A nation united in sport

2

The Bid
The process of delivering the 18th Commonwealth Games in Melbourne began with the Bid submitted by the city several years ago.
The Bid was extremely well prepared and systematically took the members of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) through the city’s commitment to produce the necessary infrastructure, services and personnel to guarantee the most successful edition of the event in its long history.
Melbourne’s Bid brought together some of the most experienced sports administrators and individuals with the necessary business acumen to fashion a remarkable product that not only sounded good but which could readily be delivered in earnest.
The Bid was not fanciful but realistic. It was a major challenge but could be attained.
The winning of the Bid by Melbourne meant that only six years after Sydney had hosted the most successful Summer Olympics at the time another Australian city dared to suggest that this nation possessed the capacity to deliver to the world a major multi sport event of the highest standard.
No one could have ignored the Melbourne Bid.

Delivering on the Bid
Delivering on the many promises made by a host city in its Bid document is not always an easy task. Melbourne can boast that it has been able to meet all of its commitments to the CGF and its 71 affiliates.
The host city collaborated with the Immigration authorities to ensure the delivery of the necessary visas to facilitate optimum participation.
There was no shortage of flights to the host city and accommodation was of a very high standard.
The Games Village was fitting for the very best athletes of the world and easily rivalled that which has been delivered in the past by host cities of Olympic Games.
At the Village food was top class as also were the services for laundry, medical attention and treatment, international communications, recreation and commercial activity.
There was nothing that should have been included in a Games Village that was not available in excess in Melbourne.
The volunteers were in oversupply. Indeed the Organising Committee found itself in a rather embarrassing situation at the start of the Games when several volunteers found that there was nothing for them to do since there were so many of them. The principle was clearly that it was better to have too many than too little.