[size=6]Melbourne 'should bid' for 2032 Olympics[/size]
March 11, 2015 - 5:37PM
Jason Dowling and Aisha Dow


Lord Mayor Robert Doyle has backed a push for Melbourne to bid for the 2032 Olympic Games, saying tickets sales would "go through the roof".

But first he said it was vital that the public got behind the campaign, or the attempt would fail.

"I'm absolutely confident it's feasible to do. I'm absolutely confident it will be a roaring success," Cr Doyle said.

"But the public have to be right behind it in order for the bid to succeed. And that's what the international delegates look for."

The mayor's comments come after Kate Roffey from the Committee for Melbourne said she had already discussed a possible Olympics bid with Major Events Minister John Eren.

Ms Roffey said Melbourne was ideally placed to hold the games and should begin planning now.

An Olympics bid can cost up to $50 million and Melbourne has some strong competition from Brisbane as the next Australian city to host an Olympics.

Brisbane has already decided to undertake a feasibility study for a possible 2028 bid.

The call for a new Melbourne's Olympics bid comes as International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach prepares to visit Canberra next month and meet with Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

Mr Bach is expected to encourage the Abbott Government so support an Australian Olympics bid.

Ms Roffey said 2032 would be the earliest Melbourne could bid for the Olympics.

"You need 10 or 11 years out to put your bid on the table formally and you would need to have your bid ready to go in 2020," she said.

The Committee for Melbourne is a business lobby group. The Age is a member.

Ms Roffey said it made sense for Melbourne to host the Olympics.

"We have so much of the infrastructure in terms of the facilities here already," she said.

"More importantly we have the appetite for it. We are one of the few cities in the world where as soon as you mention it people in Melbourne go, 'yes, of course we should'. Everybody else says it is a waste of money and we shouldn't be doing it," she said.

"We could do it and we want to do it," Ms Roffey said.

Cr Doyle estimates an Olympic bid would cost $20 to $30 million and said he was confident Melbourne's sporting facilities would be up to the task.

"There is no city in Australia that could better host the Olympics than Melbourne," Cr Doyle said.

Asked about the possibility of Victoria bidding for the Olympics, Mr Eren, said "all opportunities are reviewed on their merits"

[size=6]Push for Melbourne 2032 Olympic Games bid prompts calls for national co-ordination[/size]


The Committee for Melbourne wants the city to bid for the 2032 Olympics Games, but experts have called for any Australian bid to be co-ordinated nationally.

It comes as Brisbane undertakes a feasibility study to prepare for a bid in 2028.

The Committee for Melbourne has discussed a potential bid with the State Government, who yesterday announced a strategic review of Victoria's major events program.

Before winning last year's state election Labor said it was open to the idea of a Melbourne Olympic bid.

Committee for Melbourne chief executive Kate Roffey said the city was capable of hosting an Olympic Games.

"I think we should be in there bidding," she told 774 ABC Melbourne's Red Symons.

"We are the world's sporting capital, so we should have the world's best sporting event here."

Simon Balderstone, who has assessed Olympic bids for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and was involved in successful bids by Sydney and Tokyo, said any Australian bid had to be co-ordinated on a national level.

"Australia went through a pretty silly phase, for a long time I think, of Australian cities bidding against one other for major events and being prepared to fork out large amounts to secure them," he told 774 ABC Melbourne's Jon Faine.

Former IOC vice president Kevan Gosper said the decision as to whether Brisbane or Melbourne made a bid must be based on the enthusiasm of the cities' populations.

"It would be very important to get public support before you did anything," he said.

"These cities have got to really go into the community and see what the community thinks."

Olympic Games now less expensive

It can cost up to $50 million just to bid for the Olympics, however Mr Gosper said mounting the games had become less costly.

He said there was now a greater focus by the IOC on a city using existing or temporary stadiums rather than purpose-building stadiums from scratch.

"With the rules of today you can put an Olympic games into position at much lower cost," he said.

Mr Balderstone said an Olympic host city could now spend their money on infrastructure that would have longstanding benefits to its citizens.

"The key thing is to integrate your games plans with the long-term plans of the city," he said.

"I think hosting an Olympic Games has enormous benefits and legacies for a city if it's done well."

Ms Roffey said that Melbourne already has world-class facilities for sports including swimming, cycling and equestrian.

"We, in the scheme of things, need very few facilities," she said.

"What we can do ... is use this as an opportunity to build important infrastructure like rail systems and tram systems."

She said while the IOC would like an African city to bid for the games she "can't see that happening".

"There are some cities that really shouldn't host Olympics because it really is too much of a drain on their finances, their buildings and infrastructure," she said.

"The numbers of cities that are capable of and are coming forward [to bid] will tend to decline rather than increase."

Mr Gosper said Australia could realistically bid for the 2032 games if it started planning now.

"I think if we look well enough out to the 2030s and start doing some planning in the next two years it's not an unreasonable prospect," he said.

[size=6]Melb Olympic bid not a priority: Andrews[/size]
MARCH 11, 2015 1:10PM


MELBOURNE has other priorities ahead of bidding for the 2032 Olympic Games, but Premier Daniel Andrews is happy to hear the debate.

THE Committee For Melbourne, a business lobby group, reportedly has called for the city to bid for the Games and begin planning now.

Mr Andrews says any bid will need careful consideration.
"This is a very significant undertaking, very significant cost," he told reporters on Wednesday.
"It's some years away. This is not a bad debate to have."
Mr Andrews says he supports major events coming to Victoria, but Olympic bids are expensive and time-consuming.
"It's a very competitive process and one we need to do some careful thinking about because it does cost a very significant amount of money and we do, I'm afraid, have many services - the basics, the fundamentals - crying out for much greater support from government."
Melbourne hosted the Olympic Games in 1956.