http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-16/c ... ie/9661744
Commonwealth Games Closing Ceremony Criticised
After a closing ceremony that barely focused on athletes and featured long, rambling speeches, Gold Coast Commonwealth Games chairman Peter Beattie has admitted organisers got it wrong.
The athletes entered Carrara Stadium before the television broadcast and were barely shown to TV audiences as they stood in darkness on the fringe of the stage. There were reports many began leaving the venue less than an hour into the event.
The ceremony also featured at least seven speeches by dignitaries, including Mr Beattie, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, and the Lord Mayor of Birmingham — the 2022 Commonwealth Games host city.
Channel Seven's own commentators, Johanna Griggs and Basil Zempilas, launched into an extraordinary attack on the ceremony immediately after it finished, saying they were "furious".
Mr Beattie tweeted an apology on Monday morning. "The speeches were too many and too long. I was part of that and I acknowledge it. Again, we got that wrong," he wrote.
But this rose is an extra. - A. Conan Doyle






