Tweet
DAN SILKSTONE
January 21, 2010 - 7:27AM Be the first to comment
Ads by Google
Statoil
Leading Oil & Gas Companyon the Norwegian Continental Shelf
www.Statoil.com
So here I go again on my own, only with a question this time: Would you go to watch the greatest sportsman in the world if you only got to see him for nine seconds?
How much would you pay?
That is the challenge for those who run athletics in Australia. With Roger Federer perhaps beginning his gradual decline and Tiger Woods hiding in disgrace and reportedly seeking treatment for sex addiction, Usain Bolt is the hottest talent in world sport.
Surely?
So would you pay to see him run in Melbourne, Sydney or Perth and how much would you shell out? Because the people who could bring him here reckon you probably couldn’t care less.
It isn't -- I hasten to add -- going to happen. Not any time soon at any rate. Despite the number of times the "Bolt downunder" headlines have been trotted out in the papers. Some of the alleged attempts to get the world’s fastest man to Australia have been truly hilarious. There was Max Markson -- the man you hire if you want to parlay an appearance on Big Brother into an FHM shoot or a spot in the Morning Crew on Toowomba FM radio.
Max announced via press release that he was negotiating with Bolt’s people to make something happen. Bolt’s people issued a statement of their own saying they had never heard of Max and never wanted to. Then there was the alleged plan to bring Bolt to Melbourne for the AFL Grand Final. He would, granted, have made a better goal umpire than the bloke they chose instead.
It took $3 million of appearance money, half of it stumped up by the Victorian Government, to bring Woods to Melbourne's sand-belt for the Australian Masters last year. The result was a ratings triumph for the sport and blistered palms for serial hand-shaker John Brumby. It was judged such a triumph that the Victorian Government is prepared to line the pockets of the world's most high-profile sex fiend again this year.
It's not just Woods. Another man in the global sporting icon club -- and there aren't many -- is Lance Armstrong. This is a man so immensely popular he is able to transform Adelaide into a must-see destination just by riding his bike down Hindley Street. A similar, $3 million, price-tag has been fixed to his presence at the Tour Downunder last year. It is reasonable to expect he will pocket at least that much in 2010.
For Mike Rann (who should not be mentioned in the same sentence as Tiger Woods or golf courses lest legal action follow) it has been a wise investment. But more importantly, for cycling in this country it has been a miracle. Equally miraculous has been the impact of Woods' presence on Australian golf. A once-proud domestic game had been wallowing in malaise. There’s only so many times you can invite John Daly down and wait for him to punch somebody. Now it wallows in true scandal, which is vastly more lucrative.
And so to Bolt. Athletics, like cycling and golf, is a massive global sport with big local challenges. In its favour are international superstars and a central role at the Olympics. Against it are money, lack of top-class Australian events, and the crowded sporting marketplace in places like Sydney and Melbourne.
Woods and Armstrong cut through and people came because people know they matter. Surely Bolt would be no different.
At approximately $500,000 the Jamaican would be a deadset bargain. How do we know he would cost that much? Because attempts have been made to get him here.
Athletics Australia has been keen to entice Bolt down for some time but is a cash-strapped organisation, run leanly and trying hard just to balance the books. They need help.
An attempt was made to get Bolt to Perth for the Australian national championships next month. Management was contacted and the Olympic champion was reportedly willing to consider a deal. An audacious bid was even put together by the state's major events company to try and lure the entire field from the Berlin 100m final to the event -- including American star Tyson Gay.
Gay, Balls understands, would cost around $250,000. He is important too. There is no point bringing Bolt to Melbourne if there is nobody for him to race against. Australians know the difference between real sport and fakery. The athletes themselves would have to be prepared to run their best race. It does not, though, need to be an Olympic final to matter. The Australian Masters is not, in the scheme of things, one of the world’s premier golf tournaments. But it is real.
There’s an attitude among the movers and shakers that Bolt would be a waste of money, that the Jamaican would not fill stadiums, that the dollars invested would never be recouped.
The Perth idea was eventually canned because the WA Government refused to stake up the money, citing the global financial crisis. That was before the spectacular success of Victoria's Woods experiment but that PR triumph has not emboldened the Victorian Government to chase the big Jamaican.
Sources say that all attempts to lure Bolt to Melbourne have been given short shrift by the Government and Victorian Major Events Corporation, who believe that track and field just does not sell.
''We had Tiger Woods for five days" one source said. ''Bolt we would get for nine seconds."
It is, more or less, true. But so what? Wouldn’t you pay to sit at the MCG and just see Jezza’s mark? Or Shane Warne’s Boxing Day hat-trick? Would you stump up $60 to sit at Homebush just for John Aloisi’s penalty against Uruguay?
Sometimes nine seconds is more than enough.
Neither Bolt nor Gay will be in Australia this summer, instead Athletics Australia will use its meagre resources to bring out top class opponents for Dani Samuels and Steve Hooker -- they will lure a top Kenyan to run -- hopefully against Victorian rivals Collis Birmingham and Craig Mottram. All of this will deliver a moderately entertaining spectacle in Sydney and Melbourne held before something in the order of 6,000 people.
It will change nothing. The world of modern sport is boom or bust. The best or obscurity. Ask cycling, ask golf. Only by convincing the money men to think big and fund accordingly can such sports break the cycle of averageness.
In Berlin last year I was lucky enough to be in the city's Olympiastadion to see Bolt make history in the 100 and 200 metres. In Beijing, a year earlier, I was just as fortunate to be in the Bird's Nest stadium on the night he ran the most audacious 100m in history, starting slow, celebrating early and still blitzing the field.
Top quality track and field, featuring the best athletes and before a heaving stadium, is one of the greatest things you can see in all of sport. Australians mostly do not know it.
These were brilliant moments, some of the best I have ever witnessed. Both were over before they had even registered fully on your consciousness. But the initial imprint they left was a thrill you remembered always. The audaciousness, the obvious history of them, had to unfold during the endless replays but Bolt was the star of the meet, lighting up every press conference, filling the stadium and, attracting Bolt-mania wherever he went. Berlin was insane in the brain for Usain. After he broke the 200m world record, thousands of screaming fans surrounded the media centre where he gave his press conference. Inside, his rivals pronounced themselves awestruck.
Who wouldn’t want to see a little slice of that in their own backyard?
January 21, 2010 - 7:27AM Be the first to comment
Ads by Google
Statoil
Leading Oil & Gas Companyon the Norwegian Continental Shelf
www.Statoil.com
So here I go again on my own, only with a question this time: Would you go to watch the greatest sportsman in the world if you only got to see him for nine seconds?
How much would you pay?
That is the challenge for those who run athletics in Australia. With Roger Federer perhaps beginning his gradual decline and Tiger Woods hiding in disgrace and reportedly seeking treatment for sex addiction, Usain Bolt is the hottest talent in world sport.
Surely?
So would you pay to see him run in Melbourne, Sydney or Perth and how much would you shell out? Because the people who could bring him here reckon you probably couldn’t care less.
It isn't -- I hasten to add -- going to happen. Not any time soon at any rate. Despite the number of times the "Bolt downunder" headlines have been trotted out in the papers. Some of the alleged attempts to get the world’s fastest man to Australia have been truly hilarious. There was Max Markson -- the man you hire if you want to parlay an appearance on Big Brother into an FHM shoot or a spot in the Morning Crew on Toowomba FM radio.
Max announced via press release that he was negotiating with Bolt’s people to make something happen. Bolt’s people issued a statement of their own saying they had never heard of Max and never wanted to. Then there was the alleged plan to bring Bolt to Melbourne for the AFL Grand Final. He would, granted, have made a better goal umpire than the bloke they chose instead.
It took $3 million of appearance money, half of it stumped up by the Victorian Government, to bring Woods to Melbourne's sand-belt for the Australian Masters last year. The result was a ratings triumph for the sport and blistered palms for serial hand-shaker John Brumby. It was judged such a triumph that the Victorian Government is prepared to line the pockets of the world's most high-profile sex fiend again this year.
It's not just Woods. Another man in the global sporting icon club -- and there aren't many -- is Lance Armstrong. This is a man so immensely popular he is able to transform Adelaide into a must-see destination just by riding his bike down Hindley Street. A similar, $3 million, price-tag has been fixed to his presence at the Tour Downunder last year. It is reasonable to expect he will pocket at least that much in 2010.
For Mike Rann (who should not be mentioned in the same sentence as Tiger Woods or golf courses lest legal action follow) it has been a wise investment. But more importantly, for cycling in this country it has been a miracle. Equally miraculous has been the impact of Woods' presence on Australian golf. A once-proud domestic game had been wallowing in malaise. There’s only so many times you can invite John Daly down and wait for him to punch somebody. Now it wallows in true scandal, which is vastly more lucrative.
And so to Bolt. Athletics, like cycling and golf, is a massive global sport with big local challenges. In its favour are international superstars and a central role at the Olympics. Against it are money, lack of top-class Australian events, and the crowded sporting marketplace in places like Sydney and Melbourne.
Woods and Armstrong cut through and people came because people know they matter. Surely Bolt would be no different.
At approximately $500,000 the Jamaican would be a deadset bargain. How do we know he would cost that much? Because attempts have been made to get him here.
Athletics Australia has been keen to entice Bolt down for some time but is a cash-strapped organisation, run leanly and trying hard just to balance the books. They need help.
An attempt was made to get Bolt to Perth for the Australian national championships next month. Management was contacted and the Olympic champion was reportedly willing to consider a deal. An audacious bid was even put together by the state's major events company to try and lure the entire field from the Berlin 100m final to the event -- including American star Tyson Gay.
Gay, Balls understands, would cost around $250,000. He is important too. There is no point bringing Bolt to Melbourne if there is nobody for him to race against. Australians know the difference between real sport and fakery. The athletes themselves would have to be prepared to run their best race. It does not, though, need to be an Olympic final to matter. The Australian Masters is not, in the scheme of things, one of the world’s premier golf tournaments. But it is real.
There’s an attitude among the movers and shakers that Bolt would be a waste of money, that the Jamaican would not fill stadiums, that the dollars invested would never be recouped.
The Perth idea was eventually canned because the WA Government refused to stake up the money, citing the global financial crisis. That was before the spectacular success of Victoria's Woods experiment but that PR triumph has not emboldened the Victorian Government to chase the big Jamaican.
Sources say that all attempts to lure Bolt to Melbourne have been given short shrift by the Government and Victorian Major Events Corporation, who believe that track and field just does not sell.
''We had Tiger Woods for five days" one source said. ''Bolt we would get for nine seconds."
It is, more or less, true. But so what? Wouldn’t you pay to sit at the MCG and just see Jezza’s mark? Or Shane Warne’s Boxing Day hat-trick? Would you stump up $60 to sit at Homebush just for John Aloisi’s penalty against Uruguay?
Sometimes nine seconds is more than enough.
Neither Bolt nor Gay will be in Australia this summer, instead Athletics Australia will use its meagre resources to bring out top class opponents for Dani Samuels and Steve Hooker -- they will lure a top Kenyan to run -- hopefully against Victorian rivals Collis Birmingham and Craig Mottram. All of this will deliver a moderately entertaining spectacle in Sydney and Melbourne held before something in the order of 6,000 people.
It will change nothing. The world of modern sport is boom or bust. The best or obscurity. Ask cycling, ask golf. Only by convincing the money men to think big and fund accordingly can such sports break the cycle of averageness.
In Berlin last year I was lucky enough to be in the city's Olympiastadion to see Bolt make history in the 100 and 200 metres. In Beijing, a year earlier, I was just as fortunate to be in the Bird's Nest stadium on the night he ran the most audacious 100m in history, starting slow, celebrating early and still blitzing the field.
Top quality track and field, featuring the best athletes and before a heaving stadium, is one of the greatest things you can see in all of sport. Australians mostly do not know it.
These were brilliant moments, some of the best I have ever witnessed. Both were over before they had even registered fully on your consciousness. But the initial imprint they left was a thrill you remembered always. The audaciousness, the obvious history of them, had to unfold during the endless replays but Bolt was the star of the meet, lighting up every press conference, filling the stadium and, attracting Bolt-mania wherever he went. Berlin was insane in the brain for Usain. After he broke the 200m world record, thousands of screaming fans surrounded the media centre where he gave his press conference. Inside, his rivals pronounced themselves awestruck.
Who wouldn’t want to see a little slice of that in their own backyard?
Paul Marin -19 is one thing, 20 is a whole other matter. It gets even worse if they win the UCL. *groan*. 
05/18/2011.MU fans naah cough, but all a unuh a vomit?-Lazie 1/11/2015
Comment