Commonwealth Games revenue pleases officials

A delay in completion of some venues remains a concern for the Commonwealth Games Co-ordination Committee, but an unprecedented amount of revenue has pleased it no end.

“We were particularly pleased with the in-roads being made in the area of sponsorship and the results achieved to date by the Organising Committee and their appointed agents and managers,” said CGF CEO Mike Hooper.

“With what has already been contracted, and what is currently at contract stage, the sponsorship programme has almost eclipsed what Melbourne achieved in 2006. Melbourne was the most successful sponsorship campaign in the history of the Commonwealth Games by a significant margin. The total currently stands at US $74 million, but more is expected,” he said.

Meanwhile, CGF treasurer Austin Sealy said he was confident that things would fall in place well in time, even though there were some areas of concern.

“The Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, the Talkatora swimming complex and the games village have not been completed in time. Security remains an issue and will continue to be one till the games do not come to a close. Then there are also the issues of co-ordination, communication.

“But hopefully everything will be done well in time and the organising committee needs to be lauded for the quickened paced. I hear that the test events have gone off well and there has been significant improvement from one to the other,” he said after a four-day evaluation by the committee.