Anything Sydney does Melbourne believes it can do better

Cathy Freeman and Elle MacPherson begin the baton relay. Picture / Reuters

There is nothing shy about Melbourne, nor Steve Bracks, the youthful Premier of Victoria. Next year's Commonwealth Games, Bracks boasts, will be better than anything, anywhere, ever.

"We probably have the most democratic, most open, accessible Games of any Games, whether it's the Goodwill Games, Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, or anything else," he says.

"Just think about the lead-up to the Olympics in Sydney and Athens, then think about ticketing systems, venues, a whole range of activities.

"Then think about Melbourne. Think about where we are at this stage of the cycle. We are doing very, very well."

In a city founded by a bloke named Batman, could you expect anything else? While Melbourne may have smarted when eternal rival Sydney won the 2000 Olympics - especially after losing its own bid for the 1996 Games to Atlanta - it is having none of the second-best sort of feeling.

Commonwealth Games chief Ron Walker said when the city won the event that Melbourne's Games would be "as big as, if not bigger than, the Olympics".

Not quite. The Sydney Olympics drew 1.5 million visitors to watch 10,500 athletes from 199 countries. Next March, the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne will attract an estimated 90,000 visitors to cheer for 4500 athletes from the 71 countries that form the eclectic club that evolved from Britain's former empire.

But it remains one of the largest contests on the planet. On Monday the head of the club, Queen Elizabeth, officially set the Games on their way by inserting a computer chip carrying her message to the opening ceremony into a high-tech baton containing a camera that will record for an internet site its progress over the next 12 months, across 180,000km and through all Commonwealth states, no matter how tiny or remote.

When the baton finally arrives in Melbourne, it will find a city that has been grooming itself intently. The Victorian capital sees this as a chance to thrust itself on to a much wider global stage, pushing its image as a centre of wine, food and culture as much as muscle and speed.

Riding on the wave of prosperity that has marked Australia for the best part of a decade, Melbourne is humming. Good impressions, Victoria believes, later become good business.

Even graffiti has been enlisted to the cause, with space and encouragement given to artists to vent their inspiration in the lanes that give the inner city so much of its character. The news is not so good for the homeless: bright new lighting has been installed to discourage street people from sleeping there.

And there is still the sense that while everything may look hunkydory now, counting chickens is still a dodgy thing to do. Said Melbourne 2006 chief executive John Hamden: "It doesn't matter how good a job we've done so far. It's all about the next 365 days."

On Tuesday, the morning after the Queen handed the green, yellow and white baton to Australian model Elle MacPherson in London, Hamden was among about 1000 officials, sponsors, volunteers and the like who crowded in between rows of secondary school children to form a gigantic figure 1, marking the start of the 12-month countdown to the opening ceremony and giving news photographers and TV crews another reason to keep the Games in focus.

The fact is, that is not all that easy. At least as far as can be assessed, everything is going as planned, with none of the dramas and doubts that afflicted Athens, or even - to a lesser degree - Sydney. Ticketing is claimed to have been sorted out so well there will be none of the angst of the Rugby World Cup, for example.

"These are probably the best-organised of any Games around the world," Bracks said. "I cannot think of anything that we have not organised effectively. We're well-organised, well-prepared and our facilities will be on stream and completed by the end of the year. Things are on time, the budget is being met."

How well things go will be important to the Premier. He faces an election seven months after the Games, and by then the euphoria that normally accompanies vast sporting galas in Victoria will be well past, leaving what at this stage remains an uncertain legacy.

There is the economic hangover, for a start. The state Government's focus has been on refurbishing and expanding existing facilities rather than building hugely expensive new venues such as Sydney's Homebush complex, but there is still a hefty price tag.

The state Government has capped its spending at operating costs of A$474 million ($506 million) and capital costs of A$223 million ($238 million) , which it compares favourably to the A$6.5 billion ($6.9 billion) to stage the Sydney Olympics and the $1.28 billion Manchester spent on the 2002 Commonwealth Games. The federal Government is kicking in another A$273 million ($291 million), including almost A$85 million ($91 million) for security.

Bracks knows the Games must leave the impression of lasting net gain for the state. Already, critics in the bush have grumbled about the lack of any real benefit for rural Victoria, and the Opposition will have its number-crunchers out in force, armed with a long list of Games-holding cities that have been left with gaping holes in their coffers.

The Premier points to the Sydney Games, which he says generated an estimated A$16 billion ($17 billion) in economic benefits, without including the spinoffs from global TV exposure. Manchester, he says, gained an economic benefit double the cost of staging its event.

But Melbourne is more chary of making similar estimates. There would be significant job creation, said one official, and the Games would be worth an estimated A$270 million ($288 million) to Victoria's tourism industry. But as for estimates of net economic benefit, "What model would you use?" The Sydney model? "There was no Sydney model."

No matter. Preparations for the Games are steaming ahead with work on the venues on track, ticketing organised and under way - with a guaranteed overseas allocation - and hotel rooms gathered into a single pool with prices and packages already set.

Cultural, social and partying plans are well in hand. The state is even planting up to a million trees as part of its plan to make the Games "carbon neutral".

The downtown siting of the venues will help. Two major venues - the Melbourne Cricket Ground and Melbourne Park - are within a five-minute walk of the central business district, and most other events will be held within 3km of it.

The MCG itself is undergoing a massive, A$434 million ($464 million) revamp. All but the A$77 million ($82 million) from the state Government has been raised through a loan the Melbourne Cricket Club has no worries about repaying well within its term: with cricket internationals, the AFL grand final, other major games, and 90,000 members paying A$25 million ($28 million) a year in fees, plus 200,000 on the waiting list, life is good.

Boasting new stands and 100,000 seats, the MCG will be the biggest Commonwealth Games venue yet. But it has meant changing the timing of key events, the loss of others and turfing out major sponsors and corporate box-holders for the duration, although Trevor Dohnt, general manager, events operations, for the MCC, says the club will not lose financially.

Life is rapidly changing elsewhere across Melbourne: new train stations at Spencer Street and Jolimont, new hotel rooms and apartments, commercial redevelopment, the athletes' village at Parkville, and the creation of a fleet of water taxis for the Yarra River that flows through the city.

And backed by federal funding of A$55 million ($59 million), the nation's athletes are pushing hard to exceed the record 82 gold, 62 silver, and 62 bronze medals they won in Manchester.

Said Olympic 100m relay runner Adam Basil: "We can't wait."