Aug 14 (Reuters) – Basking in the glory of being named the
world’s most desirable metropolis, Melbourne is hoping to bring
a Summer Games to the city in the near future even though the
country’s Olympic chief would prefer Brisbane to host the event.
Melbourne considers itself the country’s sporting capital,
having staged the 1956 Olympic Games as well as being the home
to a Formula One race, the Australian Open tennis tournament, an
iconic cricket ground and the nation’s biggest horse race.
On Tuesday, Melbourne topped the Global Liveability Survey
title for the second successive year and mayor Robert Doyle
weighed in with a proposal that the city had the infrastructure
in place to host a second Olympic Games.
“I don’t think there’d be another city in the world not
hosting the Olympics that is as well prepared as we are right
now,” Doyle told reporters less than 48 hours after London
extinguished the flame of a successful but costly Summer Games.
“Think what we could do if we did dream large for 2024 or
2028.”
Doyle went to the extent of promising a cost-effective Games
in the city which also hosted the 2006 Commonwealth Games.
“We would do it differently. We wouldn’t try to replicate
bigger and better. We’d do it in a very Melbourne way,” he said.
“You find ways you can do things that are memorable that are
typically us and within our budget.”
However, the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) has already
stated it was planning its next Olympic bid around Brisbane.
“It’s the best climate to host an Olympic Games in the
window the International Olympic Committee is allowing,” AOC
president John Coates told local media last month.
Queensland premier Campbell Newman welcomed Coates’s support
on Tuesday, while maintaining the state’s immediate focus was on
the 2018 Commonwealth Games being held on the Gold Coast.
“He (Coates) and I have spoken about these things in past
years and he’s always been very supportive of Brisbane launching
a bid as a city and obviously Queensland as a state needs to get
behind that,” he said.
Doyle, however, would not be drawn into discussing
Brisbane’s prospects as an Olympic venue.
“I don’t know about Brisbane’s infrastructure. I know we can
(host it) and that’s the important thing,” he said.
Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro is hosting the next Summer Games in
2016, while either Istanbul, Tokyo or Madrid will be selected to
host the 2020 Olympics at the 125th IOC session in Argentina
next year.
(Reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in New Delhi; Editing by John
O’Brien)
