TORONTO, 20 December 2002 — The city of Hamilton near Toronto, which has beaten Halifax for the right to bid for the 2010 Commonwealth Games is expected to outbid other contenders — New Delhi and Singapore, experts said here.
The International Commonwealth Games Federation will decide about the winner of the three-horse race between Oct. 29 and Nov. 2, 2003.
Canada’s three cities, including Halifx, Vancouver and Hamilton, the hometown Heritage Minister Sheila Copps, had intended to host the 2010 Commonwealth Games but finally Hamilton won the domestic contest.
Ms. Copps is aspiring to become chief of the ruling Liberal party and lead the government when Prime Minister Jean Chretien retires from politics in 2004. Experts here say that it will arguably be Canada’s turn to host the Games. The previous Commonwealth Games, they said were held in Victoria in 1994, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 1998 and were a huge success in Manchester, England, earlier this year. In 2006 they’ll be in Melbourne, Australia.
The experts also saying that Hamilton and New Delhi are the front runners.
If New Delhi wins, it would be the first time the Games have ever been held in India. Hamilton hosted the first edition of what would become the Commonwealth Games 72 years ago.
An evaluation team from Commonwealth Games checked out Halifax’s stadium plans and finances earlier this week, then made a similar visit to Hamilton on Saturday.
Hamilton hopes staging the games would boost the city’s athletic facilities and raise the profile of a city little known outside Canada.
Plans call for a new stadium or a refurbished Ivor Wynne Stadium downtown, a new swimming and diving center at McMaster University and also a new track and field facility at Mac. They’ve projected a budget of $382 million for both capital and operating costs, with a healthy portion of the cash expected to come from federal and provincial governments.
The Commonwealth Games were created as the British Empire Games by former Hamilton Spectator sports editor Bobby Robinson. They were first held in Hamilton in 1930, and supporters its bid are using that as a sentimental pitch for the 80th anniversary in 2010.
Hamilton’s bid would cost $93 million less than Halifax’s, which has a proposed budget of $475 million. Halifax officials countered that the federal government has helped stage Olympic Games in Montreal and Calgary and backed Olympic bids in Toronto and Vancouver. They argued it was Atlantic Canada’s turn.
In fact, Halifax was first seen as the strongest contender for the Canadian bid, having got started two years ago. But officials from Hamilton, which didn’t get serious about a bid until this spring, gained momentum in recent months.
The last multi-sport games held in Canada was the Pan Am Games in Winnipeg in 1999.
