Are the Commonwealth Games still a big deal?

[rainbowgirl28]

It sounds like it depends on who you ask!


http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/sports/sto ... 45,00.html

Coe: There's still much interest
By Al R Dizon

March 16, 2006




WHERE'S the frenzy for the Commonwealth Games?

Has it lost its relevance?

A Canadian website recently ran a poll asking readers to decide which of the following sports events interests them most: A college basketball tournament, the Canadian and World Curling Championships, the Commonwealth Games, and the World Figure Skating Championships.


Readers voted the World Curling Championships as the most popular and the Commonwealth Games the least.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation shares the sentiment. They're showing daily hour-long highlights but only after opting to move the Torino Paralympics to a cable network.

And therefore, there is a lingering belief that the Games, due to begin today in Melbourne, doesn't have that X-factor that will create a frenzied reaction for it.

'But that's just Canada,' said Lord Sebastian Coe, who was in Singapore this week to present scholarships by British Council to five local athletes to take part in the 2012 London Olympics.

'In Africa, in India and the rest of the Commonwealth countries in Asia, there's a high degree of interest in the Commonwealth Games.

'And don't forget, up to four Canadian cities are battling it out to host the 2014 Games.

'That's the sort of frenzy that we must look out for, and not just throngs of screaming, flag-waving crowds.'

Of course, Canada sent a team of two to the World Athletic Indoor Championships in Moscow on the weekend, while 44 will be competing in track and field in Melbourne.

'That's again the sort of frenzy we should be looking for,' Lord Coe said.

'The frenzy is in the heart. The desire to participate in something symbolic and worthwhile. The desire to take it in by expressing a willingness to host it,' he added.

Take Melbourne - the host city.

It has spent millions sprucing up the city, resurfacing roads, installing computerised information booths and revamping key tourist hubs such as Bourke St Mall and the Italian restaurant district, Lygon Street.

They have even laid an athletics track at the famous Melbourne Cricket Ground for the first time since the stadium hosted the Olympics 50 years ago.

Coe (above, right) added: 'The Commonwealth Games is always much smaller than the Olympics in terms of scale.'

Indeed, the Commonwealth Games is about one-third the size of the Summer Olympics and brings together 4,500 athletes from 71 countries, mostly former British colonies.

But has the Commonwealth Games lost its lustre - its shine?

In a sports-mad nation, eyebrows were raised earlier this week when organisers announced they were giving away 5,000 tickets to the opening ceremony because they couldn't sell them.

Just earlier this week, it was reported that thousands of tickets remained unsold, including an estimated 200,000 for athletics.

But organisers are now saying so far 1.3 million tickets have been sold.

An official said twice as many tickets had been sold for the Melbourne Games than for any other Commonwealth Games before.

GRANDEUR
Has it lost its lustre?

Perhaps we should ask Maria Mutola or Asafa Powell why they are running in the Commonwealth Games.

Or the thousands of Melbourne cityfolk who thronged the streets to catch a glimpse of a sculpture described as a 'shining symbol of unity, hope' - the Queen's baton.

Said Lord Coe: 'The Commonwealth Games offers a panacea at a time when peace is at a premium across the globe. It is very much alive.'

'Nothing is going to impair the grandeur of the Games.'

And, to all the sports romantics from Nairobi to Auckland, Hamilton to Sydney and Kingston to Kuala Lumpur - for whom the Games spelt magic through glittering heroes like Daley Thompson, Roberto de Castella and Cathy Freeman and the promise of many more this time around - let the Games begin.

[rainbowgirl28]

http://sport.guardian.co.uk/commonwealt ... ?gusrc=rss

What is the point of the Commonwealth Games?

Leo Benedictus
Thursday March 16, 2006
The Guardian


Having spent nearly £500m on the Melbourne Games only to see Grant Hackett, Ian Thorpe and Paula Radcliffe pull out and a quarter of a million tickets remaining unsold, this is a question to which many Australians have been demanding an answer. In truth, there are a number of competing theories.
First, though many spectators no doubt love "the friendly games", not to mention the flying tram in yesterday's opening ceremony, we can rule out the idea that it is the peak of any athlete's aspirations. This, as everyone knows, is the Olympics. But having a mini-Olympics to practise on is not without its merits. Bill Sweetenham, the Australian in charge of coaching Britain's swimmers, said on Five Live this week: "The senior swimmers tend to see it as a little more social; the younger ones see it as a chance to blood themselves and get ready for the world stage."

Sweetenham's analysis is strong on sense, but light on romance - a vital ingredient to convince the sceptics that Melbourne 2006 is not just a hugely expensive civic pride project.
A study commissioned after Manchester's 2002 games found that 55% of people thought that it had made them feel more positively about the city, 61% thought it would attract new businesses and residents, and, most tellingly of all, 91% thought the games had shown the world that Britain could stage world-class sporting events. The most popular benefit of hosting a Commonwealth Games, in other words, is that you might get an Olympics or a World Cup afterwards.

If you're not convinced by now, however, then it is possible that the Commonwealth Games may actually be completely pointless. Unless we believe the competition's official purpose: "To develop sport for the benefit of the people, the nations and the territories of the Commonwealth and thereby strengthen the Commonwealth." But this only raises an even bigger question: what is the point of the Commonwealth? Apart from giving the Queen something to talk about at Christmas, that is.

[altius]

I have been to many Olympic games and seen thousands of empty seats in the stadium - even in the evening sessions, so it is not surprising that in a huge stadium like the MCG that there will be many unsold seats - especailly for the morning sessions in the early days of the competition.

The Games are not significant on a World level in any sport, but ask the athletes if they feel they are worthwhile. The OZ vaulters all chose to prepare for the CG rather than go to the World Indoors - where any one the three Aussie men competing in Melbourne could possibly have won.