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Halifax Bails Out Of Commonwealth Games Bid


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Well, I did, at the time, voted Glasgow for these Games because it was a "safe option" at the time. Now that Halifax is out, it is the "newcomer" vs. the "veteran." For me, it is a "wide-open contest" because even though I would like to have the Scottish city get it, it is going against the fact that Great Britain is trying to bid for other international events "in a row", like the way China is starting its long run of international events. However, I do sometimes have a problem with one section of the world "grabbing all the attention" like that.

For Abuja, I would like to have them, too. However, with the international TV news sector going 24 hours nowadays, they tend to hit Nigeria as a whole "really tough and hard." Of course, it seems that Africa as a whole is going through with it, too. Never mind that Delhi is not helping matters, when it comes to being the first time host of the Commonwealth Games with India and its international image. That could irk the Commonwealth Games Federation to think that having another first-time national host may be more than they can handle. Sure, the Commonwealth Games should go to an African city, but how much risk would they want to take in the end?

G, but Great Britian is getting two int'l events in a row NOT Scotland. Scotland is only getting one while England gets the other.....lets be fair now....GB is an entity in name only....we are not one voice/ethncity/govt/people/culture...

I think Africa is too chaotic top down right now......

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Now I'm extremly annoyed. Hamilton should have won the domestic bid. If it wasn't for committee members having links with Halifax Hamilton would have won and Hamilton would have been the front runner having bid for the 2010 Games.

Apple I think you have a valid point : Hamilton shoulda coulda had this bid and I would have supported it....those dang links....

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I'm sure their was strings pulled in the domestic bid processed in Halifax's favour even though they may have not had the best bid.

I agree Dave...puppeteers all around....string was being pulled too tight and they strangled themselves.....dang I gave them a mile of rope.....LMAO

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QUOTE(Kendegra @ Mar 8 2007, 08:17 PM)

The good citizens of Halifax should be relieved. They just saved themselves a lot of money and a lot of embarrassment. Realizing that you are going to be in over your head before you actually do get in over your head isn't incompetence, it is insightful. Montreal knows the experience and strain of hosting an over-the-top and over-budget Games with limited legacy. The CG's are about the same size as the WOG's but Halifax is much smaller than Vancouver and doesn't have much of the infrastructure and venues needed for the rather irrelevant Commonwealth Games.

This should not be seen as a victory for the NIMBY's or a defeat for the CG supporters...it is just a sober realization that overextending yourself for some prestige you cannot afford is not the best use of energy and resources.

Halifax will be better off and Canada will do just fine in the future.

The embarrassment is not the public's to have K, it belongs solely to the government: municipal and provincial. They not once worked in the public's best interest and now they are hiding behind the masses they first ignored, to save face...how ironic...

WE wont save money either, cannot save money you do not have...

Placing bids when you knew it was motivated by everything other than what it should have been IS incompetence and insight is not a word I would use with this lot..If they were so insightful they would not have placed the bid in the first place but now they have to change face when they knew they could not fool the public anymore ....

do you think Cleo the psychic will give them a refund ???

Your use of NiMBY here is confusing and it most definitely is a defeat........... a serious one for the NS public as too much money was foolishly spent by EGOS...

Sober realization??? are you serious...they knew this when they went to the table with the bid....have you not been paying attention?

what govt should have the public's confidence that 'realizes', to use you word, this after how much was already spent ??????

Halifax will be better off when city council and Tory govt are removed from power in NS.

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So okay after this news broke I've had an extremely busy day but here's what I have gotten so far for Hamilton.

Today city council and Tourism Hamilton held an emergency meeting to discuss Hamilton making a bid for 2014. Tourism Hamilton will table a report ASAP. Utlimatenly it's up to Commonwealth Canada to decide if Canada will continue to make a bid for 2014. If so Commonwelath Canada will select the 2nd winner of the 2014 domestic bid which is Hamilton. If no to Canada making 2014 bid Mayor Fred Eisenberger already decleared Hamilton will bid for 2018 based on council emergency meeting today.

That's the lastest I got. Within a few hours you'll get more information.

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G, but Halifax has the 2011 Winter Games already so that would be greedy... right?? :P

Not like that, Outraged. Have you seen the list of events that CHINA is going to host for the next 4 years STRAIGHT? Even though it is almost like a "one per year" list, I don't think even most of the "developed" nations could have the means to pull that off easily.

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So okay after this news broke I've had an extremely busy day but here's what I have gotten so far for Hamilton.

Today city council and Tourism Hamilton held an emergency meeting to discuss Hamilton making a bid for 2014. Tourism Hamilton will table a report ASAP. Utlimatenly it's up to Commonwealth Canada to decide if Canada will continue to make a bid for 2014. If so Commonwelath Canada will select the 2nd winner of the 2014 domestic bid which is Hamilton. If no to Canada making 2014 bid Mayor Fred Eisenberger already decleared Hamilton will bid for 2018 based on council emergency meeting today.

That's the lastest I got. Within a few hours you'll get more information.

Are you the primary source here Apple? It sounds like you got some mole in the Hamilton city council. More information in a few hours eh? <_<

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That was quick. It looks like the news traveled fast and the CGF website has already deleted everything about the Halifax bid.

Link: Official Commonwealth Games Federation Website

Once you enter the its first information page, after the intro, then click on the 2014 candidate cities icon.

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That was quick. It looks like the news traveled fast and the CGF website has already deleted everything about the Halifax bid.

Link: Official Commonwealth Games Federation Website

Once you enter the its first information page, after the intro, then click on the 2014 candidate cities icon.

I'm sure the CWGF are pretty embarassed that they only have two bidding cities now.

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I was one of many who showed the evaluation committee around the city during bid, ambassador team. City hires a bunch of students and we help people around the downtown core with the ambassador team. Tourism Hamilton runs it.

But all this information was on the evening and tonight's local news, CH. Hamilton Spectator, Bobby Robinson, the local newspaper company that pretty much created the Commonwelath Games will no doubt have news article about this.

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I'm sure the CWGF are pretty embarassed that they only have two bidding cities now.

Times two. Remember, the CGF had to deal with one candidate city for the 2006 edition in the end. Of course, that kind of translated, depending on one's opinion about it, into what occurred for the 2010 edition. Now, this latest news is going to test how the CGF reacts to another withdraw of another bid at this stage of the whole process.

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Sometimes bids are launched as a promotional campaign to get word out about a city. We live in the world of Britney and Paris (not the places in France) where there is no such thing as bad publicity unless you have no publicity.

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So okay after this news broke I've had an extremely busy day but here's what I have gotten so far for Hamilton.

Today city council and Tourism Hamilton held an emergency meeting to discuss Hamilton making a bid for 2014. Tourism Hamilton will table a report ASAP. Utlimatenly it's up to Commonwealth Canada to decide if Canada will continue to make a bid for 2014. If so Commonwelath Canada will select the 2nd winner of the 2014 domestic bid which is Hamilton. If no to Canada making 2014 bid Mayor Fred Eisenberger already decleared Hamilton will bid for 2018 based on council emergency meeting today.

That's the lastest I got. Within a few hours you'll get more information.

Thanks for updates Apple!

Guardian brought up a great question on another thread......and I was thinking : why dont we have a 'runner-up system' for GAMES?

I think Hamilton should be allowed to rebid...it will be alot of work but up to them...

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Not like that, Outraged. Have you seen the list of events that CHINA is going to host for the next 4 years STRAIGHT? Even though it is almost like a "one per year" list, I don't think even most of the "developed" nations could have the means to pull that off easily.

;) I know G I am just teasing you! I see what you are saying but is having all the attention reasonable to challenge internationally?

It reminds me of babydaddy drama: if you can feed them then have them

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That was quick. It looks like the news traveled fast and the CGF website has already deleted everything about the Halifax bid.

Link: Official Commonwealth Games Federation Website

Once you enter the its first information page, after the intro, then click on the 2014 candidate cities icon.

OMG Guardian you are right!

POOF........ maybe they have a 'damage control' button and it gets pushed once and all is erased?

Anyway I wish I could say I feel badly for CWF but that would be a lie. .. all I can think of saying is....

I TOLD YOU SO....

They didnot want to listen to all the 'heads up' for months so now looks good on them...EGO is nasty appetite to feed...

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Well looks like Canada is completely out of the picture. The Spec has said Commonwealth Games Canada will not make any substitute bid.

The report Tourism Hamilton will make is probably going to say Hamilton will bid for the 2018 bid. We all know one city that won't make a bid lol.

Bailout a black eye for Canada

Bidding process called everything from ‘deeply flawed’ to ‘mysterious’

Hamilton established the global sporting legacy known as the Commonwealth Games in 1930. Halifax just trashed it.

“There’s a bad aroma around this,” was the way businessman Ron Foxcroft described Halifax’s finances, the factor which spawned that city’s surprise exit from the international bidding for the 2014 Commonwealth Games yesterday.

“It was mysterious and suspicious,” he said of the process which awarded Halifax the right to compete globally over Hamilton, Ottawa and York Region.

Foxcroft and McMaster University president Dr. Peter George, a fellow Hamilton 2014 executive, simply couldn’t get the Halifax numbers to add up.

Halifax was touting a $500-million Games early in 2005, but the budget ballooned to $1.6 billion by this year.

And the logic of the bid committee appointed by Commonwealth Games Canada (CGC) seemed skewed.

“I delivered our presentation on international winnability,” noted Foxcroft.

“And even though they judged Hamilton had the most winnable bid, they chose Halifax.”

George said the core of Hamilton’s bid was southern Ontario’s economic gusto, while Halifax didn’t enjoy nearly the same size or vibrancy.

Those concerns were confirmed when an independent analysis revealed a number of “significant risks” for the Nova Scotia and Halifax governments.

They included questionable revenue projections, a higher-than-anticipated requirement for public funding (estimated at 92 per cent) and insufficient contingency funding, which would have left the province vulnerable to cost overruns.

Red flags were raised about the way CGC was conducting the bidding process back in 2005.

Paul Henderson, a long-time Canadian delegate to the International Olympic Committee, said it was deeply flawed.

“It was way too detailed for a Games the size of the Commonwealth Games,” he said.

Henderson, who was with the York Region bid group, said it was odd to see questions about snow-removal budgets in bid documents for a summer event. He arranged a conference call with the leaders of the four bids and appealed to them to demand a revamped bid process. But there was no consensus and the process carried on.

A disillusioned Henderson left the York group.

Politicians are calling yesterday’s developments a black eye for Canada that demands investigation.

Hamilton East–Stoney Creek MP Wayne Marston, the NDP critic for sport, said it won’t look good for Canada not to have a domestic bid.

“It’s going to be an embarrassment because ... had this (decision) been made four or five months ago when they realized things were getting out of hand then you would’ve had an opportunity perhaps for Hamilton to get back into the process here. And that’s very disappointing.”

David Christopherson, NDP MP for Hamilton Centre, wants to know how a bid could go this far, just to fall apart weeks before the deadline. He said the CGC, as the national body overseeing bids, must find the flaws in the system.

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Well looks like Canada is completely out of the picture. The Spec has said Commonwealth Games Canada will not make any substitute bid.

The report Tourism Hamilton will make is probably going to say Hamilton will bid for the 2018 bid. We all know one city that won't make a bid lol.

Bailout a black eye for Canada

Bidding process called everything from ‘deeply flawed’ to ‘mysterious’

Hamilton established the global sporting legacy known as the Commonwealth Games in 1930. Halifax just trashed it.

“There’s a bad aroma around this,” was the way businessman Ron Foxcroft described Halifax’s finances, the factor which spawned that city’s surprise exit from the international bidding for the 2014 Commonwealth Games yesterday.

“It was mysterious and suspicious,” he said of the process which awarded Halifax the right to compete globally over Hamilton, Ottawa and York Region.

Foxcroft and McMaster University president Dr. Peter George, a fellow Hamilton 2014 executive, simply couldn’t get the Halifax numbers to add up.

Halifax was touting a $500-million Games early in 2005, but the budget ballooned to $1.6 billion by this year.

And the logic of the bid committee appointed by Commonwealth Games Canada (CGC) seemed skewed.

“I delivered our presentation on international winnability,” noted Foxcroft.

“And even though they judged Hamilton had the most winnable bid, they chose Halifax.”

George said the core of Hamilton’s bid was southern Ontario’s economic gusto, while Halifax didn’t enjoy nearly the same size or vibrancy.

Those concerns were confirmed when an independent analysis revealed a number of “significant risks” for the Nova Scotia and Halifax governments.

They included questionable revenue projections, a higher-than-anticipated requirement for public funding (estimated at 92 per cent) and insufficient contingency funding, which would have left the province vulnerable to cost overruns.

Red flags were raised about the way CGC was conducting the bidding process back in 2005.

Paul Henderson, a long-time Canadian delegate to the International Olympic Committee, said it was deeply flawed.

“It was way too detailed for a Games the size of the Commonwealth Games,” he said.

Henderson, who was with the York Region bid group, said it was odd to see questions about snow-removal budgets in bid documents for a summer event. He arranged a conference call with the leaders of the four bids and appealed to them to demand a revamped bid process. But there was no consensus and the process carried on.

A disillusioned Henderson left the York group.

Politicians are calling yesterday’s developments a black eye for Canada that demands investigation.

Hamilton East–Stoney Creek MP Wayne Marston, the NDP critic for sport, said it won’t look good for Canada not to have a domestic bid.

“It’s going to be an embarrassment because ... had this (decision) been made four or five months ago when they realized things were getting out of hand then you would’ve had an opportunity perhaps for Hamilton to get back into the process here. And that’s very disappointing.”

David Christopherson, NDP MP for Hamilton Centre, wants to know how a bid could go this far, just to fall apart weeks before the deadline. He said the CGC, as the national body overseeing bids, must find the flaws in the system.

Wow, they really did cut up Halifax in this article. It's true that it was very suspicious that they won the national rights. Talk about backroom deals!!!

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I'm sure their was strings pulled in the domestic bid processed in Halifax's favour even though they may have not had the best bid.

The strings were pulled at the highest level The former PM's office. Paul Martin sent the word out for halifax to host this as a way to provide

Abuja with a spoiler to the Glasgow bid. Paul Martin has had a longtime interest Africa and in 2005 Martin stood up the Commonwealth head of state conference Malta. That is not a sign of a prime minister lobbying the commonwealth to have halifax host. The president of nigeria was there and so was tony blair and the first minsiter of scotland.

jim jones

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Well, congrats Jim, you got want you wanted!

Oh well, it was becoming clear Halifax didn't stand a chance anyway.

The big scandal and question now was why the Canadian selection process actually went with Halifax in the first place?????

I suppose there's lots I could say, but I'm on hols amongst the beaches, reefs and rainforests of North Queensland _ a far more pleasant respite from discussing the sports bidding process.

Go Glasgow! (undoubtedly the odds-on favourite now)

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Well, congrats Jim, you got want you wanted!

Oh well, it was becoming clear Halifax didn't stand a chance anyway.

The big scandal and question now was why the Canadian selection process actually went with Halifax in the first place?????

I suppose there's lots I could say, but I'm on hols amongst the beaches, reefs and rainforests of North Queensland _ a far more pleasant respite from discussing the sports bidding process.

Go Glasgow! (undoubtedly the odds-on favourite now)

What do you mean I got what I wanted? Now that Halifax had dropped its bid. I guess Abuja will be my new favourite candidate city.

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