Commonwealth Games in Adelaide

[crawf]

Poll pledge: Libs would bid for 2018 Commonwealth Games
Article from: The Advertiser

August 23, 2008 12:30am

STATE Opposition Leader Martin Hamilton-Smith has committed to a bid for the 2018 Commonwealth Games if the Liberals are elected in 2010.
It would be Adelaide's third bid for the Games after failed attempts in 1990 and 1996.

Mr Hamilton-Smith will unveil his official policy in a keynote address today to the annual general meeting of the Liberal Party.

He said he would begin work on the bid while in Opposition.

"We'll appoint an interim advisory group to start an audit of our sporting infrastructure and develop a framework for the bid process," he said.

Mr Hamilton-Smith said bidding for the Games would be one of the Liberal Party's "urgent tasks on coming to government". He said it "runs together with our support for a world-class stadium" in Adelaide.

The Opposition has been pushing for months for a commitment from the Government to refurbish AAMI Stadium or Adelaide Oval or build a new stadium in Adelaide's CBD.

Yesterday, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh announced her state would also make a bid for the 2018 Games, to be held on the Gold Coast.

The ACT and West Australian governments have announced feasibility studies to examine possible bids for Canberra and Perth to host the Games in 2018.

The next two Commonwealth Games will be held in Delhi (2010) and Glasgow (2014).

Also in his speech to the party conference, Mr Hamilton-Smith is expected to call for party unity and for it to remain focused and determined in the lead-up to the 2010 state election.

Adelaide is the only mainland state capital to have never hosted a Commonwealth Games.

The Games have been held in Sydney in 1938, Perth in 1962, Brisbane in 1982 and Melbourne in 2006.

"In 1990, SA started work on a bid for the 1998 games," Mr Hamilton-Smith said.

"We had a bid committee and a board that put together proposals for accommodation, sporting facilities, and transport and tourism facilities.

"We missed out, just beaten by Kuala Lumpur.

"From March, 2010 we will begin that process again, culminating in a decision at the end of 2011 by the Commonwealth Games Federation."

Mr Hamilton-Smith said the Games were as much about reputation, pride and achievement of the host city as they were about the estimated 4500 athletes, 17 sports and 50,000 overseas visitors.

"This will begin the regeneration of our tourism industry and provide a sporting heritage for our young people to build on," he said.

"As part of this process we will need to complete an audit of our sporting infrastructure and I call on the Rann Government to begin that process.

"Regardless of their actions, we will start that process while in Opposition."

On the Queensland bid, Mr Hamilton-Smith said it appeared Anna Bligh was "not satisfied with taking our water, she wants to take our opportunity to host the Commonwealth Games".

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/stor ... 01,00.html


Not surprised by this, there was talk of Adelaide bidding for the Commonwealth Games back in 2006. Though I wish this state would go for the 2022 Commonwealth Games

On the upside by 2018, Adelaide will have a brand new state of the art train/tram system, state swimming centre and the resource/defence boom will be in action.

Adelaide would be better prepared and a better city in 2018 compared to the 90s, Adelaide has a great track record of hosting festivals and sporting events such as the World Police & Fire Games last year and been building events up such as the Tour Down Under.

I seriously reckon with Adelaides love of festivals, the games would just become a giant festival.

[Will]

Interesting idea, however I am in 2 minds about this. Should we be spending money on such a luxury or should we spend it on the more mundane but more important neccesities.

However, hosting the games could be sued as an excuse to build better public trnasport and sporting infraestructure.

[Wayno]

agree - lots of change coming in the next decade. Good time to showcase for the world, well at least the commonwealth portion of the world!

[Shuz]

Clearly the Liberals are so desperate, this is just a populist pledge to return to government. You cannot guarantee or make such a substantial promise on such a thing, for it requires other forces to further its process. It's not a vote-winner and shouldn't be used as such.

All the more reason for me to back Rann's third term. The Liberals are such a political disgrace, I hope for nothing less than an annihiliation at the next election.

I do support the idea, I welcome the idea very much. But it's the fact that its being used as a political leverage is what worries me, for sport should not interfere with politics. Someone who can put their political differences aside, whose a realist, someone who has vision and determination should make such a move to support an Adelaide bid for the Commonwealth Games. And I believe that with the right priorities, Rann can achieve this.

[Düsseldorfer]

Wow, this is just more of a reason not to vote liberal, if we were to host the 2018 Commonwealth games, the appropriate facilities would have to be constructed; a new inner city stadium, a swimming centre and many other facillities...which = no public transport improvements, no new trains, no new hospital...seriously MHS, we do not need a shit sporting event like the CG, no one ever goes to it or watches it...i would prefer to see our essential infrastructure upgraded firstly by 2018, then build "world class" sporting facilities and hopefully bid for the "OLYMPIC GAMES" round 2030.

[Cruise]

Just get the grand prix back instead.

[aussie2000]

what really annoys me is that on ADELAIDENOW most people have voted to spend the money on better things, whats wrong with the people of this city!! i think it would be great, but i would be a bit worried because perth, canberra and the gold coast would bid aswell, however, we would have better transport and hopefully, better facilities by then, i would say our only threat would be perth, still i recon we could beat em' they've held it once and Adelaide has bid 2 other times

[Norman]

I think a later year would be better. 2018 is still too soon. By 2022 or 2026, we will have a world-class hospital, rail system and a more modern city. We can then also later in the next decade build a new stadium on the fringe of the City, possibly Mile End or around that area.

[adam73837]

I think that it would be great to have the Commonwealth Games in Adelaide. Providing that we have the state aquatic centre built IN THE CBD, NOT AT MARION, (RANN, YOU F***), decent public & private transport systems and of course, a decent stadium IN A DECENT LOCATION.
In order to get all of these things, we'd have to wait until after 2018, so I'd prefer to bid for 2022. If of course Rann wins the next election, we can just kiss any improvements to Adelaide goodbye, because Rann and his guard dog Furious Foley are idiots, -end of story. AND they're going to lose their government (that has quite a few good ministers) the next election. But wait, how can I put down Rann, because according to most people on this forum, the light shines out of his ass!
I ain't saying that MHS is the best, not for a second, but like I've said many times, if Rann and his guard dog Furious Foley don't step down, they'll lose their government the next election, regardless of how many times they try to upgrade our PT System, fail miserably, then blame other people for it by telling them that they're a bunch of bloody wingers or that they should wear lighter clothes on trams, etc. Yeah, I know, within a few days, someone will have posted on this forum that I'm a 'bloody winger'. Maybe I am. And maybe are about a million other people living in Adelaide. But we wouldn't be bloody wingers if we didn't have such a pathetic Premier and Treasurer. THIS STATE DESERVES BETTER!!!
But I must admit, now that I've got everyone's attention, that if there's one thing that I do like about Rann, it's this:
Whenever the public supports something that his opposition, or someone that he doesn't like, has done or said, Rann immediately does the same thing and claims that its his idea. It's pathetic of him, I know, but at least we actually get decent things in the end. All that we need is pressure on Rann, and HE WILL FALL OVER LIKE A DOMINO.
What does that have to do with anything? Well, MHS and the Liberals have been pushing for the inner city stadium for a while, and now that they're going to gain more attention by saying that they'll bid for the Commonwealth Games in 2018, Rann's Government will announce their MASTERPLAN TO BUILD A NEW WORLD-CLASS INNER CITY STADIUM THAT HAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH PRESSURE FROM THE PUBLIC OR THE OPPOSITION
My friends, expect to see a world-class stadium being announced for the city fairly soon... (we got the rail electrification -opposition; we got the ACC Planning Powers taken away -Opposition; we're going to get the new stadium -Opposition; noticing the pattern?).
Oh, I can't WAIT for the new stadium!

[aussie2000]

does the person that voted 'no - a waste of money' wanna ploise explain?

[Mants]

Wow, this is just more of a reason not to vote liberal, if we were to host the 2018 Commonwealth games, the appropriate facilities would have to be constructed; a new inner city stadium, a swimming centre and many other facillities...which = no public transport improvements, no new trains, no new hospital...seriously MHS, we do not need a shit sporting event like the CG, no one ever goes to it or watches it...i would prefer to see our essential infrastructure upgraded firstly by 2018, then build "world class" sporting facilities and hopefully bid for the "OLYMPIC GAMES" round 2030.

i would def. go to the CG if it came to Adelaide.

great vision, id like to see labor support this as well so that we, as a state, can make a successful bid, regardless of who is in government at the time.

[monotonehell]

I can't decide.

On one hand it would be an awesome event, create a lot of excitement for a while and add to Adelaide's international profile. It would create a lot of industry with money spinning around the various projects necessary to host such an event. As well as the flow on effects and a few thousand casual, temporary jobs would be created.

On the other hand it would be very disruptive, cost somewhere in the vicinity of $4 billion, and create local inflation. If managed well it could see the state's production increase to about a quarter of the price tag, but if handled badly it could see a subsequent local mini-recession.

I get this from reading several post-games reports (KPMG) for other cities' recent games experiences. But like I said, I can't decide, there's so many pros and cons that I can't work out if overall it's a good or bad experience to host a Commonwealth Games.

One thing, I think 2018 is too close - both in timing and SA's current economic position. 2022 might be a more realistic target.


And I must agree with Shuz that MHS is pulling stunts out of the hat to try to win an election. So far he's announced several interesting ideas, but there's been ZERO follow through. I can't take him seriously any more.

[cruel_world00]

I think that it would be great to have the Commonwealth Games in Adelaide. Providing that we have the state aquatic centre built IN THE CBD, NOT AT MARION, (RANN, YOU F***), decent public & private transport systems and of course, a decent stadium IN A DECENT LOCATION.
In order to get all of these things, we'd have to wait until after 2018, so I'd prefer to bid for 2022. If of course Rann wins the next election, we can just kiss any improvements to Adelaide goodbye, because Rann and his guard dog Furious Foley are idiots, -end of story. AND they're going to lose their government (that has quite a few good ministers) the next election. But wait, how can I put down Rann, because according to most people on this forum, the light shines out of his ass!
I ain't saying that MHS is the best, not for a second, but like I've said many times, if Rann and his guard dog Furious Foley don't step down, they'll lose their government the next election, regardless of how many times they try to upgrade our PT System, fail miserably, then blame other people for it by telling them that they're a bunch of bloody wingers or that they should wear lighter clothes on trams, etc. Yeah, I know, within a few days, someone will have posted on this forum that I'm a 'bloody winger'. Maybe I am. And maybe are about a million other people living in Adelaide. But we wouldn't be bloody wingers if we didn't have such a pathetic Premier and Treasurer. THIS STATE DESERVES BETTER!!!
But I must admit, now that I've got everyone's attention, that if there's one thing that I do like about Rann, it's this:
Whenever the public supports something that his opposition, or someone that he doesn't like, has done or said, Rann immediately does the same thing and claims that its his idea. It's pathetic of him, I know, but at least we actually get decent things in the end. All that we need is pressure on Rann, and HE WILL FALL OVER LIKE A DOMINO.
What does that have to do with anything? Well, MHS and the Liberals have been pushing for the inner city stadium for a while, and now that they're going to gain more attention by saying that they'll bid for the Commonwealth Games in 2018, Rann's Government will announce their MASTERPLAN TO BUILD A NEW WORLD-CLASS INNER CITY STADIUM THAT HAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH PRESSURE FROM THE PUBLIC OR THE OPPOSITION
My friends, expect to see a world-class stadium being announced for the city fairly soon... (we got the rail electrification -opposition; we got the ACC Planning Powers taken away -Opposition; we're going to get the new stadium -Opposition; noticing the pattern?).
Oh, I can't WAIT for the new stadium!

Glad to get that out of your system, Martin?

[Splashmo]

No thanks. The political motivation behind this worries me, and Perth and the Gold Coast are so much more desirable at the moment.

Adelaide doesn't need this right now. It would be nice to have some money thrown at our deplorable sporting facilities but we don't need a white elephant stadium and a tremendous price tag for a short and waste of time competition.

[Will]

I think we should focus on the Commonwealth Games, because the Australian Olympic Committee has already designated Brisbane as the next Australian city to bid for an Olympic Games.