Cardiff ponders Commonwealth bid

[Koop11]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_s ... 309638.stm

Not directly related to the Devils but this, if it happened, would be huge for Cardiff and the sporting community in general.

Personally, I don’t think we have the infrastructure to accommodate such a huge event which uses many sporting facilities at the same time. Having said that, the awarding of such a contract could be the catalyst to improve the city’s infrastructure and would benefit the Sports Village no end.

There is of course a massive funding issue to consider. In this economic crisis, the WAG and Local Authorities have very little money freely available. The bid alone would cost a few million but it could be a gamble that Cardiff City Council and the WAG maybe be prepared to take.

 

[Soundwave1]

This is an opportunity (to bid) which has to be taken IMO. It's exactly the kind of thing Cardiff should be pitching for.

It's got a terrific record in hosting major sporting events and this seems like a natural progression. Koop you're quite right about the Welsh Government having to tighten spending, but they have in the past shown they recognise the value in attracting major sporting events to Wales. (It was WAG money that won the Ashes)

The bid is for 2022 so hopefuly we'll have been out of the recession for a while before that.

Also, this would be staged in Swansea and Newport as well which would take a level of pressure off Cardiff. We've got the majority of playing facilities already in place between the three cities, it's just a case of building the stadia and improving infrastructure. Having been to the Machester games, a lot of the seating was temporary.

One of the biggest problems for Cardiff would be the lack of hotels. We've hopefully got one new one on the way already with the approval of Bayscape just yesterday.

 

[Merthyr Devil]

Cardiff hosted the UK School games this year, which had lots of events on at the same time, ok obviously not the same scale as the Commonwealth games but its a start. They used facilities in Cardiff, Newport and Swansea, which is what they're looking to do here so I think it could be possible. For example they only used a few venues for the school games which were Cardiff International Sports Stadium (Athletics), UWIC (fencing and volleyball), Welsh Institute of Sport (hockey and badminton), Ice Rink (Gymnastics), Newport International Sports Village (table tennis and track cycling), Swansea Uni (judo), Wales National Pool (swimming).

Looking down the list of sports they do in the Commonwealth Games I can't see one that Cardiff (Newport and Swansea) would have a problem hosting. And there's plenty more venues that could be used than the ones listed above, and hopefully more that will be built by 2022.

I'm not sure accommodation would be too much of a problem either as Cardiff has had to grow over the last decade or so to be able to cope with lots of people coming to Cardiff at once due to things like hosting the Rugby World Cup, FA Cup Finals and an Ashes test match etc.

The biggest problem that I think the bid would have would be the funding. Would love for it to happen though! Wales is only one of 6 teams to have competed in every Commonwealth Games.

 

[Wannabe2]

Well we have a great infrastructure already in place at the INTERNATIONAL SPORTS VILLAGE, we have Morrisons, Toys R Us, i mean what else would you want, and it also means we dont have to start from scratch.

 

[Finny]

Well we have a great infrastructure already in place at the INTERNATIONAL SPORTS VILLAGE, we have Morrisons, Toys R Us, i mean what else would you want, and it also means we dont have to start from scratch.

They could change the 100m sprint to a 10 second trolley dash!

 

[Wannabe2]

Or supermarket sweep, and a new event founded in Cardiff, the TEDDY TOSS.