Commonwealth Games faces extinction after 2026 hosting debacle

Anneke Bosch of Team South Africa bats during the Cricket T20 Group B match between Team South Africa and Team Sri Lanka on day seven of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games at Edgbaston on 4 August 2022. (Photo: Alex Davidson / Getty Images)

By Craig Ray

6 Dec 2023

It feels like the Commonwealth Games has been limping towards extinction for more than a generation — and now the end might be upon it.

This week’s news that Australia’s Gold Coast had backed out of hosting the 2026 Commonwealth Games (CWG), just five months after Melbourne had pulled the plug in July, underlines that the Games are no longer viable. Perhaps they never were.

Melbourne and the state of Victoria were initially set to host the Games in 2026, but they bailed in July this year, as costs soared above budget.

Victoria Premier Dan Andrews said the cost of the Games, which were to have been held in four regional hubs, would total more than A$7-billion (R90-billion) from a budgeted A$2.6-billion (R33-billion) if they went ahead.

Going almost three times over budget caused significant unease in Victoria as citizens, not unreasonably, believed their tax money could be better spent.

“Frankly, A$6-billion to A$7-billion for a 12-day sporting event, we’re not doing that,” Andrews told the media in July.

“I will not take money out of hospitals and schools to fund an event that is three times the cost as estimated and budgeted for last year.”

If Australia, one of the richest countries in the world and one of the most well-off in the Commonwealth, and a country with a long and successful association with the event, has so brutally backed out of hosting the CWG, what chance do the Games have of survival?

They have only once been hosted outside Britain and Australia since 1998 — in Delhi in 2010. And those Games were mired in controversy and a government inquiry that revealed wide-scale corruption and budget overruns.

The Commonwealth Games have long been the Olympics’ poor cousin, and unlike other massive global events such as the Fifa World Cup, the CWG can’t simply make eyes at the wealth of Qatar or Saudi Arabia to save it.

Victoria, and now Queensland’s decisions, mean that the 2026 edition is unlikely to go ahead. As it stands today, no cities are jumping in to save the 2026 edition and there are no bidders for the 2030 CWG either.

But the governing body put on a brave face after Australia’s Gold Coast cried off.

“Since the sudden withdrawal of Victoria in July 2023 as host of the 2026 Games, the Commonwealth Games Federation has been working tirelessly with Commonwealth Games associations to find a new host who would be able to step in at such short notice,” a spokesperson said this week.

“We are in active conversations with a number of potential hosts across the Commonwealth and hope to provide an update on those discussions in early 2024.”

Crucial weeks

While projecting an image of being in control, the reality is that these will be a crucial few weeks to determine whether the 2026 CWG go ahead somewhere, under one of the 72 federations that make up the organisation.

Durban was supposed to host the 2022 CWG but was stripped of that “honour” in 2017 after several key deadlines were missed. It was probably for the best, given the unprecedented impact of Covid-19 and South Africa’s energy crisis.

Birmingham stepped in to host the 2022 edition, but even then, the city pulled it off only because of the influence of the UK government. It was the year of the late Queen Elizabeth’s Jubilee and funds were directed to pull it off. The UK government spent £600-million (R16.8-billion) of taxpayers’ money to make the Games a success.

The blinding reality is that the costs — financial and social — of major multisport events in one region increasingly do not add up. The only way the CWG, but possibly the Olympics too, will survive in future, will be to downscale.

Money, obviously, is generally at the root of all solutions or problems. But in the modern world, the environmental, social and political impacts of staging these events are also a huge consideration.

While organisers try to sell these events on the basis of “economic impact” and “legacy” as benefits for a particular region, there is very little documented evidence to prove these so-called perks.

The 2010 Fifa World Cup in South Africa left a handful of stadiums, which cost billions to build, almost useless now. That’s just one aspect of the situation.

Paris, which hosts next year’s Summer Olympic Games, is embroiled in squabbling as citizens grow increasingly angry at the outlay for a 17-day event.

The Eiffel Tower is currently being repainted in “gold”, at great cost, although the colour is unlike any gold anyone is familiar with. Metro prices are set to double and many central Paris restaurants are considering closing because road closures and security restrictions are going to make trading almost impossible.

Paris’ famous street vendors along the Seine River are set to be removed and there is a corruption probe into the awarding of contracts.

Security costs for these major sporting events have soared to ridiculous levels, adding to the budget overruns.

If the Olympics, which started in 1896 and predates the CWG by 34 years, is struggling to attract bidders and interest (Brisbane was the only viable bid for the 2032 Games), what are the chances of its lesser cousin surviving? DM

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Crucial weeks