The Games - how they will affect you Author: DEWI COOKE Date: 05/02/2006 Publication: The Sunday Age
Melbourne is about to be flooded with more than 90,000 overseas and interstate visitors during the Commonwealth Games. Will it cope? Will we cope? How will the event affect our day-to-day lives? The truth is we don't really know, but no event of this size can run without inevitable delays and complications. Dewi Cooke looks at the flashpoints.
TRANSPORT
People are being encouraged to use public transport as there will be no parking available at the venues. A ticket to an event will include free travel on metropolitan trains, trams and buses, and $10 same-day specials for V/Line patrons. Connex has added 2543 services and will run trains every 20 minutes during the "third peak" period after 7pm.
"It's like holding the grand final, the Australian Open and the Grand Prix on the same day, 12 days in a row - a massive task," Connex spokeswoman Kate de Clercq said. "We are encouraging people, where possible, to travel outside normal working hours."
Like Connex, Yarra Trams will run extra services after 7pm. All 270 Yarra Trams customer service staff will be used on Games-related jobs, either to usher spectators to and from venues or offer travel advice. There will be no extra ticket inspectors on trams.
Shuttle buses will also run from railway stations to those venues not easily accessible by public transport, and late-night Night Rider buses will run on every night of the Games.
There is some concern that taxis will be harder to come by. But the Victorian Taxi Association's Peter Garbellini said drivers were not expecting any increase in business, despite taxi ranks being close to Games venues, including Albert Park, Docklands, Royal Park and around the MCG. "I don't imagine there will be extra drivers around," he said. "But more drivers might be more interested in driving. We don't see the Games event as having a major impact on the taxi industry, they will be largely a public transport event," he said.
People loitering at the meeting place under the Flinders Street Station clocks will also be moved along to avoid congestion.
TELEVISION
For the official Games broadcaster, Channel Nine, the event is likely to mean a bigger audience, but fans of top-rating shows, including CSI and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire will have to wait two weeks, as all programming gives way to Games coverage from March 15 to 26. The ratings season begins on February 12, so new Channel Nine shows Family Feud with Bert Newton, and Missing Persons Unit, will be similarly affected. Network Ten and Channel Seven said it was too early to say, but if Nine's Olympic experience was anything to go by, repeats were likely. "What we did, in essence, when the Olympics were on, is go into repeats for a couple of weeks - it pretty much affects everyone," Channel Nine spokesman Colin Vickery said.
Green Guide television writer Ross Warneke said that while it was difficult to know what decisions commercial channels would make, he believed it would be foolish for Channels 10 and Seven to run new episodes of shows such as Desperate Housewives, only to pull them off air while the Games were on. "It would upset viewers if you suddenly took all your top-rating shows off air for three weeks," he said.
THEATRES
Ticketholders for the musical production, The Lion King, at the Regent Theatre, have been warned that parking will be hard to come by. Ticketek's website advises patrons to prepare for delays, and urges matinee audiences to walk, or take the train or tram on Sunday, March 19, when the men's and women's marathon is run.
"Throughout the Commonwealth Games period, access to the Melbourne CBD will be heavily restricted, in particular, access to car parks," it said. "During this time, we suggest that theatre patrons make use of public transport to make their way to the theatre."
The Regent's operator, Jason Marriner, said: "We originally looked at re-timetabling shows, but it's not necessary as long as people plan ahead."
Her Majesty's general manager, Richard Fitzgerald, told The Sunday Age in January that producers had shied away from booking shows during the Games as the free Festival Melbourne arts festival would take audiences. As a result, the theatre will have no shows in the Games period.
POLICE
All police leave has been cancelled during the Games. This will give the force a 25 per cent boost in numbers. A police spokeswoman, Nicole McKechnie, would not elaborate on exact numbers, although the mounted police unit announced last month that between 20 and 35 officers would patrol in and around Games venues, including the mountain bike track at Lysterfield, the athletes' village in Parkville and the Melbourne CBD.
Ms McKechnie said people could also expect to see more foot patrols and bicycle police, and a 24-hour police station will open at the athletes' village, Parkville, today. She said police had been aware that leave was cancelled. But Paul Mullett, of the Police Association, said that although officers had accepted the leave embargo, additional leave entitlements were being sought to compensate.
TRAFFIC
The Queen will be greeted by empty roads and green lights throughout her brief Melbourne sojourn, but commuters near the city and Games venues may find it harder to get around. Exclusive traffic lanes to ferry athletes and officials will run from Tullamarine to the athletes' village, through North Melbourne to the sports and entertainment precinct (which includes Rod Laver Arena, Olympic Park and the MCG), and along St Kilda Road to the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre, in Albert Park. The lanes will be marked in blue, with fines of $165 for trangressions.
Drivers should also look for road closures, including along Brunton Avenue from March 10 to April 2, and Wellington Parade after MCG events.
The Victorian Employers Chamber of Commerce and Industry's general manager of workplace relations, David Gregory, said Games organisers had advised it to instruct members to consider other transport arrangements, or where possible, to do business in the outer suburbs, away from the busy areas.
PARKING
Parking will be difficult as none of the Games venues will have public parking. The parking around the MCG will be off-limits, and the Lakeside car park in Albert Park will be closed. Some city car parks will be affected by the men's and women's marathon event on Sunday, March 19, making access to the CBD difficult after 8am.
SCHOOLS
Victorian schools will have a shorter first term, with all government institutions and most independent schools sticking to a six-week schedule, which breaks for two weeks to March 10.
"One of the biggest impacts on schools is that they're using all the buses," Rick Tudor, headmaster at Trinity Grammar, said. "It was very clearly pointed out to us, and quite rightly, that there will be no buses available for the boys to get to school. So we basically had to take that two-week period out."
Trinity is among the elite Melbourne private schools to hand over sporting facilities to visiting athletes before the Games. Together with Melbourne Grammar, Scotch College and Ivanhoe Grammar, it will host Rugby 7's teams from such countries as Solomon Islands, Scotland, New Zealand, South Africa and Uganda.
Most teams will have taken over the schools' ovals, swimming pools and training rooms before the end of term one.
"Because, of course, all schools are taking holidays during the Games as mandated by the Government, in a sense the majority of the use of our facilities would be during our holidays, so the impact on our program is minimal," Ivanhoe Grammar principal Rod Fraser said.
Scotch College's headmaster, Gordon Donaldson, said Games authorities would provide added security for the athletes.
POST
Forty-seven Australia Post drivers and posties have received special accreditation to travel through Games no-go zones, ensuring those residents and businesses near Games venues would not miss out on deliveries. "We have plans in place to accommodate transport restrictions," Australia Post's Janice Mascini said. "We will not be having any delays."
HOSPITALITY
According to the Melbourne 2006 organising office, there have been 250,000 tickets sold to interstate and overseas visitors, meaning a rush on hotels, motels and other accommodation. Tourism Victoria said there were still affordable rooms available at the 3.5-star standard, and the website of the Commonwealth Games Travel Office showed some rooms were available in city hotels with nightly rates starting at $220.
SPORTING CLUBS
The Melbourne Football Club has been one of the hardest hit. With its home ground, the MCG, being converted into an athletics track and no home games until round five of the AFL season, the club said it risked losses to several revenue sources, including gate receipts, membership, signs and hospitality.
Much of the club's executive, marketing and commercial operations will have to move from the MCG base.
"Melbourne is the home of major events, and our club supports the Commonwealth Games, however, as a tenant club of the MCG we will have disruption and we trust that our members and supporters will understand and we look forward to welcoming them back to the MCG in round five against the Kangaroos," Demons chief executive Steve Harris said.
Last month, The Age reported that pre-season preparation for Collingwood and Richmond football clubs would also be affected by the Games.
HEALTH
The Royal Melbourne Hospital is the designated hospital for the Games, but staff there are not expecting to be busier than usual. Staff numbers will be increased as necessary, and St Vincent's Hospital, Fitzroy, will add an extra two or three staff a shift in the emergency department.
Symbion Health, which delivers pathology and radiology samples around the city, said its drivers would assess traffic conditions each day.
"Courier drivers know that area pretty well, and the Commonwealth Games has been factored into that," spokesman Jason Thomas said.
BUSINESS
Businesses have been equipped with a Business Ready guide to the Games, which offers advice on how best to prepare for the 11-day event. VECCI's David Gregory said the employer body had counselled its 8000 corporate members to analyse how the Games might affect or benefit them. "What we are saying to employers is, make some sensible analysis about what their business requirements might be in the Commonwealth Games period and the lead-up to the period immediately prior to it as well. Is it likely that there's going to be more activity involved, or less? I think for some business areas, retail, hospitality, particularly in the city areas, the expectation is that they're going gang-busters, that it will be a particularly busy time. But in other areas, maybe in outer suburbs, in particular, it's likely to be more quiet perhaps, more like a Christmas or school holidays period, with more people on annual leave than would normally be the case." Myer spokesman John Gillman said a committee for the Bourke Street store was looking at staff numbers over the period, and was looking at what impact the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games had on stores there. "It's a bit of a different event, because it's a bit smaller, but unlike Sydney, a lot more of the Commonwealth Games are based around the CBD, so we'll look at the lessons from Sydney."
REAL ESTATE
Greg Hocking, of Hocking Stuart Real Estate, said agents would treat the Games as they would any other "special event", such as the grand final or spring racing carnival.
He predicted there would be fewer auctions during the Games period. "I would imagine it was prudent for responsible agents to avoid that time," he said. But he said the flow-on effect of more tourists in Melbourne would eventually benefit the real estate market.
Real Estate Institute of Victoria spokesman Andrew Pointer said: "It will have some impact, we think, on auction numbers over that time. But not a significant impact, predominantly because it's a high season as it is."
He said there were already 341 auctions scheduled for the weekend of March 4 and 5, before the Games, a figure that was likely to rise.