MELBOURNE: The Australian state of Victoria pulled out of hosting the 2026 Commonwealth Games on Tuesday citing major cost blow-outs, leaving organisers “hugely disappointed” and placing the future of the quadrennial multi-sport event in doubt.

Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said the initial estimate of Aus$2 billion (US$1.36 billion) needed to hold the Games would more likely be around Aus$7 billion ($4.8 billion) if they went ahead, which he called “well and truly too much”.

“I’ve made a lot of difficult calls, a lot of very difficult decisions in this job. This is not one of them. Frankly, $7 billion for a 12-day sporting event, we are not doing that,” he said at a news conference in Melbourne.

“I will not take money out of hospitals and schools to host an event that is three times the cost estimated and budgeted for last year. “The Games will not proceed in Victoria in 2026. We have informed Commonwealth Games authorities of our decision to seek to terminate the contract.”

Andrews said Victoria had yet to work out the cost of breaking its contract with the Commonwealth Games Federation, the global governing body, but insisted talks were amicable.

The CGF said they had eight hours’ notice of the decision and were offered no consideration to work on solutions with Victoria.

“We are disappointed that we were only given eight hours’ notice and that no consideration was given to discussing the situation to jointly find solutions prior to this decision being reached by the government,” the CGF said in a statement.

“This is hugely disappointing for the Commonwealth Sport Movement, for athletes ... and the Organising Committee who are well advanced in their planning and preparation. We are taking advice on the options available to us.”

The federation said Victoria’s projected cost blow-out was 50% higher than estimates given to the CGF’s organising committee board last month.

It also blamed the state government for jacking up the Games bill by including more sports and changing venue plans, “often against the advice” of the CGF and the local body, Commonwealth Games Australia.

‘GROSS EXAGGERATION’

“The stated costs overrun, in our opinion, are a gross exaggeration,” CGA Chief Executive Craig Phillips said in a separate statement.

The decision to pull the pin throws a question mark over not just the 2026 event but the concept as a whole, analysts said, with fewer countries showing interest in recent times to take on a spectacle seen as losing its relevance.

The last Games in 2022 were held in Birmingham, but only after the English city stepped in late on to replace Durban in South Africa, which was stripped of hosting rights after a series of missed deadlines and financial problems.

The CGF insisted it remained “committed to finding a solution for the Games in 2026”.

The event typically attracts more than 4,000 athletes from the 54 nations of the Commonwealth, almost all of which are former territories of the British Empire.

The 2026 version — featuring 20 sports and 26 disciplines — was due to be held across five regional hubs, including Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, Gippsland and Shepp­arton, with each having its own athletes’ village.

Andrews said his team had looked at cutting the number of hubs or even moving the Games to the Victoria state capital Melbourne but “none of those options stack up”.

Victoria officials had talked up legacy benefits from new infrastructure in regional areas and an economic boost of more than A$3 billion.

Andrews said his government will instead spend more than A$2 billion on a “regional package” which would include building all permanent sporting facilities intended for the Games, along with A$1 billion for social and affordable housing.

The Victorian state opposition called Andrews’ decision a “massive humiliation” and “hugely damaging to Victoria’s reputation”, suggesting it would hurt the state’s chances of being awarded big-ticket sporting events in the future.

But Tom Heenan, a lecturer in sport and Australian studies at Monash University, said it showed that hosting mega-events like the Commonwealth Games was not worth it.

“This venture was flawed from the start,” he said. “Situating the Games in regional centres highlighted their declining global importance.”

COOLING ENTHUSIASM

The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC), which had spoken of 2026 as a “runway” for hosting the 2032 Brisbane Olympics, said it was “an enormous disappointment” for the athletes.

New Zealand said it was “unsettling” for its own athletes who had banked on a Games close to home.

Australia, by far the Games’ most successful competing nation, has hosted five of the previous 22 editions.

A cooling of enthusiasm from one of the Games’ staunchest supporters bodes poorly for their future.

John Coates, an International Olympic Committee Vice-President and former AOC boss, said Sydney, which hosted the 2000 Olympics, should take on the 2026 Games.

However, the government of New South Wales state, of which Sydney is the capital, said it would decline any approach due to budgetary pressures. South Australia and Western Australia states also ruled them out.

The cost of the Games and their nebulous legacy benefits have long drawn scepticism, and even the CGF has conceded they must downsize to survive.

A bid for Canadian city Hamilton to host the 2030 Games collapsed in February after failure to secure government support.

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2023