Over the past few months in Delhi, the one subject discussed more than the extreme weather has been the infamous Commonwealth Games. Unfortunately most of what is being talked about is negative which continues to be fueled by the media’s decision stick it to Organizing Committee Head, Suresh Kalmadi and his staff.
As someone who has been involved in sports administration for the past 8 years, I must say that this has been one of the most interesting real life case studies I could have ever imagined being a part of. A dance/fight between the Indian government, Indian Olympic Association, the Indian media, the international media, the Commonwealth Games Federation, the athletes, the sponsors and, most importantly, the Indian public whose tax money funded this Indian soap opera.
To the surprise of many, the 19th Commonwealth Games did actually begin on October 3rd and events have been taking place for the past week. I’ve been able to attend a few of the events and will now give my take on the good, the bad & the ugly for the first week:
The Good
- Dancing to a live version of Jai Ho with 60,000 other people at the CWG Opening Ceremonies
- Watching Indians cheer for their own athletes with so much pride
- Getting to see Indian hero Saina Nehwal thrash a scottish Badminton athlete
- Taking the metro to many of the events instead of sitting through sickening Delhi traffic
- India’s domination in Wrestling and Shooting
- The rousing applause the Pakistan delegation received by the Indian public at the Opening Ceremonies
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| Crowded metro ride to the Games |
- The fact that there are so many empty seats at what should be well attended events
- The obscene amount of police with massive rifles standing all over the city and harassing locals; doesn’t make you feel safe, just scared and annoyed
- India’s inability to produce many athletes who perform well in swimming and athletics
- The DD National broadcast looks like it was done for Commonwealth Games 1978
- The lack of sponsors and sponsor activation in and around the city, huge missed opportunity
- The way the organizing committee is always on the defensive when they speak
- The disgusting feces smell that everyone (including me) entering Gate 9 at the Opening Ceremonies had to endure for no less than 20 minutes
- The fact that $60 million was spent on the 3 hour Opening Ceremonies and just outside the stadium there were Indians living in the dirt and women in full saris shoveling rubble
- The fact that they only sell these horrible Fast Trax Chicken Burgers at every venue
- The process to purchase and pick up online tickets takes no less 6 hours and you significantly age throughout the process
- The fact that it’s supposed to be the most “Green” games to date yet when you purchase online tickets they make you print out 3 pieces of paper and drive to the center of the city to pick up your heavy cardboard tickets
- The lack of a clear operations strategy at most venues and consistency among the security staff
So that’s it for week one. I’m heading to the CWG village this evening and then will be attending events throughout next week so I’m sure I’ll plenty more to highlight and plenty more to gripe about.
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| Chaos at the online ticket pick up |
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| Beauty + Ugliness = CWG 2010 |