6. Will the Minister make a statement regarding future bids for major sports events? OAQ53501

Well, we're committed to building on Wales’s recent success in hosting major sporting events, and we're proactively working with partners in Wales, the UK and internationally—including numerous international sports federations and rights owners—in order to identify and pursue new opportunities for attracting major sporting events to all parts of Wales.

Thank you, Minister, for that answer. Wales has been relatively successful over recent years in bidding for a whole host of events, from golf to the ocean-going races out here in Cardiff Bay, to major footballing events. One of the blips, though, was the previous Minister's decision not to continue a bid for the Commonwealth Games. I wonder whether you've had a chance to make an assessment as to whether Wales, in the future, will be in a position to bid for a future Commonwealth Games, or to look at partnering to make a bid for the Commonwealth Games, given that cities in England are prepared to put bids in, yet we as a country seem to be unable, at this juncture, to put a bid together that ultimately would be very prestigious for Wales and beneficial in promoting the value that we have here in Wales.

Thank you. Well, this is a question that I was discussing with my officials earlier in the week. I think that part of the problem here is that the cost of putting on the Commonwealth Games for us would be huge, partly because we simply don't have the infrastructure in Wales, in Cardiff—let's be honest, that's the only place that we could hold it. We don't have the infrastructure even in Cardiff to put on all the events that you would need to put on in relation to the Commonwealth Games. You have to have certain-size swimming pools and you have to have cycle routes and this, that and the other. So, the infrastructure—the cost of developing the infrastructure I think would be prohibitive for us at the moment as a Government. Maybe when austerity ends, it's something we could consider.

Thank you very much, Minister.