CWG bid: A post-mortem

The verdict was made known on Friday at the Caribbean nation St. Kitts and Sri Lanka on Saturday woke up to the news that the ambitious and equally controversial bid for the 2018 Commonwealth Games was lost to Australia’s Gold Coast.

The outgoing CGF President Michael Fennell summed it up thus: “My sincere congratulations to Gold Coast – theirs was a fantastic bid and they are a very, very worthy winner. Hambantota was also a very strong bid, and we have a duty to take the Games to new places, but the bid needs to be the right thing for the Commonwealth Games movement at the right time. This time Gold Coast was successful, but I hope Hambantota considers bidding again – their team was wonderful.”

That was an independent assessment and hence, despite strong criticism by sections of the Opposition and sceptics, Sri Lanka’s bid team needs to be congratulated for conceptualising and putting a dream into paper. Forty-three members of the CGF who voted for Gold Coast based their decisions on the present, whilst 27 who backed Sri Lanka took a futuristic view.

‘Sri Lanka’s economy saved’ was one of the comments posted on the Daily Mirror online site in response to the loss. The majority of the comments reflected relief or what the proponents of the Hambantota bid would term as ‘cynical joy’. Also evident from other comments (see Sports page 19 in today’s Daily FT), people were quick to react saying the loss was a blessing in disguise, whilst others seriously felt the loss on principle, i.e. a small nation should have been given the chance to host the Games. For this segment the astronomical cost wasn’t in the equation.

Whilst the country’s public debt is now over Rs. 5 trillion, as per a JVP estimate, the Government was planning to spend Rs. 265 billion on the 2018 Games, whilst it alleged that nearly Rs. 1 billion had been spent up to the vote date. The party was relieved about the loss of the bid, which the Opposition said would take Sri Lanka to ruin like the hosting of the Olympics Games has done to Greece today.

It is not only Sri Lanka which has been facing questions over the bid. Even Australian taxpayers have raised many issues. Reports said that Aussie taxpayers are to foot 56% of the Gold Coast Games’ proposed $ 1.97 billion budget, plus any overruns. This has led to posers as to whether the economic benefits outweigh the cost. Australia media said RMIT University Sports Economist Mark Stewart’s extensive research on major sporting events, including the Sydney Olympics, showed such spectacles “very rarely” reaped economic benefits across a whole economy. However, Gold Coast expects the 2018 Games to deliver $ 2 billion in economic benefits.

Locally good governance activist Chandra Jayaratne opines that professionals and civil society must call for a transparent debate on the expenditure to date on the CWG bid.  In a post-vote statement (see page 1) Co-Chair of the Hambantota bid and Central Bank Governor Nivard Cabraal said  the Southern city will be developed as a sports city as well as a hub. Whether foolish or otherwise, the Government to its credit had a firm plan of events including South Asian Games leading up to the 2018 Games if it were to win the bid. On most counts, the Hambantota push will be pursued, but with much less vigour.

If Sri Lanka as a progressive nation wants to host international events, then there are many lessons from the failed 2018 Games bid. There is a tendency to be carried away by the egos of some of those involved, hence there is no harm in taking an honest relook at where Sri Lanka went wrong in terms of bidding and marketing. If there is a next time, the first lesson is to avoid taking a delegation of 150 at massive cost, whereas the Gold Coast contingent numbered only around 20.

Games apart, the Government needs to be more realistic as well as prudent with regard to the future development of Hambantota and the country in an overall sense. It can draw strength from the bid as well as responsibly deliver true socioeconomic growth so that come 2018, people in Sri Lanka will be the true winners.