New Zealand Looks Into 2018 Commonwealth Games Bid
18/06/2007 |
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The Events Research Steering Committee (ERSC), a group set up to look at major events for New Zealand, is gathering information on the cost and benefit of hosting the 2018 Commonwealth Games in New Zealand and is to submit its findings to the Minister of Recreation and Sport, Trevor Mallard, by mid-August.
Barry Maister, spokesman for the group and the secretary general of the New Zealand Olympic Committee, said Saturday the minister would then decide whether the government would financially support a bid and his decision should be known by November.
The ERSC will provide a cost-benefit analysis for the minister to assess the viability of a bid and will provide recommendations and guidelines to enable the New Zealand Olympic Committee to make an informed decision if approval is given, reports Stuff.co.nz.
Maister said, “we are going to need a huge amount of government support for any bid so we have to give them the information and evidence and convince them that it’s a good sell. Then we would go to the whole of New Zealand and say, ‘it’s a goer, if you want to bid you have to have it in by a certain date’”.
According to Maister, Auckland is also interested in bidding for the Commonwealth Games. He said, “at the moment we are trawling through Commonwealth Games manuals to make sure there is nothing we have left out, and until we have completed that work we are having minimal discussions with the two cities that have expressed an interest.
“They are involved in helping us provide data for the document. We need to know their infrastructure and other information because that has to be part of the document, but it doesn’t pre-determine anything”.
Maister said “the final selection would be made in November 2011 so we would want to signal our intention before 2010 if we are going to bid”. He added the ERSC did not want to get ahead of itself. “We’re saying just hold off until we’ve done this work and we’ll guarantee you a response hopefully by November”.
(Source: Gamesbids.com)
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