Transcript
VINNIE WYLIE: So you had Tahiti, Samoa and Guam that had expressed interest - that's the first step. And then obviously they all had to get government backing behind their bids and then the Pacific Games Council would assess those bids and ultimately decide who will host the games. But ultimately only Guam and Samoa have got backing from their governments. Tahiti's government said no. So therefore only Guam and Samoa are now in the running to host the Games. Both have had evaluation visits and now in the next week a decision will be made.
JOHNNY BLADES: Government commitment, to point out the obvious, is so key in this, isn't it? That's what we saw with Tonga pulling out because their government ultimately had the say.
VW: Yeah. What the Pacific Games Council really wants is government support, very strong government support. Tonga obviously... it was a different government in charge there when they won the rights to host the Games, but the (subsequent) Pohiva government had reiterated their support and then obviously changed their mind at a very late date. So the Games Council only has less than two years effectively to get these Games ready and underway, so they need full commitment, full support and complete assurance that the government is behind their bid, so the French Polynesian government have previously supported Tahiti bids for 2019 and for 2023 when they were unsuccessful. But because of the short time frame, they just said no we don't want to consider it. So even though the sporting federations wanted to try and win the bid, the government just said no thanks.
JB: And I suppose another requirement is having some facilities, and would you that these two that it's come down to, Samoa and Guam, have good sporting facilities to host the Games?
VW: I think in all three instances there were good facilities already there. Samoa hosted the Pacific games only ten years ago; and they hosted the Youth Commonwealth games two years ago; we've seen the All Blacks play there in recent years, so they've got quite a good set of facilities. Guam, from the site evaluation visit last week, the Games Council praised their facilities, and said that a number of them are new from when Guam last hosted the Games in 1999. Since then they've built a number of new facilities which apparently are very good and would only require minor refurbishment to be ready in 2019. So both of the remaining countries in the race, Samoa and Guam, have a very good set of facilities already, that are pretty good as is, and would just need basically some polish and some shine and good to go.
JB: I don't want you to pre-empt the decision but would you think the Council might opt for Samoa because it's more central for the majority of the territories who are going to compete?
VW: I don;t know if location is too much of a factor because they do, in an ideal world, want to share it round, and it has shared round. Six countries have hosted the full Pacific Games in the past, Guam being one of them. They've hosted it twice, as have Samoa. And they wanted to take it to new countries and territories, which is why Tonga and Solomon Islands were awarded the Games in recent times. What's since happened has probably indicated that they probably want to go back to what they know, to a bit of surety, to have confidence that it's a country that has done it before and knows what they're doing. I think what helps Samoa is the fact that their government, their prime minister came out immediately and said we put our hands up, we're ready, we're always ready to host these events. We've got facilities, we've got the experience, and we want to. Guam took a bit longer to get the government on board, but they are on board.
