Victoria, Australia, to dump the 2026 Commonwealth Games

Why 'tough times'? I see a lot of you Melburnians with latte and smashed avo toast in hand.

It is just dumb to spend $7B on a nothing event that no one wants. They didn't bid for it, they were handed it after Durban withdrew.

This could be the end of the CWG, at least as it has been known. Nowhere in Australia is going to pick it up now. It's not going back to Durban, or any where else in SA, as originally planned. Canada does not want it. Hard to imaging Kiwi land picking it up on short notice. UK had 2 of the last 3. India will never do it again. I just don't see any of the smaller CW countries hosting. It's too expensive and just not really global enough for the price tag.

Pan Am Games, European Games, Asian Games, Olympic Games, etc require dozens of venues, and Billions of Dollars. Only Los Angeles and Tokyo from what I hear have year around sports leagues to fully utilize the venues.

yeah, sort of joking, but days of reliance on public debt have been compromised as governments wake up from their slumber as interest rates rise.

Money does not grow on trees, or does it?

They are an expensive business.

Meg and Hair should head the bid for L.A. since the venues were built decades ago and are constantly being upgraded and improved.

A nothing 10th rate event that a lot of the top sports people don't bother with, even if eligible. The Gold Coast is still paying for its non-event CG's.

Vale.

it turns out building a lot of expensive, unnecessary stuff in small regional towns isn’t a great idea.

who woulda thunk?

Should host it in Oregon, the British used to own you lot anyways

maybe World Athletics can fill void of decline of Commonwealth Games and host WC every non Olympic Games year.

Something really is needed for that one year where there's no Olympics or Worlds but I'm not sure another Worlds is the right solution.

yes, it could be overkill with WCs.

Maybe a global teams competition with every event.

Spit up into divisions.

I think the Commonwealth Games - and the Olympics - should be awarded to a country rather than a city. It would spread out both the costs and the benefits.

yes, how easy would it be for Australia to host Commonwealth Games with existing facilities in different cities. Brisbane, Melbourne or Sydney could have easily hosted athletics with some temporary seating.

Swimming even easier.

It's interesting you say that given that nobody takes the Commonwealth Games more seriously than the Australian team.

They tend to go all out with their strongest team for every single sport. Much more so than the home countries.

Australia is surrounded by ocean - swimming vennues sorted.

Each of those have enough existing facilities, but Melbourne in particular doesn't have free space in their football/cricket etc calendar, and too much TV money invested in those events already. This is why they had the regional angle.

You also have nominal full employment which has a huge effect on volunteer and even paid temp staff availability

They should dump the commonwealth games and create a new global competition that takes track stars out of the stadiums and injects some much needed vibrancy into the running scene. Some sort of Ekiden-like competition with athletes graded and competing in roughly comparable teams, out in the streets instead of running in circles around a sterile track.

Event 1: 4 mile relay around the streets of Mumbai

Ingebrigtsen, Kerr, Cheruiyot, McSweyn

vs

Katir, Nuguse, Gourley, Nordas

vs

Wightman, Kipsang, Hoare, Garcia Romo