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SO Daniel Andrews’ Victorian Government has pulled the pin as host of the 23rd Commonwealth Games, citing a huge blow-out in the estimated cost from two billion-something to seven billion-something. Already the Jeremiahs are predicting that this may signify the end of the road for the whole event. Quite a PR turnaround for a sporting spectacle once widely spruiked as the “Friendly Games”.
But over the last few decades the Commonwealth Games horizon has darkened as the relevance of the institution of the Commonwealth itself has been increasingly questioned. In 2006 when Melbourne last hosted the Comm Games, the Sydney Morning Herald noted that the supposed unity of the Commonwealth was little more than “an artifice maintained for the Games” every four years (SMH, 28 March 2006). Brisbane’s turn at hosting in 1982, while thought a great success, were branded the “Stolenwealth Games” by protesting indigenous Australians.
Significantly, despite a muted protest from some quarters within Australia about Andrews’ controversial move, no other provincial government has put their hand up to step in and fill the 2026⌖. Victoria is not the first ever host defaulter, Durban, South Africa, awarded hosting rights for 2022, struggled with financial problems and ultimately had the Games taken off them because the Committee deemed them unprepared to host the event. Birmingham, UK, stepped in on that occasion to rescue the Games for 2022. But with less than three years to kick-off no other member country has as yet committed itself to follow Birmingham’s salvage act, despite there being positive rumblings from the lord mayor of London and from the office’s counterparts in Perth and the Gold Coast.
Road bump or dead-end:
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⌖ significantly, Victoria bidding to hold the 2026 Games represented the sole official applicant
