Sport rules - thats why you gotta keep the government out of it

Its not an intuitive argument and runs counter to what your average sports-mad pundit would think. But I'm going to attack this head on, especially since Kevin Rudd has yesterday committed himself (not to an asylum unfortunately) to spending our tax dollars and bidding for the right to host the 2018 World Cup.

Government sponsored sporting events sound like a really positive and inspiring idea, and masses of people can be swept up by the romantic ideas of big sporting events against foreign nations. People always conjur up patriotic and nationalistic imagery and sentiments when talking about the collective "we":

We oughtta get the Gran Prix !
We oughtta have the World Cup in 2018.
We oughtta get the Commonwealth Games !
We oughtta get the Olympics !

My beef is not with sport ... its with government being the main driver, the bidder, the financer and the organiser of massive sporting events. And that means every tax payer is forced to pay for an event, and no entrepreneurs are involved in organising the event and nobody is responsible in ensuring they run it efficiently and cost effectively with the ability to attract enough revenue from sponsorship, tv rights and ticket sales.

How do I know this for a fact ? Because if it were commercially viable, private bidders WOULD HAVE ALREADY raised the finance and put in a serious and aggressive bid to secure and run a sporting event !

The assumption that the State or Federal Government needs to bid and organise a sporting event is based on the idea that private operators are too stupid and incapable of running such events (even though the tennis, AFL, Rugby and A-League have proven otherwise).

So once you remove profit motives, what are you left with ? There is every incentive for the bureaucrats to hype up their event, inflate crowd attendance figures, screw up traffic and transport in the city, cover up the escalating costs and eventually run an event that wastes an incredible amount of resources.

Case in point - the Australian Grand Prix:

THE operators of the Australian Grand Prix have admitted they don't know how many people attend the race, and that the number of tickets they give away is kept a secret to avoid undermining the event.

....

But a freedom-of-information application by protest group Save Albert Park has revealed how that estimate is calculated and, it claims, inflated by as much as 45%, or 100,000 people.

In its finding, the tribunal said the corporation had admitted: "If the gross number of free tickets was to be released, this would give the impression that the event was being artificially enhanced by giveaway tickets, and so reduce the value of tickets sold and the likelihood of sponsorship."

The free tickets, however, are counted as "sold" and added, whether they are used or not, to the attendance "estimates".

As well, every person who visits the track — including drivers, car mechanics, grid girls, hospitality staff, and even race bosses — is included in crowd figure calculations.

It cost the state about $35 million last year and is tipped to cost around $40 million this year — around four times the $10.6 million spent in 2003.