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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 10 Hansard (25 September) . . Page.. 3301 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

Mr Whitecross, in his determination to pull Canberra out of the Olympics, has been floating some fanciful figures about the cost to Canberra taxpayers. In doing so, he is certainly making some heroic assumptions. This figure of $42m that Mr Whitecross has been floating around, on the assumptions that he has made, means that not one paying spectator will attend any Olympic soccer match in Canberra; that not one dollar in corporate sponsorship will be raised at any time during the Olympics; that not one corporate box at the new Bruce Stadium will be sold; that no company will be interested in naming rights for the facilities at the new Bruce Stadium; and that the redeveloped Bruce Stadium will stand completely unused - nobody will use it at all - apart from Olympic soccer. In other words, the Brumbies, the Raiders and the Cosmos will all leave town. Mr Speaker, these assumptions are clearly absurd, but they are the assumptions that the Berry-Whitecross team are using as the basis of their decision - the decision that they have obviously made - to pull Canberra out of the Olympics.

Against that, Canberra Tourism undertook a detailed assessment of the impact of the Atlanta Olympics on surrounding cities that hosted soccer matches. The city of Birmingham, two hours' drive from Atlanta, averaged crowds of 45,000, with the opening match attracting 85,000 people. The city of Athens, one hour's drive from Atlanta, averaged crowds of 80,000 at its Olympic soccer games. Mr Whitecross the other day quoted figures from Orlando, when he was using his figures, and deliberately misrepresented the popularity of Olympic soccer during the Atlanta Games by failing to state that Orlando was the only host city where the average crowds at preliminary matches were below 27,000. He did not quote all the cities where there were averages, as in Birmingham, of 45,000. He quoted selectively the one city that was below 27,000. Mr Speaker, it is also interesting to note that at Birmingham, with their average crowds of 45,000, I understand it rained on four of the, I think, eight days, as well.

Mr Speaker, we have done our homework. We are committed to winning a share of the Olympics for Canberra - unlike those opposite, who seem determined to put up the shutters and say, "It is all too hard; we are never willing to take a risk". Obviously, those opposite do not believe that Canberra can do it. I know that Canberra can. I know that we have the capacity to get 40,000 to those games, and we have the capacity to benefit significantly from being an Olympic city.

MR WHITECROSS: Mr Speaker, Mrs Carnell has given me a good introduction to my question. My question is to the Chief Minister and it relates to the Bruce Stadium redevelopment and her projections of numbers for Olympic soccer. In justifying the Government's claim that the preliminary Olympic soccer games would draw crowds of 40,000 for each and every one of the eight events to be staged at Bruce Stadium during the Year 2000 Olympics, David Marshall, the chief executive of Canberra Tourism, this morning held up the example of Birmingham in Alabama, which drew average crowds of around 40,000.

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