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Great comic here that I can't post the image of

- Opening Ceremony to Beijing - Volleyball to California

And the bits keep falling off the Delay Shames: I can just imagine the reaction of the OC and government officials if the whole tectonic plate that sits underneath the subcontinent slide under the waves... "It is only a minor thing...and western standards of geology are obviously different to ours. We will have fixed by the opening which will be far better than anything Beijing or Melbourne could have delivered."

And you appear to be completely confident that Hambantota will not be able to do anything for 7 years? It is plain obvious that quite a number of people here (which I presume is also mostly white males anyway) seem intent on having the CWG cycling through only the white-dominated countries of the old Commonwealth? I suppose the English forgot why decolonisation took place?

India is a horrible country, why they were awarded these games is beyond me. I hope this will be the last time for a very long time India is awarded an international event.

Or an even heavier hammer then sending it to Melbourne would be to threaten to send it to places with the Required IAAF Class A Stadium . Edmonton or more embarrassing for The Indians An African City Be it Johannesburg . Abuja, Dar El Saleem . LOL Considering Abuja will have all Roadworks for their failed 2014 bid while Glasgow Cancels Rail projects they are indeed further ahead LOL JIm jones

Well considering this was a man on the evaluation committee that demanded that two 25000 passenger per direction per hour LRT lines be alignment closer to the stadium and City Centre Clusters in Abuja I could see where the frustration might occur. The Question I ask is WTF were Abuja 2014 competitors proposing to provide and how do you Mr Hooper know more then Albert Spear JR. Architects in regards to urban planning especially around Sports Festivals? Neither White City proposed a running metre of new Rail Track and neither have Rail lines on both sides of their Stadiums ? Hampden Parks rail capacity 450 passengers an hour and that was shown with the U2 concert recently. I have checked on other stadia for nearness and capacity of Rail for Stadium . Abuja's Under Construction LRT system is in line with the New Wembley Stadium for D and the Berlin Olympic Stadium for distances to the nearest Rail Station. Abuja's proposal had more capacity per possible patron then the New Wembley in Regards to Urban Rail. Does the man just take up space , contribute or is counter productive ? I have met the man personally . I don't think he is a nasty person . I think he misses full time life in London and should perhaps apply for a job with London 2012 if he wants to reside in that city all year long. Hooper has been in New Delhi about 50 percent of his time from 2007 on. Maybe the Indians would like to toss the entire games ? Jim Jones

Well Frankly from what you can see from the inconsistent nature of the Man's report for 2014 it is no wonder. I spoke with a very knowing former Athlete to Olympics , Commonwealth Games and Pan Am Games and his option is the man probably does not know what he is talking about .at the best or worst has an Agenda . Too small an area for the Start of a Commonwealth Road Cycling Race Abuja had ? Yeah 6 full pavement lanes was 3 times the amount Beijing 2008 Had for a worldwide field compared with about 40 percent of the World. And as to the KKK member from up North again Hooper is the guy who approves an experiment with Scaffolding for Athletics while it was firmly rejected in both London, Manchester, and the UK athletics people for the 2005 Worlds . Louise Martin got her games and now she and Hooper will wear the aftermath. I don't think Glasgow 2014 got a pass on anything either but hey the dispensations were a mile wide for Louise. Louise Martin the member on the Federation board . I do have great sympathy for Hooper because working with New Delhi has been no picnic but working with a country for 2014 that cannot even keep their transportation commitments well the Challenges are going to be greater when the Tories drop the Axe on Sports Festivals in the UK next year. The construction history with Asian Games in New Delhi was the very same in the past. in 2007 it should have been here is the plan or the games are pulled. The tarty nature of falling of schedules started in 2005. The Federation has no one to blame but themselves as they push the games to go places Thinking they are self important and cannot compete for sponsorship dollars with the Winter Olympics . On the last point they are very very right and that is why the games are dying over time . Australia will probably host the World Cup . South Africa is . Singapore is staging the youth olympics and formula one racing and Canada could care less now going for the Pan Am Games or in the case of a former host Edmonton the Universiade. No one hosts the commonwealth games and then wants it back unless your country does not have the Urban Centres to host UEFA Cups , Fifa world Cups or the summer olympics. South Africa , Nigeria, Kenya , India , Malaysia and all the other emerging nations will use the games for a We have arrived party while Urban Generation of long Abandoend industrial lands typically in some cities east end will be the only places hosting after a while. jim jones

Yeah right . Yeah by the time Two Stadiums were rejected for Athletics Competition surface for the New Wembley and Manchester 2002 the Pickets Locke Option was not going to put up the Temp Scaffolding thing . It is only glasgow 2014 that continues to be deluded enough to believe in that engineering Fairy Tale authored by the IAAf in a white paper. Auckland's 2018 invention for a 2018 bid does not talk of Temp Scaffolding but does talk of how they will have to remove seating in Mount Smart. does that Give you a clue ? Cases of Scotch whiskey and scholarships to Glasgow university for graduate degrees reported in the Glasgow News Papers in the Weeks After the bid . The relevance to this forum thread is that the commonwealth games federation is the author of their own misfortunes driven by leadership that has no clue it seems . The Indians lodged their complaint not just now on Mike Hooper the letter went out in July of this year . From what I am reading in New Delhi Mike Hoopers stay has cost them about 1 million dollars for 2 years and yet what is the end result ? Jim Jones

Have you actually seen the footprint for the Gold Coast Bid ? Did you actually read the words of Mike Fennell When Scotland tried to have a co Hosting between Edinburgh and Glasgow for the 2014 games before Fennell laid down the Law that there would be no co hosting? A single diving Venue for Edinburgh in the Glasgow 2014 bid is one thing . Gold Coast has 4 events in Brisbane which is a further distance from Glasgow to Edinburgh then Brisbane is from Gold Coast. Gymnastics, Netballs Shooting and Squash will all be in Brisbane a former host city. Then you have Basketball prelim rounds played in Cairns and Townsville . In the Case of Cairns it is 903 miles away from gold coast. The talk at the General Assembly last year in Banjul was "Australia Again? " STop trying to pin Developing Nation with Developing Nation because in the case of New Delhi compared to Abuja there is no comparing. Look at the Asian Games New Delhi staged in 1982 and the All-african games Abuja staged in 2003 Only looking at the run up phase of construction works . New Delhi is performing in the same way for these commonwealth games in regards to Construction as they did for the 1982 Asian Games Very poorly. Abuja in their capital phase was a dream compared with that . The Differences are that India is generally chaos with things in regards to long term projects and they have a centuries old city with all the problems of deferred maintenance and plan Urban planning . Abuja has some of the most vertically integrated construction companies in the World. These companies are Organized for Finances, Materials and Manpower . While in India they hardly train people for the construction trades . Then you have all Highway expansion for the 2014 bid to be completed by the time inspections for 2018 would occur, Then there is the LRt which will be 40 percent complete by 2011. This is all in a Highly planned city not having to correct urban transportation planning that was done for the horse and carriage era . Any city founded in the pre automobile age usually has those problems . Comparing a Nigeria to India would be like Comparing Australia to the UK in very recent times. Australia has shown great expertise. Uk well it speaks for itself. Cancellation of the World Athletics Championships of 2005. jim Jones

no Rob that would actually be a Abuja Meeting as that is an African Elephant LOL. Jim jones

I have heard another replacement that would save face for all concerned Pune, India which hosted the 2009 youth commonwealth games. Hey Why not Glasgow 2014 after all they are supposed to be opening that Velodrome next year ER oh I forgot another delayed project in Glasgow . I wonder who has a IAAF Class one Stadium of 60000 seats , A schuermann indoor Velodrome, A Fina Aquatics centre and other assets needed for the games ????? UUUUMMMM . Never Mind Jim Jones

I think the Commonwealth Games is not in the position to pick and choose frankly . Manchester 2002 was unopposed with Adelaide, Australia and Johannesburg South Africa saying we are interested in bidding and then no thanks when they learn the costs vs benefits. Melbourne 2006 basically bullied Wellington to surrender having Melbourne go unopposed . Orphaned bid cycles have come close with the CWG's . It was not unlike 1966 that you had a real international bid competition for the games and then 10 years after those games you had back to back unopposed hosts for 1982 and 1986 The choice for the Commonwealth Games federation in 2003 was to either Reject India for a third time or place the games in the same nation hosting the Winter Olympics in 2010. Kuala Lumpur had the support of New Delhi withdrawing their bid for 1998 thus having Kuala Lumpur Vs Adelaide. It must to troubling for the Federation to think that Cities thinking about the games then make their own version of cutting themselves from a short list. Calgary was in the 2014 Canadian Domestic bid and they saw the games were of little use to them. Halifax the winner of the domestic bid withdrew themselves . The Commonwealth Games may indeed never come back to the Americas. It has become a two stadium affair basically and no commonwealth nation in the amercia's hemisphere is going to put that type of efford ino the games . It might have been the Pc thing to do picking New Delhi but a year out from Manchester 2002 you can find the Cancellation talk in news Articles for those games as well. Barry Maister of New Zealand's olympic committee actually went as far as to criticize The Athletes Accoms(which were college dorms not an athletes village ) and the Aquatics Venue. Thou you have venues badly needing a speed up in New Delhi you still have phase for the Athletes Village in regards to the examples of what the rooms will be . The problem is to replicate that across the entire games infrastructure in time. The Commonwealth Games federation will take what they can get as really the life of the games continuing depends on actually staging them no matter what. No city is going to step forward and rescue the games . The costs for that without benefits is way to great. Jim Jones

well this why you really have to think if you have many electors to the Commonwealth Games host as IOC members or National Olympic Committee executive that the Old Practices of Bribery with the IOc will Still go on with the Commonwealth Games if the Commonwealth Games indeed does not take up the new standard Jacques Rogge introduced to the IOC. Visiting candidate Cities for he Federation is still there, th Giving of gifts to electors still there . College Educations well Glasgow UNI has 50 students from Developing Commonwealth Nations as their post "win" package. Draw your own conclusions. The Federation corrected the training grant thing hoping Canada would submit a bid. Canada Submitted a bid with the most likely to lose city in Canada Being Halifax. I can't even begin to imagine a Halifax 2014 win . Louise Martin was told by a high official in the Federation Halifax in the first round winner. If it is that corrupt then the Federation has made its own bed . jim jones

Me too, but at the current rate, don't be surprised if the headlines are soon "aerostat explodes..."