LONG sought after and hard won, the dream of hosting a regional Commonwealth Games in 2026 came crashing down on Tuesday July 18 when Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, citing a major budgetary blowout, terminated the quadrennial international multi-sport event.
Unwilling to fund an estimated doubling of the original $2.6B to finance the Games, Mr Andrews said that the government was far from confident of the final cost with three years still to go before the opening ceremony.
“The Games will not proceed in Victoria in 2026…Frankly, $6 billion to $7 billion for a 12-day sporting event… does not represent value for money, that is all costs and no benefit.”
The original allocation of $2.6B was to be allocated to regional centres Geelong, Bendigo, Ballarat and Gippsland who were to host their own athlete villages and sporting programs. Greater Shepparton was also to play a major role in the Games hosting cycling events including BMX racing and road time trial.
Considering stripping back the games to Melbourne and having sought a dollar-for-dollar match in funding from the Federal Government, Mr Andrews maintained that all options for the cost would far outweigh the benefits.
“None of those options stack-up…I wouldn’t spend half of that money even if I got the other half from Canberra, because that’s coming at the expense of something else- hospitals, schools, roads,” Mr Andrews said.
Despite the copious outpouring of disappointment and vehement criticism from numerous sectors and voices in the community, the planned upgrades on permanent sporting facilities will continue to go ahead including on Shepparton’s own BMX facilities.
In addition, $1B will be poured into regional Victoria to build1300 new social and affordable housing homes as well as a $150M injection to further fund tourism and events.
