RSS Feed
September 9th, 2011 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda <!–
The Commonwealth Games Federation Evaluation Commission has issued its report on the Gold Coast and Hambantota bids for the 2018 Commonwealth Games, citing the Australian bid as low risk and the Sri Lankan as medium to high but the Queensland Premier doesn’t think it’s in the bag yet.
–>
MARK COLVIN: The Commonwealth Games Federation has released its report card on the two competing bids for the 2018 event. And it reveals that the Gold Coast is facing stiff opposition from the Sri Lankan city of Hambantota.
The evaluation commission reports identified a number of strengths and weaknesses in both bids ahead of the final vote in November.
Matt Wordsworth reports.
MATT WORDSWORTH: Hosting the Commonwealth Games is predicted to be a financial boon for the Gold Coast and a commercial coming-of-age for Sri Lanka, which is still recovering from the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004 and a civil war.
They are the only two cities vying for the right to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games and a vote will be held in November at the general assembly of the Federation. But to assist the member nations an evaluation team went to each city to prepare the report which was released today.
The big difference between the two is risk. The Gold Coast is labelled low risk, Hambantota – medium to high. One of the reasons is that the Gold Coast already has 80 per cent of venues, such as Carrara stadium, built and operating. Capital expenditure would be a relatively modest $860 million, with almost half spent on a games village.
The Queensland Premier, Anna Bligh.
ANNA BLIGH: This evaluation report is good news for our bid. It demonstrates that the federation believes the Gold Coast is more than capable of hosting a great games.
MATT WORDSWORTH: By contrast Hambantota is virtually a greenfield site, with the report describing the overall plan as an ambitious one. The construction bill is estimated at $1.65 billion, almost double that of the Gold Coast’s.
The Sri Lankan government hopes about $800 million will come from private sector investment. But the evaluation team says corporate support is untested and the commercial revenue targets may be ambitious, placing the risk of an even greater burden on the Sri Lankan taxpayer.
There are also questions over what the games venues would be used for after the event. And the report says a “key challenge” is accommodation for the thousands of competitors and visitors; saying the proposed solution relies on continued growth in the Sri Lankan tourism industry.
But the overall bid is described as meeting the requirements. And the transformative nature of the games for the disaster-ravaged country is seen as an opportunity and a potential model.
The Gold Coast Mayor, Ron Clarke, says the Coast certainly shouldn’t get carried away with the assessment.
RON CLARKE: We just have to keep going. I think the risk factor is, we’ve always said, pretty obviously a difference between the two. But one’s a field of dreams, the other one’s a field of reality and I still feel that the only way to go forward is with the Gold Coast.
ANNA BLIGH: But it’s going to be a very fiercely fought competition and I think it will go down to the wire before we know whether we’ve got it in the bag.
MATT WORDSWORTH: And the Gold Coast also had its weaknesses laid out. The evaluation team notes the transport system is based primarily on the road network and private cars.
ANNA BLIGH: There are some challenges retrofitting a games into a very well established city. Remembering, of course, that by the time these games are happening Gold Coast will have a modern light rail, rapid transit system, better than anything else in any regional city of Australia.
So I think we are going to face some challenges, that’s inevitable with any bid, but this is very encouraging news from the commission today.
MATT WORDSWORTH: Ms Bligh says delegations from the voting nations are visiting the Gold Coast and she will be working furiously in the lead-up to the November vote.
MARK COLVIN: Matt Wordsworth.
Posted in 
Tags: 
