But to Manchester City Council chief executive Howard Bernstein, the city's hosting of the 2002 games is vital to the construction industry and to the UK overall.
“After the Olympics, the Commonwealth Games is the second-biggest multisports event in the world,” says Bernstein. “This will be without doubt the biggest sporting event we have ever hosted as a nation. “If it fails, it will reflect badly on the UK’s ability to host these events.”
The games are also vital to the Labour-run city council, which has transformed Manchester over the past 10 years through an aggressive development policy. Hulme slums have been overhauled and the city has recovered quickly from 1996's IRA bomb.
Bernstein hopes that local contractors can continue to deliver on the next stage of his grand plan. “The construction industry in this part of the world has been tested to the limit, subjected to the closest scrutiny.
“Whether a bomb-recovery project is a week or two behind can be the subject of debate even in the pub. We've got no complaints so far, but we don't want the industry to get complacent,” he says.
There is no room for complacency at the council. It is already denying speculation that it is £25m short of funding for the games – “bloody nonsense”, according to Bernstein – and allegations that its centrepiece stadium may sink into disused mineshafts.
Majors fight it out for stadium deal
Laing, Bovis, Amec, Taylor Woodrow and Mowlem have tendered for the 48 000-seat project and are now sweating on the outcome, with an announcement expected next week.
All have strong track-records. Mowlem built Twickenham rugby stadium, Bovis worked on the Atlanta Olympics, Taywood constructed a string of Premiership grounds and Amec was to build an earlier version of the stadium. Laing, of course, hit trouble on the Cardiff Millennium Stadium, but Bernstein says the council wants to learn from that.
Working with Ove Arup & Partners and Arup Associates, the council has drawn up a modified D&B contract that will give a fixed price only on the basis of very detailed design.
The Commonwealth Games will be the biggest sports event we have ever hosted. The construction industry in this part of the world has been tested to the limit
Howard Bernstein, Chief Executive, Manchester City Council
Bernstein says: “We are all very conscious of the Millennium Stadium difficulties. We will only sign up for a price when we are sure we are all talking about the same things. “At Cardiff, either the cost was wrong or the specification was wrong. We don’t want that.” The council itself has suffered during the development of the stadium. Having been promised £77m of Sports Council funding, it had to wait to see whether the Football Association would agree to hold international or FA Cup matches at the stadium.
When the FA declined, choosing to hold all games at the new Wembley – a decision Bernstein still disagrees with – the council had to find a new tenant to make the stadium viable. It settled on sleeping giant Manchester City – Bernstein is a City fan – which will move from its Maine Road ground in 2003.
Even then, Manchester was unable to finalise funding arrangements for the stadium because the games’ organisers could not decide which sports should be staged there. Team sports such as rugby sevens, hockey and “Supermax” cricket are more popular with sponsors and so have now been chosen because they will boost funding. Lottery funding is expected to be rubber-stamped any day.
The Manchester Evening News Arena (formerly Nynex Arena) built in the mid-1990s will host boxing and netball. Cycling, judo and wrestling will take place in the already completed National Cycling Centre. The stadium is not the only major project that will be built for the games. Barcelona recently became the first recipient of the RIBA Gold Medal, thanks to its post-Olympic Games regeneration, and Bernstein wants to follow this model. “People who went to the Atlanta Games saw the local residents being bypassed. We want the impact [to be] lasting and widespread.”
Laing is on site with the £32m Manchester Swimming Pool Complex south of the city centre. The four-pool complex is being built in partnership with three local universities. “This will meet community needs and the ever-burgeoning student population,” says Bernstein. A £10m Regional Sports Institute is planned alongside the stadium and a £10m tennis centre may also be built. Tarmac has started work on a £21m convention centre that will serve as the games’ press centre.
Non-sporting spin-offs
Bernstein also hopes that spin-offs will arise, with the council desperate to improve hotel accommodation in the city centre. Several hotels are planned in the Deansgate area. Bernstein says: “Massive proposals are starting to emerge – 3000 quality spaces will be on stream by the time the games open.”
The only blot on the horizon is the danger of “overheating”, with £1bn of rebuilding work on some of the UK's most complex regeneration projects already on site. But Bernstein believes this can be avoided by spreading work among major contractors, as the council has tended to do. Bovis built the arena, Tarmac is on site with the convention centre and Laing built the new Manchester Concert Hall.
Now all eyes are focused on who will build the stadium.
