m hurdler Alastair Chalmers as he won Guernsey’s first-ever track and field medal. Or how about the remarkable pole vault in the decathlon where roughly 20,000 people stayed behind at the end of a morning session when everything else had finished to roar on Englishman Harry Kendall even though he wasn’t really in the medal hunt.

READ MORE: Full results from Birmingham 2022

From its bullish image of the Games, Perry the mascot, to the simplicity of its ‘B2022’ hashtag, Birmingham got its marketing right too. The appetite of its people to help Birmingham become a city of sport shone through as well. Throw in a considerable slice of effort and imagination and it resulted in a winning formula.

On my way into the stadium for the final time on Sunday, amid the throng of people there were girls on stilts holding a finish line banner which spectators were encouraged to limbo under. A few metres away a policeman was high-fiving fans with a giant foam hand. Moments later a huge fireworks-style boom of colourful smoke erupted over the stadium. The feel-good factor was everywhere and Commonwealth Games fever was infectious – and this was before the athletics action even began.