It won’t be Victoria to Victoria.
sa国际传媒 will not pursue the 2026 Commonwealth Games for the capital, nor any other city, following the sudden announcement this week that the state of Victoria, Australia, has bailed as host after state Premier Daniel Andrews said the initial budget of $2.6 billion Aus. (about $2.3 billion Cdn) had ballooned to $7 billion.
It seems any Commonwealth jurisdictions that has hosted multi-sport Games in the past are being asked if their city/province/state/region is interested in jumping in to rescue the 2026 Commonwealth Games. Victoria, sa国际传媒, hosted the 1994 Commonwealth Games and Vancouver the 2010 Winter Olympics.
“The 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria were a great display of the power of sport and community,” the provincial Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport said Wednesday.
“Many British Columbians have fond memories of the Games. We are proud of sa国际传媒’s reputation as a global destination for sport-hosting but are not considering a bid for the 2026 Commonwealth Games.”
Some jurisdictions are, with London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s spokesperson telling the BBC that the 2012 Summer Olympics host city is “a sporting capital [that] stands ready to support if required. The mayor stands ready to support a submission for 2026 and future global events. [But the decision] would need to be taken by the [national] government.”
Civic leaders in Birmingham, England, host of the brilliantly staged 2022 Commonwealth Games, have mooted the idea of a back-to-back Games for the West Midlands city. Sporting officials in Australia, meanwhile, said the 2000 Summer Olympics host city, Sydney, is ready and able to keep the 2026 Commonwealth Games Down Under.
The Alberta government stated this week nothing has changed from its fledgling intention of looking into possibly hosting the 2030 Commonwealth Games split between Calgary and Edmonton.
sa国际传媒 has also taken itself out of the running for 2026. It’s part of a pattern. Then-sa国际传媒 finance minister Carole James said in 2017 the province was not in a position to support a 2022 Victoria Commonwealth Games bid with the requested $400 million, although she lauded the bid committee’s “energy and passion.”
The province also declined to support the Indigenous-led bid for Vancouver to host the 2030 Winter Olympics, effectively scuttling it. The province, however, did an epic flip-flop over hosting games in the 2026 World Cup at sa国际传媒 Place after initially rejecting the idea.
The ministry pointed to that and other events that are coming: “Our focus is on the great lineup of sports events coming to our province over the next three years,” it said.
“Next November, the province will host the 111th Grey Cup at sa国际传媒 Place. In 2025, we will be the second Canadian city to host the Invictus Games, where we will showcase adaptive sports and the veterans from 20 nations.
“Finally, in 2026, the province will host the largest single sport event in the world, with the men’s 2026 FIFA World Cup. sa国际传媒’s investment in events of this scale help build vibrant communities, legacies for sports communities and a resilient tourism sector that brings in close to $15 billion annually and supports more than 100,000 jobs.”
The costs-versus-benefits of large-scale sporting events are much in discussion this week with the dizzying budget projections from Victoria state leading to it pulling the plug on 2026.
“No one in sports is happy about this news from the other Victoria, but there’s intricate terrain between sports, finance, and public interest,” said Keith Wells, executive director of the Greater Victoria Sport Tourism Commission, which works to bring sporting events to the region. “We need to figure out a new approach if we want worthwhile larger events like this in the future.”
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