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Gold Coast 2018: a change for the Com Games?


mattygs

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Was reading around the net trying to find bits and pieces about the Gold Coast bid for the 2018 Games, and it made me wonder, would a GC Games be a change in style of Com Games hostings.

I guess of late when you think Australian sporting events, they are always presented in a reasonably big and oversized way. The Melbourne 2006 Games, while awesome, were almost made to appear far bigger than a Commonwealth Games needed to be.

On the bid website, the GC makes a point that they were a plan for a regional city sized Games. I can't imagine the stadia will be monsterous, the main stadium (a redeveloped Carrara stadium) would only have a temp seating capacity of 40k, and the city doesnt have a huge wealth of extra sporting arena.

It appears that maybe this is the start point of the Games being slightly downscaled back to where they should be???

Maybe Gold Coast could point the way for a sustainable hosting plan for other similar sized cities? I know Wellington kind of tried the same thing in their bid for 2006, making a hosting plan that other smaller cities and nations could handle.

Gold Coast would definetely be larger than that, it has to be, but maybe not on the scale of Melbourne. Would be a good thing.

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Manchester did it right. The CWG Fed doesnt really have a choice. Gold Coast can host the Games they want to.

They can't cancel it and go elsewhere.

Manchester got it right. I don't doubt that all commie venues could be temporary

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Manchester got it right...

:) Absolutely.

Melbourne was typical Australian one upmanship. Oversized everything and probibly had a negative influence on New Delhi forcing them to equal or better. I hope Gold Coast create a games that 'fits' the host city and re-focusses the CWGs to the fact that it's not an Olympics, most of it's member countries rank in the lower OECD scale, the Youth Olympics are more attractive, and many of the wealthier nation's major cities are looking toward Olympic Games hostings anyway...

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Yep Manchester worked. Melbourne looked awesome - and they could pull it off because they were Melbourne - but that doesn't mean every city has to do it the Melbourne way. Manchester was great, Melbourne was also great - just in different ways.

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Melbourne cold have probably held the CWGs in totally B-grade existing venues if they wanted to. But why, when they're already just about one of the best equipped cities for sports facilties in the world. It's not as if they're gonna leave the MCG empty and ignore it because some people might get too envious that it exists. There was no one-upmanship - it's Melbourne and it used what it had (which is top class). If/when Gold Coast gets it, it'll use what's appropriate for it.

Personally I do think the CWGs still have the flexibility to fit a range of hosts. It's like arguing if the Winter Olympics have become too big because they've had a run of being hostd in larger cities. That's not to say that a PyeongChang can't be more like a Lillehammer than a vancouver, or a Gold Coast won';t be more like a Victoria 94 than a Melbourne.

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Oh I definitely agree, I'm not suggesting Melbourne should have used a 10,000 seat venue.

It had the venues, and many were in fact small venues expanded to cope with the Games e.g. aquatics, hockey etc.

Its just that Manchester appeared to have the sort of scale that felt right for the Commie Games, not that Melbourne was particularly trying to overdo it when it had major venues in place.

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Personally I do think the CWGs still have the flexibility to fit a range of hosts. It's like arguing if the Winter Olympics have become too big because they've had a run of being hostd in larger cities. That's not to say that a PyeongChang can't be more like a Lillehammer than a vancouver, or a Gold Coast won';t be more like a Victoria 94 than a Melbourne.

Couldn't agree more. I think that often with these things less is more. It's nice to have a balance. For every Beijing, I enjoy a Lillehammer just as much.

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Being Queensland, I'd say GC will look to Brisbane as guidence for it's Games. Victoria '94 might have seemed in some eyes as a little too austire, with Kuala Lumpa drowning their memory. Gold Coast will strike a ballance, I believe with a games in and around Manchester size. Although the unknown quantity here is Glasgow - this new style format will be studied intensly by the next host...remembering Gold Coast hasn't won them yet.

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Being Queensland, I'd say GC will look to Brisbane as guidence for it's Games. Victoria '94 might have seemed in some eyes as a little too austire, with Kuala Lumpa drowning their memory. Gold Coast will strike a ballance, I believe with a games in and around Manchester size. Although the unknown quantity here is Glasgow - this new style format will be studied intensly by the next host...remembering Gold Coast hasn't won them yet.

Yeah, but even trying to be charitable to them and emphasise their positives, It's just imposible to see that 11,500-population town just down the coast from Delhi getting more than sympathy support and votes.

Anyway, GC has got the bedrock support locked in:

Oceania on board for Coast Games bid

April 22nd, 2010

A DOZEN Oceanic nations have pledged support for the Gold Coast's Commonwealth Games bid, indicating the city could already have a third of the votes needed to clinch the 2018 event.

Oceania Commonwealth Games regional vice-president Tapasu Leung Ming Wai yesterday said the 12 Oceania countries in the Commonwealth backed the Coast over its Sri Lankan rival Hambantota.

"We had a meeting in Fiji a few weeks ago where there was talk about the Gold Coast bid and supporting the idea," said Mr Leung Ming Wai.

"We see it as a bid on behalf of Oceania.

"Logistically it is closer to us than Sri Lanka and we would support it security-wise."

Australian Commonwealth Games Association chief Perry Crosswhite is now in the midst of political jostling, firming up securing votes from the 71 member nations that will decide the Gold Coast's hosting fate.

He said securing the 12 votes of Oceania, which includes Samoa, Vanuatu, Cook Islands, Niue, Tonga, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, was a major step toward getting the 36 votes needed to clinch the Games.

"We are full-steam ahead looking at the strategy and politics now and getting people who are going to support us in November 2011 at the General Assembly when the vote happens," he said.

"There are six regions in the Commonwealth and we would hope to get strong support from Europe, the Americas and Caribbean.

"I expect Asia will have some sympathy for Sri Lanka."

Mr Crosswhite said the bid team had already sought tips from Glasgow, which will host the 2014 Commonwealth Games, and would be picking the brains of the Delhi 2010 team currently in Australia for the Queen's Baton Relay.

"Premier Anna Bligh had a meeting with Glasgow where they gave us a lot of information," he said.

Mr Crosswhite said that the bid would be centred around hosting a smaller Commonwealth Games in a regional city as opposed to previous years where it has been held in larger cities.

He expected that would be more appealing, because it opened up opportunities for smaller cities to bid for future games. "We think that is what the Commonwealth Games Federation wants and I think it will be a vote-getter," he said.

Gold Coast Bulletin

It's take an upset of big proportions IMO for it not to get the nod. And if that happens, there'll be plenty for us to talk about.

;)

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Interesting we're talking about like they have already won.

I wonder if there have been serious preparations into developing an operations team yet, I mean, they basically have it in the bag.

Not really that hard when their main competition is Hambonetomato (or whatever it's called) Sri Lanka.

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*Yawn*

Gold Coast 2018 sounds about as exciting as the buffet dinner at Jupiters (in fact the whole CWG phenomenon is IMHO moribund).

And by the way Melbourne 2006 wasn't typical Aussie oneupmanship...it was Ron walker inspired Melbourne ego trying to show that the home of the 56 SOGs was still better than the home of the 2000 Olympics. When you're the so-called sporting capital of Australia you need to keep pushing that message down everyone else's throats (even with second or third tier games).

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When you're the so-called sporting capital of Australia you need to keep pushing that message down everyone else's throats (even with second or third tier games).

You mean sporting capital of the Universe, don't you mate!

;)

Ron never did get over ... or forgive ... '96.

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So, if Oz is part of the Asian federation in some sports, can Oz now bid for the Asian Games?

No, that's only for football and maybe other specific sports or minor associations. As far as the Olympics go, we're still counted as Oceania. I'd be ambivalent about joining the Asian Olympic Association or whatever it's called.

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  • 2 weeks later...

*Yawn*

Gold Coast 2018 ... (in fact the whole CWG phenomenon is IMHO moribund).

I kind of agree with you on the bracketed comment...Considering it was only a small group of Auckland people that were relying on NZs previous hostings, the government WAS right in deffering support...I've got a funny feeling that London 2012 will bring down the curtain on the relevence of the CWGs and in the next decade this will play out...Not exactly a list of candidate cities wanting them now is there? :mellow:

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I've got a funny feeling that London 2012 will bring down the curtain on the relevence of the CWGs

What's London 2012 got to do with it?

Glasgow will be a good games

Gold Coast too will be a good games.

At the risk of sounding like JJ - It's not like we've ever had huge bid races in the past! As long as one decent city is available it's in a good shape I think?

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What's London 2012 got to do with it?

Glasgow will be a good games

Gold Coast too will be a good games.

At the risk of sounding like JJ - It's not like we've ever had huge bid races in the past! As long as one decent city is available it's in a good shape I think?

I don't think it was you that was sounding like the J-man. There was a bloke who was obsessed with the CWGs, yet would also so argue so contradictorily how worthless they are.

Yes, they're a second tier event, but one of the bigger ones of that league. They're not a rival to the Olympics - never have been, never will be. But they certainly enjoy a profile probably at least level with, if not more than, the Pan-Ams, Asian games, pan-Africans etc.

They're always a little bit more collaboratively more decided. Just for 2018 we saw how NZ, Canada and Oz worked out amongst themselves who was going to go forward out of them (I think they, and we, all expected an African bidder would have a good chance - and got blind-sided with Gold Coast as the surprise host-apparent by default). I also don't expect you'd see a contest where two UK candidates, say Wales versus England, would campaign against each other.

And as for London's influence - well, once 2012 is history the UK is pretty well out of Olympic host calculations for at least a generation or more. With nothing else of such profile in the multi-sport arena to bid for, I suspect we'll see the games swing back regularly to the Home Nations in the future, as well as to Canada, Oz, NZ, South Africa with the odd Asian or African hosting to spice them up now and then - just as things have been.

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I think the biggest problem with the Commonwealth Games now is they don't seem to have a place on the international calendar, meaning athletes often have to choose between these or another event. I believe they clash with the World Gymnastics Champs this year and Road World Cycling Champs, so fields are likely to be diminished in those events at least.

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  • 2 weeks later...

...And as for London's influence - well, once 2012 is history the UK is pretty well out of Olympic host calculations for at least a generation or more. With nothing else of such profile in the multi-sport arena to bid for, I suspect we'll see the games swing back regularly to the Home Nations in the future, as well as to Canada, Oz, NZ, South Africa with the odd Asian or African hosting to spice them up now and then - just as things have been.

What I was meaning was that once 2012 is over, the luster of the CWGs would diminish in the eyes of the UK for a while as Athletes would now expect the CWGs in Glasgow to equal the Olympics. Unfair I know but true. As for the UK hosting the Olympics again, well probibly sometime in the 50's.

...Still amazed that England has only hosted the CWGs twice...

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