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Cardiff and the Commonwealth Games

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-21469795

What do you think? Could we afford the half-a-billion price tag? If we did, would we be prepared enough? Do the people even want it.

Re: Cardiff and the Commonwealth Games

According to Wikipedia the Glasgow games are costing £523m with 80% funding from the Scottish Govt (or approximately 418m) and 20% from the city council (or approx 105m). Having a quick look at the Glasgow 2014 website quite a few of the venues already exist and are just being adopted/upgraded and a few are miles from Glasgow (including Carnoustie and Edinburgh).

I suppose some of that outlay will be recouped from ticket sales, tv rights, sponsorship, private donations and investment etc but probably not all.

Always assuming the costs would be similar I suspect this is do-able for Cardiff although whether or not Joe Public - if faced with say a 10% hike in council tax for 5 years to pay for it - have any appetite to hold the games is another matter.

There are 10 core sports - athletics, swimming, boxing, badminton, bowls, rugby sevens (eh???), netball, weightlifting, squash, hockey. Plus another 7 sports can be included from an approved list such as cycling, archery, sailing, rowing, mountain biking, triathlon, shooting etc etc.

Lets say we have the Milstad adopted for athletics (as Hampden is for Glasgow 2014). Swimming would probably have to be either a new venue (my preference) or an upgrade to the facilities in Swansea. It's inevitable that if the WG is putting 400m plus into the Games it will want to spread the investment. Weightlifting, boxing, badminton, netball can be held at the lovely new arena/convention centre which will surely have been built by then. Rugby Sevens at Parc y Scarlets, the Liberty or Cardiff City Stadium.

A dedicated squash venue (I suppose could also include badminton) could be built in the ISV at not a huge cost. As for bowls I don't know if this has to be indoors/outdoors or both. Surely that would be a case of building some bowling greens somewhere nice (Duffryn Gardens?) and putting in temporary seating?

As for the additional sports - how about archery and shooting in Cardiff Castle? Mountain biking in the Afan valley. Cycling in a revamped Newport velodrome. Triathlon in Snowdonia or any one of the country parks in the valleys. Rowing in the Bay? Canoeing in the ISV?

Athletes village on Dumballs Rd, designed so that they can be converted into flats/houses after the games have finished and funded by private investment?
It's very do-able.

Personally I was deeply cynical about the Olympics, especially the way the proposed costs grew and the alleged benefits/legacy which I think is/are a crock of shit. A sea change in sporting attitudes from the general public to elite athletes could have been better financed by building 50m swimming pools in every sizeable town, hiring coaches rather than relying on volunteers, building better facilities, paying for specialist PE teachers in schools, building all weather pitches, actually taking cycle lanes seriously etc etc. It would have cost a fraction of the amount spent on the Olympics.

I guess it would be hypocritical to think differently about a Cardiff commonwealth games. Having said that if thats the only way to get investment into the city (and if it results in the approach to the Milstad getting overhauled) then I would probably back it.

I suppose what I'm saying is if there was a choice between the 500m being spent on the Commonwealth games and say 250m being spent on funding a proper cycling infrastructure in Cardiff, better facilities,

Re: Cardiff and the Commonwealth Games

Interesting story suggesting that there is no formal interest in the hosting the 2022 Commonwealth games. Cardiff is in long term planning for a 2026 bid, but have been asked if they want to move the bid to the earlier event. The council are being cautious and want to look at the figures. Would be a busy 8 years if Cardiff do decide to put us forward for 2022. Lots to think about...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-25841249

Re: Cardiff and the Commonwealth Games



Half a billion pounds - Wales. I had to check the date, its not April 1st

Re: Cardiff and the Commonwealth Games

Pie in the sky but..... is there land where the current Leckwith Athletics Stadium is to construct a 30k athletics stadium (similar to that of the refurbed Philip II Arena in Skopje) capable of not just holding the Commonwealth Games but also future European Championships, World Championships and Diamond League meets.

The idea of the Millennium Stadium as a temporary athletics venue doesn't really do it for me, for sure it could host the opening/closing ceremonies and 7's eggchasing, but the country does need a tidy athletics venue and legacy should we step up and hold the Commonwealth Games one day.

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