The Gold Coast is using its successful bid to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games "as a way to reinvent itself, broaden its economic base and recast its national and int'l reputation as a center for research, health, arts and culture, and sport," according to Shane Rodgers of THE AUSTRALIAN. Mayor Tom Tate said that the A$1.2B ($860M) Games, "which will attract competitors, visitors and heads of state from 71 countries, will mark a major maturity point for the Gold Coast" and see it recognized as "much more than a regional city." Tate: "We do have the have-a-go spirit and the friendliness but people will come to realize that the city also has a strong intellect." Tate openly concedes that the city "lost its way a little when it hit bumpy times." He added, "I think we basically fell asleep for eight years. The city basically came to a halt. ... There was one crane in the sky 3 1/2 years ago. If you look at it now there are 38 cranes in the sky. Major things are happening again." As the first Australian regional city to take on something as large as the Commonwealth Games, "there are risks." While the Queensland government underwrites most of the costs, "there are still major outlays for the city, transport challenges and a reputation to consider." Games Organizing Committee Head Mark Peters, like Tate, sees a "golden opportunity" for the Games to broaden the city's economic base and transform its transport systems for the future. In the process it also "hopes to reduce its reliance on the construction and tourism industries and the boom-bust cycles inherent in these two confidence-fickle sectors" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 10/7).
