Commonwealth Games: Time to get a grip over closing ceremony
WE just staged a spectacularly successful Commonwealth Games, hosting thousands of athletes and officials, and many, many more visitors. Sure there were some transport snags, and issues with the closing ceremony, but the good far outweighed the bad, writes Paul Syvret.
QLD News
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ENOUGH of the Peter Beattie pile-on.
Seriously, get a grip people. Queensland just staged a spectacularly successful Commonwealth Games, hosting thousands of athletes and officials, and hundreds of thousands of visitors.
Why not focus on the fact that this event – and the massive logistical challenges that came with it - largely went off without a hitch.
You may gripe about some long transport queues on the opening night when a crowd of 35,000 people needed to be shifted to and from the stadium. You can bitch and moan about organisers allegedly scaring people off with warnings about traffic snarls.
In the great scheme of things though, these inconveniences should not be enough to raise the collective blood pressure to vein popping levels.
Why not instead focus on the fact that by and large everything worked like clockwork?
The venues were ready on time and on budget, and there is solid planning in place to ensure we are not, like so many other cities, left with under-utilised and expensive legacy assets in years to come.
There were no security problems, the catering, the public transport and all the ancillary festival entertainment worked. And in the arenas we were treated to truly world class sporting competition.
There is a whingeing class who will always find something to grumble about at a showpiece sporting event. Remember for example the confected furore over US rapper Macklemore performing Same Love at last year’s NRL Grand Final at the height of the marriage equality debate?
Who cares? The night should be remembered for the masterclass towelling that a ruthless Storm dealt out to the Cowboys, not some bloody pop song.
Likewise the Games should be remembered for the 10 days of spectacle and human achievement we staged, not the fact that the Seven Network was broadcasting My Kitchen Rules when the athletes walked onto the field for the closing ceremony.
At least Games chairman Peter Beattie had the ticker (and plenty of practice in the apology department) to take the rap, accept responsibility and say sorry that the athletes were not figured more prominently.
A lesser man might have attempted to blame-shift, obfuscate or deflect, whereas Beattie’s mea culpa struck the right note.
Maybe the closing night was a bit chaotic behind the scenes, and the speeches (including Beattie’s) too long and rambling.
Was it a disaster though? Of course not. We’re talking about a bookend to a much larger event – and one where in years to come we’ll be talking about the feats of athletes like the Campbell sisters long after the choreography of the closing night is forgotten.
Credit where credit is due. In the great scheme of things Beattie and the organisers did a terrific job, and they deserve to be applauded for what they achieved, not derided for a couple of stuff-ups.