Games chief defends village - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Games chief defends village

By Jamie Duncan 11/12/2004 03:56:38 PM Comments (0)

Criticism of Melbourne's Commonwealth Games village by two senior games officials was the result of a "bad bottle of wine", the games organising committee chief, Ron Walker, said.

Australian Commonwealth Games Association chief executive Perry Crosswhite and president Sam Coffa, who is also the Melbourne 2006 organising committee deputy president, fear the games village will be hot, overcrowded and noisy.

More than 6,000 athletes and officials will stay at the 20 hectare village in inner suburban Parkville in permanent houses and in portable buildings crammed between the houses.

Mr Crosswhite said the association was concerned about potential congestion and noise in the village.

"There is no air-conditioning so people will have to open windows, so it's going to be noisy," he said.

"There's only one room for people to congregate in their residential environment - that's for homeloads of up to 27.

"Squeezing all those people and facilities on that (20ha) footprint, it just seems that congestion and noise are going to be significant, and we're going to have to look at that."

But organising committee chairman Ron Walker said Mr Coffa and Mr Crosswhite had opportunities to raise their concerns.

"They must have had a bad bottle of wine yesterday because they sat on all the committees," Mr Walker said.

"It's only five weeks ago that the (Commonwealth Games) Minister (Justin Madden) and I sat with the members and talked to them about the latest developments with the village and they were very, very happy, I can assure you.

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