STOP PLAYING GAMES

I saw an Olympic Games sporting story all over Page One of a Sunday newspaper yesterday and I immediately thought of another sporting quote: ‘Say it aint so, Joe.’ According to the Sunday Age Melbourne is seriously considering launching a bid to host the Games in 2004 or 2028. Page One looks like a flashback fifty years with Ron Clarke Carrying the Olympic torch during the opening ceremony in 1956 but the story is all about the future.

Apparently, the head of the Victorian Major Events Company, Sir Rod Eddington, told the Australian Olympic Committee about a bid back in November.

And they trot out the usual suspects saying what a great idea it would be. The Age supports it editorially. So does the Herald Sun ‘in principle’ and the new Lord Mayor Robert Doyle. Some caution about the costs –as they should. The one man –not known for his caution – who is agin it is former Premier Jeff Kennett. He says it would be ‘irresponsible… too much a burden on the Victorian economy’. And he is right.  Just making a bid would cost, they say, $75 million. Make that $100 million when they gravy trainers get involved.

This is a classic case of send in the clowns, distract them with a circus when news is bad and times are tough. You have been conned enough times over a sports-led recovery.

You have never been told the truth about how much the last Commonwealth Games cost the taxpayer. They lied over ticket sales. You never know how much Victorian taxpayers lose every year on the Grand Prix while billionaire Bernie Ecklestone works out how to pay his alimony.

And now just to keep the Australian Open in Melbourne they are talking about spending $300 million to redevelop Melbourne Park. They’ve already quietly spent $2 million of your money on a survey ( yep, another one) which recommends tearing down the Rod Laver Arena. Well, it is 20 years old.

In London the cost of the 2012 Olympics has blown out to about 15 billion pounds – more than 40 billion dollars. And in India they are struggling for time and money to host the next Commonwealth Games.

I remember a few years ago bumping into Sir Donald Trescowthick who led the bid for Melbourne to get the 1988 Olympics. I had argued out loud and long against it. Pointed out to then Sports Minister Brian Dixon that we still hadn’t paid off the 1956 Olympics and in Canada the ratepayers of Montreal were paying an Olympic levy for decades.

Sir Donald said I turned public opinion against it. Hope I did. It is only eight years since Australia had the Games in Sydney. Apart from the panoply and euphoria of the moment what lasting benefits did Sydney get from it? Homebush is a white elephant. The way the Heidelberg Olympic village here became a run-down memory.

In tough times these are bells and whistles of the worst kind. An expensive distraction we don’t need and cannot afford.

Monday, January 19, 2009

© Copyright Derryn Hinch 2008