GAMES FOR ALL
Commonwealth chiefs still aim to bring future Games to Africa and the Caribbean despite Durban losing its 2022 hosting rights
ALTHOUGH beach volleyball is on the schedule this time next year, there isn’t anyone at the Commonwealth Games Federation burying their heads in the sand. Theirs is an organisation fully aware that success after shimmering success — a run that may well continue on the glittering Gold Coast — creates its own problems.
And so they talk about flexibility, of giving aspiring hosts a little leeway, a bit of help where required. No great objection is raised when it is suggested that the mini-Olympics model followed by the likes of Manchester, Melbourne and Glasgow might not be ideal for poorer or less sports-obsessed cities.
Overall, there is an acceptance that the Games — a great sporting gathering of champions representing a third of the world’s population — absolutely must not become the preserve of First World hosts with deep pockets or world-class facilities all in place. Ask CGF CEO David Grevemberg about the importance of taking this flagship event back to the Caribbean for the first time since Kingston in 1966, or even to Africa for the first time ever — in the light of Durban being stripped of 2022 hosting rights for failing to meet the criteria — and he leaps upon the imperative.
‘I think it’s critical that we nurture these options,’ said the former head of operations at Glasgow 2014. ‘That’s why the decision on Durban was so disappointing.
‘It was great that our entire movement, when it took the decision to put timelines in place for Durban (leading to its loss of host status), also reaffirmed that we want a Games in Africa.
‘So that is a clear priority to be working towards that. But we have to make sure that, regardless of where we go, a Games is for the right reasons at the right time, for the people. That the investment is going to be value for money and not a burden on the community.’
Being aware of the potential pitfalls is a good start for squaring the circle. However, it does not necessarily take anyone at the CGF closer to coming up with a solution.
On the one hand, athletes and administrators are united in wanting the Games to continue growing. That it is seen as not merely a one-off chance to represent their constituent nations by Team GB competitors, but a vital ‘major games’ experience for those with Olympic and World Championship ambitions.
Deliberately scaling down the Games too much, quite apart from risking call-offs among the world’s elite, might be seen as off-putting for federations with other options. Suddenly, the European Championships — currently an afterthought in GB terms — could look more appealing.
Yet nobody can expect poor countries to build 50,000-seat stadia, an Olympic swimming and diving pool, indoor velodrome and all the other facilities — including an athletes’ village — from scratch. Or to mobilise a large chunk of the population to fill arenas for unfamiliar sports.
Asked if the Games had simply become too expensive to stage for any but the wealthiest Commonwealth nations, Grevemberg confessed: ‘I think it needs to be the right fit at the right time, with the right resources and people. And we have a strategy in place, Transformation 2022.
‘This makes it clear that we need to be nurturing cities. We need to be clearing pathways for cities to build up. If we’re going to truly live up to the vision, using the power of sport to drive peace, sustainability and prosperity, then we have to develop strategies.
‘We need to help cities build up their sporting infrastructures. Some cities will then be able to host these Games, as part of a sustainable development plan. We can’t just try to force a Games on to anyone.
‘We learned from Glasgow that community involvement is hugely important. It’s important to make the distinction that, if you’re going to be the People’s Games, you need to belong to the community.
‘You can keep the cost down and drive up the global appeal. I think we’ve been very aware of finding smarter, more sustainable ways of keeping costs down. We’ve looked at using existing stadia.
‘The Hampden project is a great best-practice model. We put down the temporary platform and track, which was sourced to be recycled. It went to refurbish other tracks. That kind of thinking needs to be applied to all major sporting events in this day and age.
‘Where there is a need or ambition to build a large stadium, because there is a market for it in the long term, great. But these will be facilities brought forward by the Games — not for the Games.
‘We kind of touted that sincere rhetoric in the run-up to Glasgow. We were borrowing these venues, they were the people’s venues, the city’s. The Games were used as a catalyst to accelerate their build — but ultimately they’ve benefited the people of Glasgow. That’s crucial to any bid now.’
Like all at the CGF, Grevemberg responds to talk of challenges from would-be rival events by falling back on history but also talking up the Games as a vehicle for enhancing human rights across the Commonwealth, declaring: ‘We should be smart and use the Games to have a conversation about these issues, but more importantly take action.’
As tough as life may be in Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool, the three English cities who leapt to the front of the queue when Durban was ditched, there is unlikely to be much backroom chatter about human rights when the CGF Assembly comes to vote on the new hosts of 2022.
The fact that three potential venues jumped into the abyss left by South Africa says something, according to Grevemberg, who stated: ‘I feel not only confident but inspired and encouraged by the immediacy of the response, the fact that cities said: “Yeah, we see the value in bidding for this”.
‘That gives us a responsibility to ensure the Games deliver everything we’ve promised.’