Commonwealth Games: Australia drop out could be 'death knell'

Fifteen months ago, a proud Daniel Andrews strode into a regional Australian stadium and announced Victoria state would host the 2026 Commonwealth Games - promising "a games like no other".

But on Tuesday Mr Andrews - decidedly less jubilant - faced a media pack as he tersely revealed the state he leads would walk away from its contract.

It throws plans for the event into chaos and the future of the Games into doubt.

After a tough few years for organisers, experts say this could be the final straw.

"This could spell the end of the Commonwealth Games," says Steve Georgakis, a sports studies lecturer at the University of Sydney.

"It could be a death knell," Australian sports historian Matthew Klugman agrees.

Finding a host for the 2026 Games was always a struggle.

The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) had originally aimed to name a city in 2019, but hopeful bidders fell like dominoes - mostly over cost concerns - leaving organisers unable to lock in a host until three years later.

Mr Andrews, the state's premier, says organisers had approached his government, and initially they were "happy to help out".

"But not at any price," he told a press conference on Tuesday.

The event was supposed to be a massive boost for the regional cities hosting it, at a cost of A$2.6 billion (£1.4bn; $1.8bn).

But the cost of staging the 12-day Games had ballooned to more than A$6bn, Mr Andrews said.

"I've made a lot of difficult calls, a lot of very difficult decisions in this job. This is not one of them," he told reporters.

The CGF say they were blindsided by Victoria's decision, and dispute the estimates.

The body also cited the state's "unique regional delivery model" as the primary reason behind rising costs.

CGF's Australian arm - Commonwealth Games Australia (CGA) - said they'd look to convince other state governments that the numbers were a "gross exaggeration" and the investment is sound.

"We are taking advice on the options available to us and remain committed to finding a solution for the Games in 2026 that is in the best interest of our athletes and the wider Commonwealth Sport movement," CGF said in a statement.

But this is a sadly familiar problem for the CGF.

It struggled to find viable takers for the 2022 event too.

Durban was supposed to be the first city in Africa to stage the Games, but were stripped of hosting rights in 2017 after running into money troubles and missing key deadlines.

Nine months later, Birmingham and the British government intervened to save the event, stumping up a combined $1bn for what became the best attended Commonwealth Games on record.

Now just three years out from the 2026 Games - a short window in which to pull together a global, multi-sport event - the CGF is hunting for a saviour.

But it looks like an uphill task.

Already, the leaders of every other Australian state have ruled out picking up the tab.

Western Australia's premier Roger Cook called the event "ruinously expensive", saying "the Commonwealth Games aren't what they used to be".

And while New South Wales was widely seen as the most viable Australian alternative due to its existing infrastructure, its premier Chris Minns said, "hosting the Commonwealth Games would be something nice to do. Schools and hospitals are must do's".

Australia's last host city - the Gold Coast, which held the event in 2018 - says it would be "impractical to think that any city could step in now with such a short timeframe".

And even if it was possible, few countries have the means.

Just one Games has been held outside the UK or Australia in the last 20 years - the 2010 outing in the Indian capital, Delhi.

Originally expected to cost $270m, India ended up spending 16 times that - almost $4.1bn.

Australia is one of the richest nations in the Commonwealth, and, Dr Georgakis says, historically the event's most enthusiastic er.

"If Australia can't host the Games, well, what chance does one of the small former colonies have":[]}