Broadbeach businesses react to Olympics 2032 bid after Commonwealth Games
After the Commonwealth Games left hundreds of businesses on the brink of collapse, Gold Coast business owners say they’ll accept an Olympics bid - with conditions.
Gold Coast
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BROADBEACH businesses say they are behind Queensland’s bid for the 2032 Olympic Games – with conditions.
Small business owners still harbour dark memories from the 2018 Commonwealth Games when parts of city resembled a ghost town.
Reports three months after the Games revealed hundreds of businesses were either struggling financially or predicted to collapse.
Madison’s Cafe owner Lincoln Testa, who has been working in the precinct for 20 years, said he did not have a problem with the Olympics bid “as long as we learn from the mistakes”.
“I would support it if they promise not to tell people, ‘there’s an event on, don’t come’,” he said.
“I would support it if they tell everybody to turn up here. I would support it if they don’t mess with the roads. I would support it if they don’t mess around with our supply chain.
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“I would look at how they run the Gold Coast Marathon. We did better out of that than we did from the Games. People are still suffering from the Games. I hope we can do better.”
Research released by Griffith University in June revealed almost three quarters of Gold Coast businesses surveyed believed they had no boost from the Games.
Sage restaurant manager Kinga Sawicka said while she would support the Olympics bid, she did not want business to drop off again.
“First of all, keep the prices at a normal level,” she said.
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“Secondly, organisation should be a bit better, particularly the roads. I think they started doing everything too late and then they were under pressure.
“And expectations were huge, half of the people (they promised) never arrived.”
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