Not quite a gold medal

GOLDOC misses two Comm Games benchmarks

COMMONWEALTH Games organising body GOLDOC delivered the event “on time, on Budget” but failed to meet its own benchmarks, according to its 2017-18 Annual Report.

The Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Corporation document was one of 75 annual reports ‘dumped’ by the State Government on Friday.

While it trumpets the Games’ success, it reveals GOLDOC fell short of its own service standard benchmarks for commercial revenue and target market engagement.

Despite a target of 65 per cent, GOLDOC says the level of target market engagement in the Games was 57 per cent.

The Games also fell short of its total commercial revenue target by 4 per cent, recording commercial revenue of $225,467,000 for the ‘whole of Games’ period – from January 1, 2012 to June 30, 2018.

GOLDOC reported a net surplus of $37.314 million for its whole of Games performance (01/01/12 to 30/06/18).

“Subject to finalisation of outstanding contracts during 2018-19, GOLDOC expects to return in excess of $35 million to the Queensland Government. This is in addition to GOLDOC not requiring utilisation of the state held contingency fund of approximately $100 million,” the report says.

GOLDOC’s ‘whole of Games’ total revenue was $1,082,506,000, the majority of which ($841,283,000) came from grants and other contributions, with $225,467,000 in commercial revenue.

Employee expenses for the period were $214,841,000, with $781,606,000 spent on supplies and services.

The report says more than 1.2 million tickets were sold and issued – 98 per cent of the available number – to the Games’ 274 ticketed sessions, 215 of which sold out.

More than 1 million of those tickets were sold in NSW or Queensland.

GOLDOC’s staff headcount peaked around 1800 employees, about 500 of them in short term, operational roles in the final three months leading into the actual event.

When the Games wrapped, 900 staff were culled on April 15, with more staff leaving each week after that. By June 30, 44 staff remained on the books.

From this month, GOLDOC’s operation will be managed by one staffer, with the Office of the Commonwealth Games overseeing GOLDOC’s dissolution on December 31.

The report estimates plant and equipment transferred to the Queensland government by GOLDOC was worth $3.4 million in foregone revenue. Once GOLDOC dissolves, any remaining assets or liabilities will be transferred to the State.