Durban 2022.

[thatsnotmypuppy]

New comp!

 

 

[Sir Rols]

1 hour ago, thatsnotmypuppy said:

 

Great post Rols - I'm pretty certain the CGF are talking to Melbourne, KL, Glasgow etc right now.  I can't see Toronto stepping in.  They'd have to go with a recent host or possibly London?

Ah yes, I remember that logo now. Again in hindsight, about the only positive and concrete action they did.

I just would've thought Toronto, with their Pan-Ams still fresh, would have been an obvious suspect. Of course, depends on the interest, will and desire from them. To tell the truth, I expected the CGF to have delayed the Durban announcement until they had the replacement already lined up. Maybe they are close to it, but not sealed in full yet.

[thatsnotmypuppy]

I'm sure they've been approaching the federations (Australia/England/Malaysia/Singapore/Canada etc) quite regularly.

This is quite fascinating - it's like Denver 1976 all over again... lol

[baron-pierreIV]

It's all a Cape Town plot!! 

[Alexjc]

2 minutes ago, baron-pierreIV said:

It's all a Cape Town plot!! 

A total Bloomfontein!!!

[capetown2020]

On 14/03/2017 at 6:34 AM, baron-pierreIV said:

It's all a Cape Town plot!! 

Maybe.

[capetown2020]

On 13/03/2017 at 11:25 PM, Sir Rols said:

It's all so easy to have 20-20 vision in hindsight, but really, for them to have got this far probably says more about the desire and goodwill of so many for the games to come to Africa and Durban than any confidence that at best they may have barely made it across the line with a games that would have made Delhi look professional. But for all our wishing it would happen (and even until this morning, I still hoped a last minute reprieve may have been worked out), the writing was on the wall from the word go...

* First you had that bizarre campaign where Gideon Sam traipsed the length of the continent trying to drum up support for a bid from anywhere on his claim that 2022 were "reserved" for Africa. But no takers. Finally there came a hoped-for, half-expected, but pretty well lacklustre announcement from Durban that they're going for it.

* And then that was it, sweet f-all from Durban for the duration of the "campaign". The only actual campaigning (and it was pretty serious and effective)  that was done was by Edmonton (Gideon must have been sh!tting himself to see that) who were really the only one making any effort until provincial politics saw them drop out. After that, the Durban team only had to happily keep sitting on their arses and do nothing at all until they were named winners by default. I really think if Edmonton had stayed the distance, Durban would have got their rude shock much earlier and saved much of the angst.

* Having won it, they then continued to do sweet f-all as their established mode of operation. No organising committee, no nothing but a few headlines coming out revealing that the only action happening was a sh!t fight between the local government and Pretoria as to who was going to pay for it. And Pretoria never did seem behind a bid at all - from  even before the "bid" went official, it was clear the national government was dubious if not outright hostile to the notion. And who's to blame them? For all the desire so many people around the world and here for South Africa to host a Commies and an Olympics, you have to give the South Africa government credit that they've never been railroaded into it and, probably quite rightly, made clear they think it's an extravagance and they have other priorities to concentrate on.

* Then, when the CGF hit the "please explain" button in November, you had a panicked Durban hurriedly form some sort of delegation and "committee" and rush to London with some plan for a stripped-back games without the need to rely on Pretoria. They'd truly hit the iceberg by that stage, but we should have seen it coming well before.

I'm sure for many of us, it's a big disappointment. I'd hope 2026 is still a possibility, but I can't say confidence is high for that at all. And, for all anybody might do to sugarcoat it, it really puts the kibbosh on any hopes that South Africa might bring the Olympics to Africa finally in the near term.

And for all that this has nothing to do with the Olympics or the IOC, it can't but be another big negative for the Games' and the IOC's reputation that another major event has gone begging because of cost and lack of effective support.  It's another black eye for major international multi-sport extravaganzas.

I guess we wait and watch now to see who picks up the pieces. Liverpool's mayor seems keen, but the hard-heads here from the UK say that is easier said than done. I;d guess there's a lot of begging emails floating between CGF house in London and Justin Trudeau and the Toronto mayor's offices. Oh well, gives us something to talk about here. Sigh!

What he said.

[capetown2020]

My organisation hosted two events (with 3 visits) in Durban in the last 6 months focussed on broadly, planning, urbanism, and promoting dialogue about the future direction.

There was simply no Commonwealth Games on the radar, and little to no information presented or availble, even to those in-the-know about planning, architecture and related fields.

Too late this for this though. Interested to see if Melbourne, Glasgow, etc. steps in.

While London seems unlikely, I think the future of the CWG needs the CWGF to do something to strike a deal with London, and somehow put the Games back on the map. Melbourne or Sydney to some extent, but there is a value in hosting the event in a city that  recently hosted the Olympics, and is a major economic, cultural, sporting capital. Not that Melbourne is not.

This should be less about "just finding any city" and more about finding a high profile city.

[Sir Rols]

Ah, the great “what if”.

I must admit, I was really disappointed that Durban got stripped of the games. My enthusiasm for the Commies has diminished greatly since. I just can’t get excited about Birmingham, much less regional Victoria.

Nevertheless, it’s pretty clear the CGF dodged a bullet. Covid would have already put a 2022 Durban games under a huge cloud - doubt they could have gone ahead. But even IF they persevered, now this…

At least 306 killed in catastrophic flooding in Durban, South Africa's President calls it a climate change disaster