Sport was top notch, but the Games failed on other levels

KEITH Woods’ article on Wednesday (‘Harder to take than the opening ceremony, the buck-passing afterwards’) was right on the

money.

As an ex Sydney cabbie now driving on the Goldie I know exactly what a successful Games looks like. And although everything to do with the actual sport was top notch, the Comm Games failed on many levels.

One level which has escaped proper scrutiny is the underwhelming Festival 2018, which you alluded to. It would be interesting to hear how many attended compared to early projections to justify their cost. From what I saw it was an abject failure if crowd numbers are anything to go by.

It was embarrassing to see performers on the main stages playing to two men and a dog. And the Kurrawa parklands, with all the funky pavilions at Broadbeach, looked like a joke. Every time I drove past there was barely any sizable numbers in there and nowhere near the regular numbers attending the Sunday morning markets.

An Indian journalist and veteran of numerous Comm Games opined that the Gold Coast was simply too small to host the Games based on the ghost town after dark. Every night at the Sydney Olympics was like New Year’s Eve yet these GOLDOC geniuses never realised the Goldie, with only half million people, was not like Sydney.

Consequently cabbies were giving up at midnight most nights. Unbelievable after all the nonsense they fed us and retailers.

For after beating up the locals for months they voted with their feet. The general sentiment from locals in my cab was, “our town, their Games”. The subtext of the campaign was “do you really need to be here? You’re interferring with our plans”.

Then last Friday the motorway advisory signs started imploring locals to “Stay and Play”! Dopes.

But what really upset me most of all was how all those kids in wheelchairs Kurt Fearnley spoke so eloquently about were denied the golden opportunity for renewed hope and pride in seeing the widespread community acceptance of their hero carrying the flag at the closing ceremony.

For that I blame Peter Beattie. If he is fair dinkum about apologising how about making a sizable donation from his fee to those wheelchair kids he robbed of the inspirationalal opportunity to see Kurt Fearnley. His entry into Carrara would have been one of the defining images of the 21st century.