Jump to content

Gold Coast 2018


Recommended Posts

Who's got the bigger Ceremonies budget?

That one should win!!

Clearly Hambantota. Since they plan to upgrade their existing Cricket Stadium to 60,000 from it's current 20,000 seated (34,300 total). One wonders why they didn't just propose to use that for Athletics as well, whilst still proposing to build that 25,000 purpose built Athletics Track and Warm-up Track. Now that would have been some interesting competition for the Gold Coast.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Who's got the bigger Ceremonies budget?

That one should win!!

Hambantota

Gold coast proposes spending 15.75 million pounds on both the Opening and Closing. Hambantota proposes nearly that amount (14.545 million pounds to host just the Opening Ceremony).

Hambantota does not deserve to win, but with China's backing anything is possible.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
Africans to back Coast's Games bid

JAPPIE Mhango thinks the Commonwealth Games competition is all over.

After spending the weekend on the Gold Coast, Mr Mhango -- who is the Malawi voting delegate -- is convinced the city will win the right to host the 2018 event.

"Everybody here supports the bid," he said, referring to the other African voting delegates visiting the Gold Coast this week. "You will have the support of the Africans.

"Don't worry. There will be no problems."

With 19 of the 71 votes, the African countries have the biggest influence on how the Commonwealth Games bid will be decided.

Mr Mhango said one of the biggest factors in favour of the Gold Coast bid was the safety of the city.

"The number one thing on the minds of people will be the safety of their athletes," he said.

"We will not risk that."

Swaziland delegate Muriel Hofer was also positive about the Gold Coast's chances, talking up the venues, the bid preparation and the hospitality the group had been shown since arriving on Saturday.

"I particularly like the legacy that is being created here on the Gold Coast," she said.

"There is a nice feeling about this city."

The announcement on the bid will be made on November 11.

Gold Coast Bulletin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
Islanders' vote for Coast Games in the bag

Gold Coast has the support of key Pacific Island delegates in its bid for the 2018 Commonwealth Games, with one representative saying they had made their mind up last year.

Delegates from Oceania, Africa and Americas are on the Coast and yesterday met 16 local schools at the Sofitel in Broadbeach for an Adopt A Commonwealth Country event.

Gold Coast is in a race with Sri Lankan bid Hambantota for the 2018 Games.

Some of the delegates yesterday said they already had been won over by the city's beauty, facilities and people.

Cook Islands delegate Geoffrey Henry went as far as confirming he and his fellow Oceania colleagues would vote for the Gold Coast.

Mr Henry said their decision to vote for the Gold Coast was made at the 2010 Games in Delhi.

"We're all voting as a block," Mr Henry said.

"We talked about it a long time ago.

"We've been to Delhi and we really don't want to go back there.

"I'd rather come here."

Mr Henry said there was a lot of similarities between the Gold Coast and Pacific Island nations.

"The lifestyle is good, the people are friendly and it's a good place to be," he said.

Mr Henry, who flew in on Wednesday night, said the Coast was already home to some of the Pacific Nations' developing athletes in golf, swimming, tennis and canoeing.

"We believe Australia can assist in sport development better than Sri Lanka," he said.

Saint Helena Island delegate Larry Thomas travelled for almost a week before arriving on Thursday night from the small island between Africa and South America.

He said the Coast's long-term infrastructure was impressive.

Today the delegates will visit the Gold Coast's swimming, hockey and squash facilities before attending the Titans NRL game at Skilled Park.

They will visit Metricon Stadium and the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre tomorrow.

Gold Coast Bulletin

Well, between this and the Africans, I'd say it's already pretty sewn up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, between this and the Africans, I'd say it's already pretty sewn up.

:mellow: Oh well Hambantota will have to fight it out with South Africa for the 2022 edition then.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

:mellow: Oh well Hambantota will have to fight it out with South Africa for the 2022 edition then.

Again, I wouldn't see that as a contest. Hard to see ANYONE - and that goes for a London, Toronto, Singapore or Auckland, much less Hambamlumbago - beating Durban for the CWGs.

What puzzles me Alex, for someone who is always decrying the CWGs getting too big, why are you so keen on the Hambam plan, when behind the pretty renders, it's all quite grandiose and expensive - right up there on a Sochi or Delhi scale rather than the scale you are always saying you prefer for the commies? And GC's plan is actually quite modest - what gives? What happened to your fierce desire to bring the commies back down to earth?

I mean, here's a view (from Sri Lanka):

Winning A Gold For Bankruptcy

The Greeks, they say won a gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics for overspending. Indians, it is said, won many gold medals at the New Delhi Commonwealth Games for fraud and corruption.

Sri Lanka it appears is doing its damnedest to win a gold medal for bankruptcy at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, if it comes to be staged at Hambantota.

Sporting international jamborees like the Olympics and Commonwealth Games (which are second only to the Olympics) cost an enormous amount of money although they bring much prestige to countries that successfully host them. President Barack Obama’s visit to Copenhagen despite tremendous pressure of work at home to have his native Chicago host the Summer Olympics after the London Games failed but this was welcomed by many Americans who thought that America could not afford to host an Olympic Games in the mist of a severe economic depression.

Billions of dollars or peanuts?

The Athens 2004 Olympics cost $11 billion, double the original cost estimated.

New Delhi Commonwealth was estimated to cost $ 1.6 billion but it ballooned to $ 6 billion.

The estimated cost of the Hambantota games has not been officially released but our dapper Central Bank Chief Nivard Cabraal was quoted in The Hindu (May 11) saying that Sri Lanka’s proposed investment in the Hambantota games will be $ 4.1 billion.

$ 4.1 billion is not peanuts or cadjunuts (as we Sri Lankans say). All we can hope for is that the governor’s financial projections in this instance would be much more accurate than his hedging with international banks on the rise and fall of petroleum prices.

Historical hangovers

Greece staging the Olympic Games and Sri Lanka attempting to play host to the Commonwealth Games have striking similarities. Both countries are burdened with a sense of history and those countries with such histories have an inclination to attempt to repeat such histories, whatever the cost.

The Olympics is a Greek creation. Mythology has it that in 776 BC Heracles (Hercules) brought a sacred olive tree and planted in Olympia where the games began with competitors from neighbouring Greek states participating. Boxing, wrestling, marathon running, throwing the discus and javelin, short sprints and most other sports are those that passed on from Greek civilization to lesser civilisations of that time. So when modern Olympics commenced it was only natural that modern Greeks wanted to repeat their history.

Sinhalese too want to live through those glorious historic times of their ancestors. And even though they seem not to have had sportsmen of the Greek variety, the ancients built dagobas, irrigation reservoirs and temples. Our modern heroes have done just that although cynics say that the Dutugemunu of yore did not build the Ruwanveliseya and Mirisawetiya dagobas and other monuments on loans from the Chinese Exim Bank at commercial rates of interest or State Bank of India loans but on the strength and genius of the Sinhalese.

Grecian ambitions

Now the Sri Lankan urge is to take to Olympic sports and just as ancient Greeks built their Olympia by the sweat of their brow and slave labour we too want to create an Olympus for our Hambantota games with these Chinese loans. Who will pay back these loans and through how many generations is entirely another matter. Those detractors opposing the Hambantota Games like UNPers point out to the costs involved but they forget how much their beloved leader JRJ spent on the accelerated Mahaweli Scheme. That scheme produced only rice and power but the Hambantota Games will be a monument to our present day leaders – you know who.

Perhaps a few lines of the poem by Shelley, Ozymandias, we learnt in school five decades ago is apt.

I met a traveler from an antique land

Who said; two vast trunkless legs of stone stand in the desert…

And on the pedestal these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias

King of kings: Look on my mighty works and despair.

Nothing beside remains round that colossal wreck

Borderless and bare.

The lone and level sands

Stretch far away.

(The allusion is to Pharaoh Ramses the Great)

Modern Greeks, despite being descendants of the greatest of thinkers the world has known: Archimedes, Aristotle, Plato, Heraclitus, Democritus, Socrates, etc., made the colossal mistake of staging the 2004 Olympics on the verge of a financial crisis.

Folly of Athens

The $ 11 billion they spent in 2004 may be insignificant to the debt burden they now have to pay back estimated around $ 485 billion. But some Greek writers are saying that it may have been the beginning of the end. The 2004 Olympics at least illustrates what went wrong with Greece, says Derek Gastapulous Associated Press writer. He quotes Stella Alfierie an outspoken ‘anti games critic’ who says that the event marked ‘the start of Greece’s irresponsible spending binge’.

‘They exploited the feeling of pride in the Greek people… money was totally squandered in useless ways’.

The figure of $ 11 billion dollars does not include the expenditure on sports related activities such as building up of an entirely new metro system and improvements to highways.

This marks a difference between the proposed Hambantota Games. The Greek infrastructure development will help the already congested city of Athens – a new airport, improved railway system, new Metro but does the sparsely populated Hambantota District and the environs around which the event will take place need such sweeping infra structure and superhighways?

Seven years after the Olympic Games which swelled the hearts of Greeks with national pride, the scenario is one that results in depression and despondency. The writer says: The Olympic sites are barely used or are empty. The long list of failures include: the ‘Baseball Diamond’, massive man –made canoe and kayak course, areas built for ‘unglamorous sports: Badminton, table tennis and judo remain empty, swimming pools are empty and stained. Another report says that 21 of the 22 venues built are unused and in various states of disrepair. Tax payers are paying for maintenance of these sites.

New Delhi folly

The story of the 2010 New Delhi Commonwealth games is too well known to be repeated in detail. The Chairman of the Organising Committee Suresh Kalmadi an Indian parliamentarian and Lalit Bhanot the Secretary General of the committee are now in jail facing charges of corruption. The Times of India (May 14 2010) reported two months before commencement of the games that costs have gone up by 525 percent while unofficially it went up by 1575 per cent.

The official estimated cost of the Hambantota Games is not exactly known but we will be assured by officials like our confident Central Bank governor that everything will be hunky dory. He has said in Malaysia at the formal ‘lodgment ceremony’ that this project will ‘secure long term sustainable and economic development’. It does not enlighten us laymen very much on what would be gained from spending billions of dollars of the tax payers’ money. Almost every project launched these days speak of long term sustainable development’.

If the cost of the Hambantota Games will be nearly equivalent to Sri Lanka’s budget deficit as stated in some quarters this is indeed a deadly game the country will be playing will be playing on the brink of bankruptcy.

India at least won a total of 101 medals at the 2010 games. How many medals can Sri Lanka win in 2018 even with the help of quack doctors?

The Sunday Leader

So here we're already talking about Sri Lanka spending $4.1 billion as their preliminary estimate. And Lord knows, that's probably well below what it will eventually end up costing. And yet Melbourne, you're personal favourite as an "over-the-top" excessive host, built relatively little new and ended up spending a little over $1 billion. Your views just seem contradictory to me.

Edited by Sir Rols
Link to comment
Share on other sites

What puzzles me Alex, for someone who is always decrying the CWGs getting too big, why are you so keen on the Hambam plan, when behind the pretty renders, it's all quite grandiose and expensive - right up there on a Sochi or Delhi scale rather than the scale you are always saying you prefer for the commies? And GC's plan is actually quite modest - what gives? What happened to your fierce desire to bring the commies back down to earth?

<_< A wind up...But also allowing for the games to be used as a development tool. This is a greenfields development...Grandeous yes but built over time. We probibly thought SA's FIFA WC stadia over the top, but as we can see look what has been left behind. Hambantota will probibly miss out this time round and would have to fight hard if SL jumps back in for 2022. But we don't know what's going to happen in the next decade...2026 could still head Hambantota's way as the facilities would have settled in by then. Probibly after hosting a regional games of the likes.

I do support the games moving down to Beta/Capa sized cities (represented by GC) as most Commonwealth countries pretty much fit into this category.

And yet Melbourne, you're personal favourite as an "over-the-top" excessive host, built relatively little new and ended up spending a little over $1 billion. Your views just seem contradictory to me.

Not quite...Yes Melbourne had ALL the facilities but it still cost Melbourne $1 Billion to host this second tier event?...Sheesh, for the sports capital of the region, this is still over the top!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not quite...Yes Melbourne had ALL the facilities but it still cost Melbourne $1 Billion to host this second tier event?...Sheesh, for the sports capital of the region, this is still over the top!

Yeah, well, if it was Auckland, I'd sure you'd describe the same games as well scaled. I take all your opinions on Oz with an incredibly large grain of salt.

I still think it's the ultimate contradiction to be so vocal about the need for modest-scale games, and then be so gung-ho for Handbagtoota when it's level of investment and building needed is almost grotesque. Again, I suspect if Auckland hadn't woossied out of bidding, your tune would be totally different.

Edited by Sir Rols
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, well, if it was Auckland, I'd sure you'd describe the same games as well scaled. I take all your opinions on Oz with an incredibly large grain of salt.

<_< Rrrr...What I'm tring to say is with Melbourne's sports grounds ALREADY in situ, it STILL needed a $billion to host it. It should've cost no more the half that. Being a Sydneysider you probibly don't get that!

...Again, I suspect if Auckland hadn't woossied out of bidding, your tune would be totally different.

Auckland wasn't the one that 'woossied' out, the NZ Government did...Kind of a blessing now with the benefit of hinesight. There would've been every chance that Auckland be told to pull out by about now leaving Hambantota the only candidate. Gold Coast probibly could'nt gear up an emergency bid. Where would've that left you? And as for this debate, at least I don't offend Sri Lanka by deliberatly miss-spelling Hambantota in my posts...The CWG site seems to be where your ugly side comes out Rols...

Edited by Alexjc88
Link to comment
Share on other sites

<_< Rrrr...What I'm tring to say is with Melbourne's sports grounds ALREADY in situ, it STILL needed a $billion to host it. It should've cost no more the half that. Being a Sydneysider you probibly don't get that!

Auckland wasn't the one that 'woossied' out, the NZ Government did...Kind of a blessing now with the benefit of hinesight. There would've been every chance that Auckland be told to pull out by about now leaving Hambantota the only candidate. Gold Coast probibly could'nt gear up an emergency bid. Where would've that left you? And as for this debate, at least I don't offend Sri Lanka by deliberatly miss-spelling Hambantota in my posts...The CWG site seems to be where your ugly side comes out Rols...

I doubt that anyone, well equipped or not, could stage a second tier games - a CWGs, WOGs, Pan-Ams, Asian Games - for less than $1 billion. And that's probably even underestimated, if anything.

Sigh, Alex, I guess we can't help needling each other.

I just quite truly think Hambantota is a bid of little credibility and even less electability. Then again, I suppose I thought the same of Qatar 2022 - but even then FIFA hadn't just been so badly bitten on the bum as the CGF were last year in Delhi. 

Now, I can understand and even sympathize with those like GamesSL who have proud reasons to support their national bid, but I honestly thought you were more sensible. And I honestly do think you are contradictory in your railing against games gigantism and unnecessarily exorbitant expenditure, and then championing of Hambantota's plan.

But what really riles me is your implied accusations of colonialist/racist against me. You know that's a nasty card to play with some nasty history in this forum in particular. 

And I've got a long memory too Alex.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I doubt that anyone, well equipped or not, could stage a second tier games - a CWGs, WOGs, Pan-Ams, Asian Games - for less than $1 billion. And that's probably even underestimated, if anything.

Got a feeling that Sri Lanka will end up hosting one of those other second tier regional games...

Sigh, Alex, I guess we can't help needling each other.

...But what really riles me is your implied accusations of colonialist/racist against me. You know that's a nasty card to play with some nasty history in this forum in particular. 

<_< Considering both you and I are from nations that were former colonies of the UK, I don't think we're supporting colonialisim...What happens here on the CWG site is that we are seen as 'White' nations that are considered children of Great Britain.

Racisim on the otherhand, well I do believe members here do balance on very thin ice. Probibly blurred by nationalisim which this site doesn't really promote but due to the nature of the subject(s) mentioned, naturally brings out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...
Social media boosting Coast Games bid

SOCIAL media helping to mobilise support for Games bid

THE Gold Coast Commonwealth Games Bid Facebook page has hit 30,000 fans!

In just nine months, over 30,000 people have shown their support and liked the bid.

But it doesn't stop there!

The virtual support for the bid is continually growing and has attracted interest from 142 countries around the world.

The Behind the Bid social media campaign commenced in early 2011 and was created to attract fans using fun, informative and interactive online platforms.

The Gold Coast 2018 Bid Facebook page is at the forefront of the campaign which is packed with up-to-the-minute information on the bid and relevant sporting news.

The bid's Twitter page is used in conjunction with Facebook and links to the bid website, image galleries and sporting news.

The most exciting and unique element of the campaign is the Behind the Bid Beach Line, which is a fun and engaging platform where everyone, not just those living on the Gold Coast, can get behind the bid and interact with other supporters.

It's a unique promotion of the Gold Coast too with iconic landmarks featured along the line.

There are so many ways for you to show your support for the Gold Coast's 2018 Commonwealth Games bid and with just 30 days until the host city is announced now is the perfect time to follow online.

The host city will be announced at the Commonwealth Games Federation General Assembly on November 11 in St Kitts and Nevis.

The community is invited to join us for the live announcement on November 12 at 6.30am Broadwater Parklands, Gold Coast.

Show your support today and visit behindthebid.com.

GoldCoast.com.au

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Anyway, now the Rugby circus is over for four more years, time to get back to business. And the CWG vote can only be a few weeks away - two? three?

Anyway, the augurs are starting to pick up:

Delegate: Games need Gold Coast glitz

A COMMONWEALTH Games delegate has admitted the event risks being dismantled unless it can rediscover its "glitz and glamour," endorsing the Gold Coast as the ideal host city in 2018.

Speaking at the Gold Coast 600 Jamaican delegate Robert Richards said the Commonwealth Games needed the Gold Coast as much as the Gold Coast needed the Commonwealth Games.

He said the event could not continue to run at a loss and stressed the importance of two successful events in a row following negative media coverage of Delhi in 2010.

Gold Coast bid boss Mark Stockwell said he was confident the city had shown it could offer the Commonwealth Games more than just sport.

The visitors were the final contingent of Commonwealth Games delegates to visit before next month's decision on who will host the 2018 Games.

Gold Coast Bulletin

Oceania to vote en masse in support of Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games bid

October 21 – The New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) have confirmed that Oceania will be voting as a block for the Gold Coast bid for the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

The Australian city are locked in a two-horse race with Sri Lanka's Hambantota for the competition and the 71 Commonwealth nations and territories will gather in St Kitts and Nevis on November 11 at the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) General Assembly where they will vote on who will host the event.

Following a recent visit of the Oceania delegation to Hambantota, it was claimed that the region would not be voting as a block for the Gold Coast as previously suggested but, in a statement, the NZOC have confirmed that Oceania will be giving all of their 13 votes to the Australian candidate.

"New Zealand Olympic Committee President Mike Stanley and Secretary General Kereyn Smith will be at St Kitts and Nevis for the General Assembly," said the statement.

"The Oceania region has endorsed the Gold Coast bid."

Discussing the strengths of the Gold Coast bid, the statement said: "The Gold Coast and Australia are proven in hosting world-class events such as this and offer a great climate, friendly locals and an insatiable appetite for sport.

"With a wealth of attractions and a strong transport infrastructure in place, they would no doubt deliver an event of the highest order."

The news is a boost to the Gold Coast, who were always likely to get all 13 Oceania votes.

However, it is likely that Hambantota will get the majority, if not all, of the eight votes from the Asia region.

But the final outcome of the bid race will be decided elsewhere with Africa holding 19 votes, the Caribbean 15 votes, Europe 10 votes and the Americas six votes.

Jersey have already announced that they plan to cast their vote for the Gold Coast.

The announcement of the 2018 Commonwealth Games host city will be made by CGF President Mike Fennell of Jamaica at St Kitts Marriott Resort at 6pm Local Time following final presentations from the two bidding cities.

Insidethegames.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Final nail in the coffin for that fishing village.

I hope so. It really isn't a risk I think the CGF should take.

My worry, really, is that all the political criticisms against SL, and the calls to boot them out of the Commonwealth over the war crimes allegations, could blow back. Still, I'm quietly confident.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I hope so. It really isn't a risk I think the CGF should take.

My worry, really, is that all the political criticisms against SL, and the calls to boot them out of the Commonwealth over the war crimes allegations, could blow back. Still, I'm quietly confident.

Something like 55-65 votes for Gold coast should be expected. Anything less would be a disappointing number even with a win.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

:mellow: Apparantly this vote is going to come in tight...But Gold Coast will probibly get there anyway.

:( What a shame Jim Jones is'nt here for the final run to the finish line...Now that would've been something. <_<

Link to comment
Share on other sites

:) This is the first time a non-capital Australian city will host the CWGs...A very big win for this 'city' is the fact it's a popular holiday destination, both for Australia and New Zealand...Thank god they didn't officially call it Surfers Paradise! But it is an unusual urban area to get your head around.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am sure the people of Edinburgh and Glasgow would like to welcome the Gold Coast into the Commonwealth Games Host City Family.

I am looking forward to their handover segment at the Closing Ceremony of the Glasgow games in 3 years time.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

:) This is the first time a non-capital Australian city will host the CWGs...A very big win for this 'city' is the fact it's a popular holiday destination, both for Australia and New Zealand...Thank god they didn't officially call it Surfers Paradise! But it is an unusual urban area to get your head around.

Its an amazing city

I cant wait to see it being hosted in 2018

Will be amazing

can't wait to be a volunteer :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...