Melbourne passes on its experience

Perry Crosswhite, chairman of the Australian Commonwealth Games Association, tells Host City about the importance of organisational structure

“Every organising committee that you ever see, there is always some friction between the sporting elements and the government elements, because each has its own objectives and its own desires as far as legacy is concerned. You have to find a compromise among the two parties to get a proper result. The thing that Melbourne did, and that maybe Delhi can learn from is, that they got that result early on by setting up a good organisational structure for the Games.”

The organising committee for Melbourne 2006 was formed out of a partnership between the Australian Commonwealth Games Association (ACGA), the State of Victoria and the Federal Government. When ACGA endorsed Melbourne, a contract set out how the organising committee would be established.

“We agreed that it would be established with the State of Victoria and the ACGA having equal number of representatives on the organising committee but the chairman being chosen by State of Victoria.” After some time it was decided that the government wanted to have a statutory authority to be in charge of the games. The AGCA agreed that that could take place under certain rules and conditions and effectively the government became directly responsible for the organisation of the games, with certain controls through the involvement of the ACGA.

A clear management structure was critical to the success of the operation. “We had a chief executive officer, John Harnden, who was responsible to a board from the different bodies we’ve spoken about. Under John we had different number of general managers – one for logistics, one for administration and finance, one for operations and one for communications and media. That’s basically how it ran. Those people had direct reports to the CEO who had direct reports to the board.”

A number of standing committees were also set up. A sports and technical committee oversaw various sport and technical responsibilities. “I was on this committee and my president was the chairman of this committee. So we had direct involvement in the Games through that committee, while the government had involvement through the ceremonies committee and the cultural programme. The different stakeholders were able to have a direct involvement in the areas of the games where they had the most interest.”

The organising committee ceded responsibility for security to the state and the federal government. The Victorian police and the federal security agencies ensured that the event was secure and safe. Ticketing was a major exercise. Again, the government got involved because of their ticket policy they have in the state. They used a number of experts from the private sector who had been involved in ticket sales and different operations in similar events – most of that was developed by the organising committees. Paper ticketing was used, but they used the internet in a major way and carried out public ballots to decide who would receive the opportunity to buy a ticket and who wouldn’t, using technology in the best way possible.

Expertise from previous events was also crucial. The organisers brought in personnel from Sydney who had been involved in the Olympic Games and a number of people from Manchester, host to 2002 Commonwealth Games.

“I think that there is a lesson to be learned by Delhi and that is that it would be very hard for the Indian Olympic Committee to organise the Games all by itself. Governments are being asked to put so much money nowadays into these events that they want to have some direct involvement and perhaps influence on what happens in the organisation of the games. So I think that the IOA, in terms of its involvement with the government, probably has to come to some sort of decision on the organisation of the Games on who and how the government is going to meet its objectives while the sporting objectives are met as well.”

India already has a head start in linking Games planning with government ideals, as the chairman of the IOA, Suresh Kalmadi, is a member of parliament. “I think that that has some benefits in that he will have some government contacts as well.”