Lord David

Any chance this lovely site will ever return? In a proper capacity? With a more professional look?

http://www.thebidlibrary.com/

My latest acquisition! Should arrive sometime next week!



http://cgi.ebay.com....E:X:RTQ:AU:1123

Well now that any potential future Australia World Cup (2026+) is gone for some time (We'll eventually host), perhaps it's a perfect chance to bid for the glory of a Summer Olympics again.

It will definitely be Melbourne vs Brisbane but I'd say Melbourne should bid first, for several reasons.

- Brisbane got to go first when the AOC finally decided to lobby a proper Olympics bid to the IOC in 1992.
- The Gold Coast is destined to get the 2018 Commonwealth Games, which would be a boost to any Brisbane bid (like Melbourne hosting in 2006), but it might be a little too soon from any prospective 2024 bid, even if this is another city that we're bidding with here. Promoting a 2024 Brisbane bid in 2017 seems a little too much, especially considering that the state and government has spent the likes of 1 billion+ AUD for the Gold Coast Games.
- We got more sporting experience, than Brisbane, although that shouldn't be taken into account really since, the IOC and sporting world knows of Australia's huge sporting experience as a whole.
- We got more readily available venues, and for most indoor sports, we'd be only needing to build temporary arenas.
- Our centralised transport network should be taken into account and an Olympic bid would be a perfect opportunity to propose improvements and fix the problems that currently plague our transport system.
- We have 2 major airports with Avalon Airport set to become international, it will serve as the solution to any potential passenger capacity issues with regards to Melbourne Airport.
- With Avalon Airport being upgraded, one can propose new hotel development to occur around it, boosting hotel room numbers for an Olympics, whilst providing a secure hotel capacity for nearby Geelong, as well as serving Melbourne.
- Almost every Melbourne outer suburb has at least one form of accommodation or so (near public transportation), which would already boost the numbers of rooms in city based hotels.
- The huge Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (largest in the Southern Hempisphere), could be used as the Main Media Centre and IOC Headquarters. We can propose if necessary, for the Exhibition Centre to be temporarily split into 2 levels, providing up to 60,000 sqm of potential space (losing a couple of 1000 sqm for dividing walls etc). If not proposed, then overall space including the Convention Centre will be around 43,000 sqm, if proposed then make that 73,000 sqm.
- The nearby new Hilton hotel can be used as IOC Headquarters, with it's own limited convention space for sole use by the IOC, the adjacent Convention centre, can easily have level 1 with it's huge Plenary auditorium (One of the largest in Australia, if not the largest) used for the IOC session.

As for the Athlete's Village, I propose to build mid rise apartment style buildings at the site of the Formula 1 Gran Prix circuit in Albert Park. It's near the CBD, near the Melbourne Sports and Aquatics Centre and the Alfred Hospital. As for the Grand Prix circuit, build a purpose built track near Avalon Airport, the hotel legacy there would serve the yearly Grand Prix as well. This would ensure that the Grand Prix stays in Melbourne.

The Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Centre (Westpac Centre) should return to it's former glory as a basketball arena. Simply demolish the Olympic Park stadium and build a smaller permanent (though it can be temporary) athletics track as an Olympic legacy (which could compliment the much larger lakeside athletics stadium at Albert Park (a temporary track could be setup at the Athlete's Village).
As such, the indoor gym/training centre as used by the Victorian Institute of Sport and Collingwood Football Club currently housed in the Westpac Centre, could be housed next door, in a new building, allowing for the arena floor to be used again for sporting and entertainment functions. The only existing legacy building of the 1956 Olympics could be showcased in a future Melbourne Olympics.

If there is sufficient hotel development near Avalon Airport and Melbourne Airport (as examples), alongside the use of temporary cruise ship accommodation, then perhaps there won't be the need to build a Media Village to accommodate the World's media. I'd easily expect at least 70,000 rooms of various sorts proposed to the IOC with more than half (45,000-60.000) existing by the time we bid.
The media would therefore stay in the city consuming around 15,000-20,000 rooms.

Well any discussion? Any ideas for a Melbourne bid? Perhaps I'll add more later.