Sport city's heart ready to pound

A workman puts the finishing touches on a display advertising the Games at Docklands in Melbourne. Picture / Brett Phibbs

Ian Thorpe and a handful of other sporting megastars may have pulled out, tens of thousands of tickets may remain unsold, and airline chaos may have been threatened. But five days out from the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games there is a sense of "It will be all right on the night."

Melbourne is a city used to big nights. The Lion King is playing downtown and the Games will barely be over before the streets around Albert Park will thunder to the roar of the Australian Grand Prix.

There may be the inevitable last-minute hiccups before the Queen rises from her custom-made seat at the revamped Melbourne Cricket Ground, accepts the baton at the end of its 180,000-plus km global odyssey - 21,500km of it across Australia - and reads her opening message.

But Melbourne remains confident. Victorian Premier Steve Bracks, at a function to launch the Games medals, was as upbeat as ever.

"The last six or seven years' preparation is all about making sure we have the best Games ever, best ever held in Commonwealth and Empire Games, and we hope that is the case."

The city is taking all this in its stride. This is Australia's event capital, where sports nuts pack stadiums in greater numbers than anywhere else in the country. Melbourne holds world record attendances for cricket, tennis, AFL and rugby league, and hardly a month passes without a major match or tournament.

Seven of Australia's 10 most popular sporting events are held here or in the near neighbourhood.

Nobody is saying it out loud, but this may be part of the reason why ticket sales are down. There's a a hint of official desperation as returned and unsold seats are offered to the volunteers who will make the Games work on the ground, and pushed to the public in a last-minute marketing rush. Late in the week, more than a quarter remained unsold.

Downtown there is less of the buzz of anticipation that vibrated through Sydney on the eve of the 2000 Olympics, although taxi drivers report a steady rise in business, blue and green bunting is appearing in more and more shops, and souvenirs fill shop fronts and display stands.

Experience tends to show that once competition starts, Melbournian (and Australian) blood starts pumping.

There is also no doubt that while drivers may be shuddering at the prospect of traffic chaos as main thoroughfares are closed or narrowed into special Games-only lanes, these Games will run smoothly.

Melbourne not only has its own considerable experience to draw on, but also that of Sydney and of the last Games in Manchester.

The 15,000 or so volunteers, some of whom will work up to 60 hours a week, have been through their training and are being kitted out in blue shirts and hats. About 60, dressed in navy blue uniforms, will be equipped with hand-held devices that will print out maps and directions for visitors or send details to mobiles by text or MSN.

The cast of thousands for Wednesday's opening ceremony, including a number of Kiwis - Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is tipped to be among them - have been rehearsing in secret since January.

So far officials will say only that the ceremony will start on the Yarra River with 72 water creatures representing Commonwealth nations (Australia has two, the rest of us one each), and will move on to the MCG.

What will happen there is anybody's guess, although Games organisers have dismissed rumours that Kylie Minogue will perform.

This week exclusive broadcasting rights-holder Nine Network showed images of a flying, three-tonne tram it said would be suspended above the stadium, but officials are remaining tight-lipped.

On a more serious side, the Australian Sports Drug Agency has already begun stringent dope testing. All Australian team members have been tested in advance, and more than 1000 more tests will be taken during the Games. So far two Australian weightlifters and three Indian athletes have been caught.

In Port Philip Bay, masked men sped across the water in assault boats in a reminder of another grim sideline to the Games - the threat of terror attack. The official level of terror alert remains at "medium" but a huge military and police presence is taking no chances.

Head (and heart) aches remain. On Tuesday swimming megastar Ian Thorpe - one of the Games' biggest drawcards - pulled out because of a viral infection, joining fellow Australian pool star Grant Hackett and British distance runner Paula Radcliffe.

International Olympic Committee chairman Jaques Rogge also decided against attending the opening ceremony in what the Australian media saw as a deliberate snub.

Tickets remain a problem. At the beginning of the week organisers said more than 125,000 tickets to previously sold-out events had been returned, leaving them with almost 500,000 seats unsold.

But trains, trams and buses are expected to be groaning to capacity.

Thousands of Aboriginal demonstrators are planning to test tough anti-protest laws, and royalists are still sniffing at the decision not to play God Save the Queen when the monarch opens the Games.

Qantas flights may also face union turbulence after the airline's decision to cut its engineering staff, although the prospect of disruptions threatened earlier in the week if a rumoured 2500 jobs went to Asia has been greatly eased by deft management footwork. The cuts are much smaller, confined so far to Sydney, and employment will be boosted in Melbourne and Brisbane.

Melbourne is used to managing risks and crises. More than a decade ago Victoria recognised events as a major - if controversial - economic motor and set out to attract as many as possible, frequently outbidding rival Sydney.

The state Government runs a corporation called the Victorian Major Events Company, chaired by former British Airways chief executive Sir Rod Eddington, which seeks out big international events, checks the economics and bids for them.

If it wins a bid, it helps to set up another body to run the event and moves on.

The Commonwealth Games are just one success. Others have included the World Hot Air Ballooning Championships, the Heineken Golf Classic, the Super Bike World Championship, World Cup Polo and the 2002 World Masters Games.

The present event calendar includes the Australian F1 and Motorcycle Grand Prix, the Australian Tennis Open, the Spring Racing Carnival, this year's World Cup skiing aerials, and a host of music and arts festivals.

These come at pretty heavy cost. Revamping the MCG alone for the Games sucked up A$430 million ($488 million) - A$77 million ($87 million) of it taxpayers' money - and the state Government's total bill for the event will be a reported A$800 million ($902 million), although it refuses to confirm any figures. The Federal Government has kicked in A$290 million ($329 million).

But a state Government report a decade ago claimed an economic gain of A$500 million ($568 million) from 14 big sporting events, and a KPMG study forecasts a net injection to the state of about A$1.5 billion ($1.7 billion) from these games.

Spin-offs include national and international exposure for tourism, business and sports, and the equivalent of 13,000 full-time jobs.

Even with the last-minute crop of problems, officials remain confident most of the predicted benefits will be delivered.

Either way, hearts will start pounding next week.