By Erica James-King, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
SINCE MARCH this year, Canada and India have been vying for the opportunity to host the Commonwealth Games in 2010.
Now with only 24 hours to go before the final bid presentations are made by both countries to a 72-member panel of the Commonwealth Games Federation at Half Moon Hotel in Montego Bay, St. James, both countries are pulling out all the stops to promote their individual nation as the destination of choice.
Over 60 Canadian sports and government officials arrived in the island over the last two days and have been trying to whip-up support for their Hamilton campaign.
"World cycling just happened in the last month in Hamilton. We hosted 250,000 visitors in one week and did it very well. There is no question that we can host thousands upon thousands," an optimistic Jagoda Pike, President of the Hamilton 2010 Bid Corporation declared, when The Gleaner caught up with her at a reception for members of her organization by Scotiabank.
The reception took place at Half Moon Hotel in Montego Bay on Monday night.
Pike discloses that the budget that the bid team has drafted for the staging of the event amounts to Can$715m. Her delegation has outlined other features about Hamilton which it says is advantageous to the staging of the event:
- 88 per cent of the Games budget is guaranteed unconditionally
- Hamilton was the birthplace of the Games in 1930(then known as the British Empire Games)
- Full travel grant will be provided to all teams
- Hamilton is the gateway to one of the world's greatest tourist region
FEVER PITCH
India's advocacy for Delhi to be named as the 2010 destination for the Commonwealth Games, has reached fever pitch.
Suresh Kalmadi, Chairman of India Bid Committee and President of Indian Olympic Association, says so far his team has on the table a budget of US$500m, but the government of the country is committed to an "unlimited channeling of funds" to the financing of the Commonwealth Games, if the bid goes in their favour.
Unlike Canada, India has never been the location of any Commonwealth Games and Kalmadi is of the view that if the Commonwealth is serious about broadening its horizons and offering real integration between member nations of the Commonwealth, it should look to India as the choice.
"We have tried before to host the Games and this time we have come fully prepared for the bid," the chairman of the India Bid Committee told The Gleaner in an interview.
Noting that Delhi and India in general has a new experience to offer the Commonwealth, Kalmadi says "the Commonwealth must go to new horizons and new frontiers and a new Commonwealth experience".
Their high-level delegation of near 50 persons who are in the island from India is insisting that among the assets placing Delhi in the running for the athletics showcase is its 80,000 capacity stadium and its rich legacy of historical sites and shopping malls.
The delegation pinpoints that Delhi has been exposed to hosting large crowds as on at least two occasions it hosted the inter-continental games dubbed the 'Afro-Asian Games'.
Both the final presentations and decision on which country will be granted the bid will be made tomorrow.
