Case study Melbourne Commonwealth Games

Melbourne, Australia hosted the 2006 Commonwealth Games. Unlike a majority of hosts whose main objectives are focused on generating an economic impact and building an international profile, the Victorian Government also viewed the Commonwealth Games as having the potential to focus on social objectives as well. 

Village Park Development - formally the Athletes Village, famous for its low impact urban design and development initiatives
http://www.wtpartnership.com/index.cfm?l=en&c=&p=21aaa8f6-6029-469e-bf60-5ae403682b08&s=&projectid=251

The Government saw the creation of social legacy as one of the primary elements to the games success. An athletes’ village in the suburb of Parkville housed approximately 7000 athletes and staff during the Games, and has been transformed into commercial housing with distinctly eco-friendly image.

Another initiative taken by the Government was to get people back into the workforce. It also included getting people to volunteer at the Games and keep them involved afterwards. These programmes were built on lessons learned from the Sydney Olympic Games where the sudden increase in volunteers during the Games did not transfer to a long term increase in volunteer participation.

Melbourne 2006 Volunteers
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rickmonk/117636043/

It is reported, according to a research prepared for New Zealand Major Events and SPARC in 2007 that more than half of the Games’ volunteers (around 7000 people) have indicated they want to keep volunteering, while 41% of the general public indicated some level of desire to participate in a community event in the future. The possible social benefits here may include better civic participation and social inclusion for sectors of the society,

Tickets...how fast will they sell?

There were more than 100,000 Eden Park tickets remaining with less than 100 days to go to the tournament, and only about half of the 1.6 million total world cup seats filled.

Last month tournament boss Martin Snedden said that reaching the World Cup slaes target of 1.35 million would be challenging but achievable. He went on and said " event history tells you an awful lot of ticket sell once the tournament starts".

But he would still be glad to hear the news headline tearly this morning: there are no more tickets available in the public pool. The second-change offer was snapped up 15 minutes after the offer began on Friday.

Source:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/rugby-world-cup-2011/news/article.cfm?c_id=522&objectid=10730547&ref=rss

A very contradictary view to mine

http://warmandloving.blogspot.com/2011/04/rwc-2011-will-be-financial-disaster-for.html
A gentleman by the name of Paul has expressed his strong opinions that the RWC2011 will be a financial disaster for NZ in his blog.

His main concern is that there are better ways of promoting NZ than the $500-900 million we have spent on hosting the tournament. He also believes that the so called "tourist" that come to NZ are not here to enjoy our envionment and culture, which are things we are proud of as a country and have worked hard to promote.

I can see where he is coming from. However I still believe that hosting the RWC is possibly the best way to give a boost to the NZ economy. What i can say however is that the government has not been making the best of the opportuntity to invest for the future (i've discussed this issue in my earlier blog "an opportunity lost").

He does make a good point though, that "if this was any other sport but rugby there would be a national enquiry into the financial (aspect of the event)".

P.S. i've read another blog of this person http://warmandloving.blogspot.com/2011_06_01_archive.html 
He said that for every tourist who come during the event, you can expect another avoiding visiting the country during the tournament. I think he has a point here also