By Canadian Press

Australia’s Victoria state withdraws as host of the 2026 Commonwealth Games

Jul 17, 2023 | 6:51 PM

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australia’s Victoria state has withdrawn as host of the 2026 Commonwealth Games because of a massive increase in the projected cost of staging the multi-sports event.

Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews on Tuesday said his government last year agreed to host the next edition of the quadrennial event “but not at any cost.”

He said his government had initially budgeted 2.6 billion Australian dollars ($1.8 billion) to stage the Games in five regional cities but recent estimates put the potential cost as high as 7 billion Australian dollars ($4.8 billion).

Andrews told a news conference he’d notified Commonwealth Games organizers of his government’s decision to pull out of the hosting contract.

“Today is not about finding fault with those cost estimates,” he said, declining to outline the reasons for the cost blowouts. “Frankly, AU$6-AU$7 billion for a 12-day sporting event, we are not doing that — that does not represent value for money, that is all costs and no benefit.”

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The Commonwealth Games Federation issued a statement saying the decision was “hugely disappointing” for the organization and the athletes and it was taking advice on its options for finding a solution for the event in 2026.

The CGF said the estimated cost escalation was mainly due to the regional, multi-city host model and the Victoria government’s decision to change plans for venues and include more sports.

“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 statement said.

The 2026 Games had been scheduled for March 17-29 in the regional centers of Geelong, Bendigo, Ballarat, Gippsland and Shepparton.

The state government had promoted the multi-city model as a game changer, with the five regional centers hosting 20 sports and nine fully-integrated Para sports.

The government’s website had previously promoted Victoria 2026 as a showcase of “what makes the people of our state tick: our unity, our diversity, our sense of community, our welcoming attitude and our love of sport.”

Birmingham stepped in to host the 2022 Games in England to replace Durban, South Africa.

The Games started out as the British Empire Games in 1930 in Hamilton, Canada, and since 1978 has been known as the Commonwealth Games. England, Australia, New Zealand, Wales, Jamaica, Scotland, Malaysia and India have also hosted the Games, which involve teams from 54 members of the Commonwealth network and 17 overseas territories and island states.

Victoria state hosted the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. The last edition of the Games held in Australia was on the Gold Coast, Queensland state, in 2018. The Gold Coast is part of the southeast Queensland area that is scheduled to host events during the 2032 Olympics in Brisbane.

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AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

The Associated Press