The Gold Coast was hot favourite to out-muscle Hambantota and is counting on using the Games to restore lustre to an image battered by downturns in tourism and property and the wrong kind of publicity about its crime rate.
Premier Anna Bligh is also keen for a win as she gears up for a state election due early next year that is odds-on to deliver a change of government.
When the result was announced, Ms. Bligh threw her arms into the air and cried out with joy.
“It's been a very very close vote and there's a good choice we weren't going to make it. We had seven rehearsals, we've had 15 meetings, we've lobbied everybody, there hasn't been much sleep,” the blushing premier said immediately after the announcement.
“I'm so proud of this team, I'm so proud of the Gold Coast, I'm so proud of being a Queenslander tonight.”
A meeting of the 71 Commonwealth nations on the Caribbean Island of St. Kitts this morning was decided by a vote of 43 to 27 in the Gold Coast's favour.
Commonwealth Games President Michael Fennell of Jamaica was not required to exercise his casting vote.
A close vote was anticipated after 11th-hour lobbying by Sri Lanka including an impassioned address by President Mahinda Rajapaksa on the sidelines of last month's Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth.
SportsBet was last night paying $1.50 on a Gold Coast win, compared with $2.50 for Hambantota.
Reacting to the news today in Hawaii, where she is attending a meeting of leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation group, Ms. Gillard said the honour would provide a great economic opportunity for the Gold Coast and for Queensland.
"Congratulations Queensland," Ms. Gillard said. "Absolutely great news. This is a fantastic achievement. All Australians will be looking forward to hosting the Commonwealth Games but this is going to be a particular delight to the people of the Gold Coast and the people of Queensland."
The Prime Minister said Australia had always done "a fantastic job" when hosting international events.
"We bring to it our sense of sportspersonship and fairness, our sense of fun and engagement."
As taxpayers are to foot 56 per cent of the Gold Coast games' proposed $1.97bn budget, plus any overruns, questions are being asked as to whether the economic benefits outweigh the cost.
RMIT University sports economist Mark Stewart said extensive research on major sporting events, including the Sydney Olympics, showed such spectacles "very rarely" reaped economic benefits across a whole economy.
"So why do cities bid for them? There is research that shows major events result in a great amount of happiness, so politicians are probably seizing on this potential for their political ends," Mr. Stewart said.
Ms. Bligh has touted the games as a "once-in-a-generation opportunity" to transform the Gold Coast, citing the 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games. That event -- remembered for swimmer Tracey Wickham, marathon runner Robert de Castella and Matilda the winking kangaroo -- left Queenslanders "assets" such as the 49,000-capacity QEII Stadium, which once hosted the Brisbane Broncos but now caters mostly to school carnivals and audience-free training sessions.
This week, the stadium was so eerily quiet that Griffith University students such as Racheal Watt sat their yearly exams in the venues' function rooms.
"The government keeps saying it doesn't have enough money for more hospital beds and more nurses, but that's what we need and that's where the money should be going instead," said the 22-year-old trainee nurse. "I've only ever been here for school athletics and exams, so it's not being used for what it was built for."
Jim Soorley, Brisbane's lord mayor from 1991 to 2003, said his administration "spent millions of dollars propping up and maintaining old, depreciating Commonwealth Games facilities" until the state government "thankfully" had assumed liability for the venues. "The Commonwealth Games are archaic. They're a relic of the past with absolutely no significance nowadays. That there are only two cities bidding for the event proves that."
Stadiums Queensland's Cobey Moore said it was unfair to judge QEII's worth by 1982 standards, saying its purpose had now changed to a community venue.
Queensland Treasury was unable to say when, or if, the 1982 games debt was actually paid off, due to the passage of time and changes in accounting practices.
Hambantota's budget anticipated a spend of only $652m, with Sri Lankan authorities subsidising 66 per cent of the proposed cost.
The Gold Coast will be the fifth Australian city and the first of our regional cities to host the games. Sydney was the first to have that honour, hosting the then British Empire Games in 1938, followed by Perth (in 1962), Brisbane (1982) and Melbourne (2006). (Source: The Australian)
