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Like many Commonwealth Games events, this wasn’t much of a contest for Australia. With due respect to the Sri Lankan coastal town of Hambantota, Gold Coast always appeared a winner in this two-horse race.
Still scarred from the bungled 2010 Delhi Games, the Commonwealth Games general assembly had a simple choice: gamble or not.
In the words of the Commonwealth Games Federation’s own evaluation committee, Hambantota presented a “medium to high risk”; the Gold Coast a “low risk”.
The CGF general assembly were not willing to put their heads on a proverbial chopping block so soon after the corrupted Delhi Games.
So on Saturday, they awarded the 2018 event to Gold Coast – the fifth time the Games will be held in Australia.
» FULL GOLD COAST COMMONWEALTH GAMES SCHEDULE
No other nation will have staged the Commonwealth Games more times.
And none so soon again. The Gold Coast Games – from April 4-15, 2018 and featuring 17 sports – will happen 12 years after the successful Melbourne Games.
“The Commonwealth Games are really important to Australia,” Australian Commonwealth Games Association chief Perry Crosswhite says.
“Not only to our athletes, but the people of Australia have a very soft spot in their heart for the Commonwealth Games and they support them.
“Holding the Games in Australia will always be a positive thing for the Games.”
And after Delhi, the Commonwealth Games need positivity.
Crosswhite genuinely congratulated the Sri Lankans for a “very creative bid”.
But Hambantota – an agricultural district in south-eastern Sri Lanka with a population of around 530,000 – currently has no international airport and just 1009 accommodation rooms.
There is a recently built cricket ground in the town devastated by the 2004 tsunami, but other Games stadia and an athletes’ village needed to built at a cost of $A1.71 billion – an infrastructure program the CGF’s evaluation commission described as a “relatively high risk”.
In Hambantota, the evaluation commission said “the majority of telecommunications infrastructure required for the Games venues does not currently exist”.
The commission said Hambantota’s security arrangements were “untested”, while the Gold Coast had “mature security and emergency services structures in place and extensive, relevant experience in securing major sporting and other events”.
Such factors made it nigh-on impossible for the assembly – 71 members of the Commonwealth Games Associations each entitled to one vote – to plump for Hambantota.
So the tourist mecca Gold Coast will host the first Commonwealth Games held in a regional city, under the slogan: “It’s Our Time To Shine”.
The downsizing is a significant pointer to the future of a sporting event with a slipping foothold on the sporting landscape.
“The model we’re doing for the Gold Coast is having the Games in a smaller size city, around 500,000 people, compared to say in Delhi where we had 14 million people,” Crosswhite says, adding previous Games were staged in large cities Melbourne, Manchester and Kuala Lumpur.
“We think the Games can be held in a smaller size city, smaller venues … it’s about quality rather than quantity.
“That is the regional Games model we’re proposing … and making sure that when the Games are finished, there are no white elephants as in the past.”
The main stadium at Carrara, to be used for opening and closing ceremonies and athletics, seats only 25,000 people although temporary seating will cater for another 15,000 come the Games.
Most other Gold Coast competition venues will be smaller scale than at previous Games – although the city’s aquatic centre will be redeveloped with a new pool and seating for 10,000 spectators.
Track cycling and shooting events will be staged in Brisbane, with preliminary basketball matches in Cairns and Townsville
The Gold Coast bid detailed capital expenditure of $A889.17 million – including $A620.24m for an athletes’ village and $A105.7m for six new Games venues.
All new venues are scheduled for completion in 2016, with the Queensland government guaranteeing to fund any shortfall from organising committee monies.
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