Criticism over awarding of Commonwealth Games ceremonies to US firm was raised two years ago
GAMES organisers made a bold promise last year about how great the Gold Coast ceremonies would be. Here’s how it all went wrong.
IT’S inevitable that someone will find something to complain about in the opening and closing ceremonies of major sporting events.
But rarely has a pair of ceremonies received such sustained criticism as those that book-ended an otherwise hugely successful Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
Yet just six months ago, when preparations for both were well under way, Gold Coast Commonwealth Games Organising Committee (GOLDOC) chairman Peter Beattie promised the spectacles would deliver the “wow factor”. They did, but for all the wrong reasons.
Organisers said the closing ceremony would “celebrate the athletes” despite barely any being shown on television last night.
The ceremonies have also shone the spotlight on US “brand experience” firm Jack Morton Worldwide (JMW), which organised both events. The company won a controversial $29 million tender for the ceremonies in 2015, beating out three Australian bids, a decision one critic labelled as “incomprehensible”.
The opening ceremony — which cost a reported $17 million to produce — was branded as lacklustre and embarrassing by viewers.
So, organisers were under huge pressure to pull out all the stops for the closing ceremony. They failed spectacularly with spectators so bored vast numbers went home leaving the likes of Kate Noonan and Dami Im to croon to acres of empty seats.
But back in October, at a high-level Commonwealth Games meeting in Sri Lanka, Mr Beattie promised something very different.
Talking to website Inside the Games, he said the ceremonies would celebrate Australia.
“There will be a real wow factor to the opening ceremony,” he said.
“There will be quite a lot of good surprises.”
At the same event, GOLDOC chief executive Mark Peters said: “What you will see is something very inspirational.”
In the hours leading up to the closing ceremony, the organisers promised an experience they didn’t deliver. When a spectator tweeted concerns the stadium seemed quieter than at other times during the Games, the official GOLDOC Twitter account replied: “We’re looking forward to celebrating and recognising our athletes … in what will be a fitting close to Games.”
Hey Daniel, we're looking forward to celebrating and recognising our athletes, officials, volunteers and spectators in what will be a fitting close to Games. Hope you enjoy the night! Shauna
— Gold Coast 2018 (@GC2018) April 15, 2018
The ceremonies’ organiser, JMW, is one of the world’s most prolific event companies and were involved in the Athens and Beijing Olympic Games and Glasgow and Melbourne Comm Games.
The company even had a hand with the organisation of spectator events for the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.
On its website, Boston-based JMW states it creates “award-winning ceremonies … that inspire billions of people — spectacular theatrical experiences that unify communities … and leave behind a meaningful legacy”.
But concerns about JMW’s involvement were raised as soon as they won the contract for the two ceremonies, in 2015, surpassing three Australian bidders.
It was later revealed that two former senior staff with JMW were appointed by GOLDOC to advise on the ceremonies’ tender, The Courier-Mail reported in 2016.
Organisers said neither had a role in recommending or appointing the contract and were there to provide technical advice.
Accountants BDO completed a review of the tender process in January 2016 and concluded that, as one of the two advisers had worked for all four bidders at some point and neither worked for JMW at the time, there was no conflict.
But it was then revealed that the BDO staff member doing the review had also been hired by GOLDOC as a “probity adviser” on the evaluation panel, which received presentations from the parties bidding, the Gold Coast Bulletin reported.
The Queensland Government was so incensed by the blunders over the ceremony contracts, it appointed a watchdog to check on any further GOLDOC deals. In February 2016, Games Minister Stirling Hinchliffe said the move was to avoid further possible “conflict of interest issues”.
Ric Birch, who was involved with the Sydney Olympic ceremonies, and the 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games that included Matilda, the famous winking kangaroo, was an unsuccessful bidder for the Gold Coast events.
In 2015, along with the three other Australian companies that lost out in favour of JMW, Mr Birch wrote to Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, asking for the tender to be reopened.
“When there is so much Australian talent, experience and international success in this field, it is incomprehensible that Queensland should be overlooking our own talent in favour of hiring a foreign company to stage what will arguably be the most important major public event in Australia this decade,” Mr Birch wrote at the time.
Fast forward more than two years and Mr Birch said he was less than impressed with how the opening ceremony was staged.
“What I’ve been told makes it sounds like a school concert and given the role of Schoolies Week in the Gold Coast, perhaps that was the idea,” he told The Courier-Mail after the ceremony.
“[It] sounds as though the producers planned [nothing] other than a parade of songs and singers with a kind of ‘Hit Parade’ choreography to represent the Gold Coast.”
He said the rarity of opening and closing ceremonies often meant organisers made poor decisions when working with producers.
A spokeswoman for JMW said in a statement: “Over the past three years, Jack Morton has had the privilege of working side-by-side with GOLDOC in the development of the creative elements of the Opening and Closing ceremonies of the Commonwealth Games.
“Having received such a positive response to the Opening Ceremony on the Gold Coast earlier this month, we share GOLDOC’S disappointment at the level of criticism targeted at specific aspects of last night’s ceremony.”
On Monday morning, Mr Beattie apologised during an interview on Sunrise.
“You can have a blame game from now until eternity but the reality is, I’m chairman of the organising committee, the buck stops with us. I’m not interested in blaming anyone but us,” he said.
“That’s our fault … that’s my fault … I apologise to you and anyone else,” he added.
Mr Beattie said the chef concern was for the “welfare” of “exhausted” athletes, who might not want to stand in the middle of the stadium during a long ceremony.
He said many competitors had morning flights and it was understandable some might want to celebrate with teammates away from the stadium or get some rest.
When host David Koch told Mr Beattie the ceremony appeared to have been “put together by some arty farty entertainment organiser who doesn’t know what the games are all about”, the GOLDOC chairman admitted “it’s true”.
Meanwhile, Ms Palaszczuk joined the chorus of criticism, saying those who decided not to highlight the athletes at the closing ceremony should “hang their heads in shame”.
Originally published as Criticism over awarding of Commonwealth Games ceremonies to US firm was raised two years ago
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