Three new venues will serve as competition locations for The World Games 2022 in Birmingham, joining Protective Stadium — set to be completed before the 2021 UAB football season — as sites for multiple events and the celebration to take place after the games.
Legion Field, Birmingham CrossPlex and Boutwell Auditorium, in addition to the previously announced Protective Stadium, are four of the 25 official locations hosting a multitude of sports when The World Games 2022 begins in July of next year.
“We’re excited to officially begin announcing our venues,” The World Games 2022 CEO Nick Sellers said in a press release. “These are four of the best places to enjoy sports in our community. And by July of 2022, we will finally be able to fill all of the seats in these beautiful venues again as we serve host to the first major international sporting event coming out of this pandemic. Each of these venues is a prime example of our city’s love of sports.”
Legion Field will host the flag football competition, presented by the NFL, and will feature eight men’s teams and eight women’s teams.
During The World Games, spectators at the CrossPlex will be able to witness and enjoy multiple sporting events, including inline hockey, artistic roller skating, speed skating (indoor and outdoor), wheelchair rugby, lifesaving, finswimming and canoe polo.
The CrossPlex, which opened in 2011, is a 750,000 square-foot multi-purpose athletic facility featuring a world-class indoor track, a 50-meter indoor Olympic swimming pool, a 5,000 square-foot meeting hall and the Bill Harris Arena — a 20,000 square-foot multipurpose space.
Fans witnessing competitions at the Boutwell will observe various martial arts, including sumo, kickboxing and muaythai.
This 5,000-seat multi-purpose arena was constructed in 1924 and has hosted a multitude of events, including concerts, sporting events, banquets, galas, trade shows and more.
Additionally, Protective Stadium will host the opening and closing ceremonies of The World Games 2022.
The games, originally set to take place in 2020, will take place July 7-17, 2022.
Gunnar Sadowey is the sports editor for the Crimson. He is a senior from Elkhart, IN. Gunnar is currently a journalism and mass communications major with a print concentration and a German minor.
