Commonwealth Games in jeopardy as Australian hosts pull pin on 2026 event

Severe doubt has been cast over the viability Commonwealth Games after the Australian State of Victoria pulled out of its hosting of the 2026 edition of the event.

The Commonwealth Games are a multi-sport competition that takes place every four years, much like the Olympics, involving nations of the British Commonwealth. Queen Elizabeth II had previously been one of the event's key advocates, having directly supported 18 editions from Vancouver in 1954 to Birmingham in 2022,

Eligibility for the games requires participants to be from a Commonwealth nation or territory. The last edition of the games, held in Birmingham, UK, featured 72 teams, including the 54 Commonwealth of Nations countries and 18 territories. 

While once prestigious, it seems the event has lost a bit of its sheen as the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) struggled to find a host before Victoria volunteered in April 2022.

However that looks like too much of an ask as Victorias Premier, Daniel Andrews announced on July 18 that the cost of the games had become a burden on the state. 

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The event was previously expected to help stimulate the economies of regional cities hosting the events. But according to Daniels the cost of staging the Games had more than tripled, as reported by the Independent.

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“What’s become clear is that the cost of hosting these Games in 2026 is not the $2.6bn ((£1.4bn; $1.8bn US) which was budgeted and allocated,” Andrews said “It is in fact at least $6bn, and could be as high as $7bn.”

"I've made a lot of difficult calls, a lot of very difficult decisions in this job. This is not one of them," he said, according to BBC News.

The news caught the CGF off guard, and are reportedly furious over only being given eight hours' notice before Andrews went public, BBC News reported.

They are also disputing the cost estimates, and claim that the state's "unique regional delivery model" was behind the projected cost blowout. 

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"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.

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It hasn’t been an easy few years for the once-prestigious event and its organisers, and this latest setback could spell the end of its viability. 

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Organisers went through similar issues in Birmingham in 2022. 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 deadlines, BBC News reported.  

The UK came to the rescue, forking out over £1bn to host the event in Birmingham. It looks like it will once again fall on the UK’s shoulders as no other potential hosts seem to be lining up so far. 

Western Australia's Premier Roger Cook told the BBC his state wouldn’t be interested in picking it up called the event "ruinously expensive", saying "the Commonwealth Games aren't what they used to be". While NSW Premier Chris Minns said he would prefer to put that money into schools and hospitals.

With Australia out of hosting duties, it’s hard to see where else the games can go aside from the UK as many of the Commonwealth nations, of which many are smaller African and Pacific island nations, lack the means or infrastructure. Canada and New Zealand are notable exceptions, but it remains to be seen if either will be interested. 

The Commonwealth Games have been running every four years since 1930. The only events that have been canceled to date were during World War II.