Commonwealth Games 2026

[Rafa Maciel 1,357]

3 hours ago, nitinsanker said:

As the Victorian Government announced that they wouldn't be hosting the 2026 Commonwealth Games, the state will have to pay A$380 million as compensation to CGF.

The other terms of the agreement were kept confidential..... I did not know that you have to pay such a huge amount if you backout ....

 

 

I do not think that there is any interest for India to take up the event .... first there is a lot of anti colonial sentiment...... then there was the entire argument over dropping of key Indian sports at Birmingham... where it seemed we would boycott the games

 

What's the future .....a permanent British location ? ..... because Canada has also dropped out ? ....did they have to pay a settlement too i wonder ...

Ultimately, the Victorian Government defaulted on a validly entered contract, so it was always likely that they were going to have to pay substantial compensation when they decided to cancel. The compensation is actually to be paid across 3 organisations - Commonwealth Games Federation, Commonwealth Games Federation Partnerships and Commonwealth Games Australia. Although the breakdown is not being made public right now, the assumption is that the lion's share will go to CGF and CGFP. This will be to compensate from the loss of revenue/sponsorship etc. from the cancellation but there would be no reason why this money could not be used to support a new host.

 

With regards to India - there were initial suggestions that they could be interested in stepping in as replacement and that may yet happen. Despite the points you raise, ironically the biggest factor in favour of India stepping in as hosts would be to maintain those key Indian sports on the schedule and in particular, ensuring that shooting remains in the Commonwealth schedule. As you say, Indian officials were not happy that shooting was not on the programme for Birmingham but it shouldn't really have been a surprise to anyone that this was going to be the case - the pistols used in shooting events have been banned in the UK since the Dunblane school massacre.

 

As for Canada, they're not on the hook for any compensation because they didn't drop out of hosting - Alberta, after exploring whether or not to bid decided not to proceed. 

 

Now that the question of compensation has been settled, the CGF focus will turn to finding an alternate host. They will be making the argument that hosting a games does not have to cost billions of dollars but it does need "mature" hosts to come forward i.e cities that have existing facilities in place, don't need major infrastructure upgrades to be made and are willing to make pragmatic decisions. 

[Roamingrover86 478]

Our sports minister did say in a public interview that we are focusing for a potential Olympic games 2036 bid . 
Ahmedabad as the potential host city with the massive Narendra Modi stadium (capacity : 110,000 as of now) taking the centre stage of the bid. 
When he was questioned on CWG and if we would bid to host the 2026 event , he didn’t provide any conclusive answers just that they are focusing more on the olympics bid & as for CWG neither did the CGF got in touch with them re hosting proposals nor have the ministry expressed any intention to CGF. 
I will try to find a link to the interview if I can . 
 

EDIT: Here is the story @Rafa Maciel

 

https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1139862/india-2036-olympics-thakur

 

Edited September 15, 2023 by Roamingrover86

[mpjmcevoy 206]

10 hours ago, Rafa Maciel said:

Ultimately, the Victorian Government defaulted on a validly entered contract, so it was always likely that they were going to have to pay substantial compensation when they decided to cancel. The compensation is actually to be paid across 3 organisations - Commonwealth Games Federation, Commonwealth Games Federation Partnerships and Commonwealth Games Australia. Although the breakdown is not being made public right now, the assumption is that the lion's share will go to CGF and CGFP. This will be to compensate from the loss of revenue/sponsorship etc. from the cancellation but there would be no reason why this money could not be used to support a new host.

 

With regards to India - there were initial suggestions that they could be interested in stepping in as replacement and that may yet happen. Despite the points you raise, ironically the biggest factor in favour of India stepping in as hosts would be to maintain those key Indian sports on the schedule and in particular, ensuring that shooting remains in the Commonwealth schedule. As you say, Indian officials were not happy that shooting was not on the programme for Birmingham but it shouldn't really have been a surprise to anyone that this was going to be the case - the pistols used in shooting events have been banned in the UK since the Dunblane school massacre.

 

As for Canada, they're not on the hook for any compensation because they didn't drop out of hosting - Alberta, after exploring whether or not to bid decided not to proceed. 

 

Now that the question of compensation has been settled, the CGF focus will turn to finding an alternate host. They will be making the argument that hosting a games does not have to cost billions of dollars but it does need "mature" hosts to come forward i.e cities that have existing facilities in place, don't need major infrastructure upgrades to be made and are willing to make pragmatic decisions. 

It is not as if CWG is uniquely guilty of white elephant hosting - Montreal was an early Olympic fiasco, with Athens not wonderful either. And Rio speaks for itself. I think we have to recognise that sport  - especially Olympic sport - has had its 'imperial' phase where it colonised and insisted upon built 'legacy', and even major cities and regions lacked the venues to host without a massive building scheme, so the need to do so was built in. Arguably, Beijing was the last 'successful' imperial build, and Rio the last one full stop - we're in an age of established megahosts - London did do a big build, but arguably did so on the cheap apart from the il fated architectural selfishness in the Aquatic centre, it still had a lot of removable venue - then we have Tokyo, Paris, LA - along with London, that's going to e 11 of the historic Summer hosts total! I suspect these megahosts are the future - existing venue space tweaked, an update hear, the occasional new build there.

 

India would be a 'back to Beijing' moment, but there might be much to be said to build in two phases. A first 'footprint' for say 2030 CWG, to act as a seed/testground for a 2036 OG bid - with venues getting several major uses to justify the build (World Athletics?)

 

 

[mpjmcevoy 206]

10 hours ago, Roamingrover86 said:

Our sports minister did say in a public interview that we are focusing for a potential Olympic games 2036 bid . 
Ahmedabad as the potential host city with the massive Narendra Modi stadium (capacity : 110,000 as of now) taking the centre stage of the bid. 
When he was questioned on CWG and if we would bid to host the 2026 event , he didn’t provide any conclusive answers just that they are focusing more on the olympics bid & as for CWG neither did the CGF got in touch with them re hosting proposals nor have the ministry expressed any intention to CGF. 
I will try to find a link to the interview if I can . 
 

EDIT: Here is the story @Rafa Maciel

 

https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1139862/india-2036-olympics-thakur

 

I think a CWG 2030 would make more sense both for CGF and India, perhaps with a mind to using the same venues as part of the core of the 2036 bid.

[dullard 462]

The Gold Coast withdraws bid to host the 2026 Comm Games after failing to gain support from the state and federal governments (unsurprisingy).

 

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/gold-coast-pulls-out-of-the-race-to-host-2026-commonwealth-games/yva09144e

[Olympian1010 7,521]

Something to lookout for maybe 

 

 

[JoshMartini007 2,241]

Malaysia is one of the smaller viable options. The good news is the nation has many of the costly venues (athletics track, swimming & diving pools, track velodrome, cricket fields, field hockey fields) already in place so the most they may need to do is to renovate them.

[mpjmcevoy 206]

50 minutes ago, JoshMartini007 said:

Malaysia is one of the smaller viable options. The good news is the nation has many of the costly venues (athletics track, swimming & diving pools, track velodrome, cricket fields, field hockey fields) already in place so the most they may need to do is to renovate them.

If they were willing to share a few events with Singapore, or even Brunei, that might work even better.

[JoshMartini007 2,241]

19 minutes ago, mpjmcevoy said:

If they were willing to share a few events with Singapore, or even Brunei, that might work even better.

Singapore would work, but what would Brunei contribute? Lawn bowling?

[mpjmcevoy 206]

3 minutes ago, JoshMartini007 said:

Singapore would work, but what would Brunei contribute? Lawn bowling?

Singapore, like Monaco, is very good at creating room when it wants to. There are a number er of sports they d love to host given the chan e, Inc swimming and badminton ton, and possibly sevens