Locals yet to warm to Games

MELBOURNE - Games cities have a way of projecting their personality and the early character reading of the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games so far might be: The Games Where Few Cared. Yet.

It would be a mistake to walk too far down this road right now. The Melbourne Games have been affected by the withdrawal of world sporting top-liners, surprisingly lax ticket sales and a sense the locals are not yet in excitement mode.

The revelation that the haste to get rid of unsold tickets led to dead people being lobbied led to complaints and much embarrassment.

But Australia has pretty much led the world in major sporting carnivals (2000 Sydney Olympics and the 2003 rugby World Cup) and it's a brave soul who would bet against rampant nationalism and Aussie know-how kicking in, as Australians enjoy watching their young athletes stick it to the commonwealth.

But, at present, there is little of the enthusiasm which characterises the best Games, where a community gets involved big-time around some world-class performances.

"We are pretty much over it," said one of the thousands of volunteer workers manning the venues around this massive sporting town, full of facilities which would make Trevor Mallard salivate like one of Pavlov's dogs. "We have had the big-time Olympics and the World Cup, we've kinda been there and done that with this one."

Certainly the loss of top swimmers Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett and British runner Paula Radcliffe has thinned the ranks of the world-class athletes, whom detractors say are not in evidence enough at Commonwealth Games.

Perplexing, too, are the large number of tickets left for some marquee events - 450,000 tickets in all as at the start of last week, including 280,000 for the track and field, 16,000 for the opening ceremony, 28,000 for the closing and 50,000 for the rugby sevens (perhaps not so surprising in this AFL stronghold).

Games organisers are saying the final sales rush will soak up many of the 'unsolds' and point out that opening ceremonies at places such as Athens involved only 50,000 to 60,000 people, whereas the McG will take 81,000 for these events.

It is still early days in terms of ticketing and enthusiasm. It seems, too, to be early days for security, although there are signs the promised crackdown is coming.

At the main press centre in Melbourne's Exhibition Centre, helicopters have become more in evidence, swooping low in city streets, training what is thought to be sophisticated scanners on people and buildings. This week, soldiers and commandos will be out in force, as will Black Hawk helicopters, F18 Hornet fighters and the navy.

The security operation is expected to be similar in scale to the 2000 Sydney Olympics, with 2500 military personnel joining the 13,000-strong Victoria state police force and other security agencies to protect athletes and venues.

But we wait for the enthusiasm Geiger counter to register some louder clicks.

Maybe, just maybe, these games need a start like 10,000m gold medallist Dick Tayler gave the 1974 Christchurch Games to get Australians' hearts pumping faster.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY