Balls and all: Australia audaciously bids for sporting bonanza

AUSTRALIA could host the world’s major sporting festivals by 2020, if a cartel of the nation’s powerbrokers succeeds in winning bids to stage world cups in football and rugby union, together with an Olympic Games for Brisbane or Melbourne.

Football and rugby union have held talks on a joint strategy to stage world cups in 2018 and 2019 respectively, while the Queensland Government and Victoria’s Major Events Company have lodged preliminary bids with the Australian Olympic Committee to host a Summer Games between 2020 and 2030.

AOC president John Coates said: “The Queensland Government and Victoria’s Major Events boss, Sir Rodney Eddington, have both shown interest in bidding for an Olympic Games between 2020 and 2030, and I told Sir Rod that Australia’s best chance is for a city which hasn’t had the Games.

“That means Brisbane, but we’ve got to look at whether Brisbane will have the infrastructure by 2020. While I don’t want them spending money – it costs $50 million alone for an Olympic bid – they’ve got to look at leaving land for a stadium and an Olympic Village contiguous with it. If Brisbane is up for it, we’ll support them but, if not, it’s Melbourne.”

Should the 2018, 2019 and 2020 bids be successful, Generation Z will be gifted a legacy of stadiums and sports facilities the envy of the world.

Although sport is tightening its belt, given the global economic crisis, an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development report this week said Australia was one of a handful of developed countries whose economies were expected to grow.

Football’s World Cup is the biggest show on earth. The commercial rights to the 2010 tournament in South Africa sold for $3.4 billion, 30 per cent more than Germany 2006.

Football Federation Australia boss Frank Lowy has been lobbying the Federal Government and FIFA executive, travelling to Beijing during the Olympics to meet confederation bosses. A winning World Cup bid also delivers the Confederations Cup, played a year earlier as a rehearsal.

Furthermore, Australia is an early favourite to stage the 2015 Asian Cup, a 45-nation tournament with 16 finalists that would initiate the momentum for a major event almost every year from 2015 to 2020, creating billions of dollars in economic impact and distributing infrastructure costs over a decade.

Complicating this future jigsaw of cities, stadiums and sports is the possibility that Australia will host another Commonwealth Games in 2018, with the Gold Coast, Perth and Adelaide considering bids.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald.

Published by: Qalinle Hussein

Related Stories

• December 30, 2009 -- AUSTRALIA: Body of missing Somali boy found (2)
• July 19, 2009 -- From refugee in Australia to a leader in war-torn Somalia (2)
• May 25, 2009 -- Australia oo si aan horey loo arag looga Xusay 18 May Daawo Sawiro Qurxoon (0)
• May 6, 2009 -- British man Ben Southall wins Best Job in the World competition (0)
• January 28, 2009 -- Ethiopian Teenager Jailed For Bashing Father (0)

LATEST NEWS HEADLINES

• SOMALIA: Offering Migrants An Alternative To Death by Water
• Speech by Minister Collins Chabane on the occasion of the book launch on Somaliland by Professor Iqbal Jhazbhay
• Court Critical of Somali Extradition Case
• Profile: Prudential Chief Executive Tidjane Thiam
• Somaliland Vs. Somalia: A Reassessment of the Fundamentals

ALSO IN THE NEWS

Somalia Food Aid Bypasses Needy, U.N. Study Finds

As much as half the food aid sent to Somalia is diverted from needy people to a web of corrupt contractors, radical Islamist militants and local United Nations staff members, according to a new Security Council report.
Sacks of food in a warehouse in Mogadishu. A United Nations report suggests an overhaul in the food distribution [...]

TOP NEWS

South Africa slams Israel over heritage site annex

• Israel Eyes New Alliances In Africa
• SOMALILAND: A Walk Through International Women’s Day
• Foreign officials suspected of rights abuses should be deported
• US Firm Urges Affordable Internet Access for East Africa
• University of Virginia Law Students Back Victim’s Right to Sue Former Somali Leader
• DANGEROUS FRONTIERS: Campaigning in Somaliland and Oman

HAVE YOUR SAY

Is Somaliland getting recognized?

SomTel Launched

Dahabshiil’s SomTel International launched

MORE NEWS HEADLINES

• SOMALIA: Poverty Pushes Bosasso Children On To Streets
• Man charged with assisting terror group in Somalia
• CANADA: Islamic School Is On ‘A Mission’
• Iran Calls for Regular Multilateral Meetings on Somali Crisis
• SOMALILAND: SomTel Officially Launches Operations
• SOMALILAND: Edna at Women in the World Summit