Victoria has bailed out of hosting the 2026 Commonwealth Games.
The people who are responsible for spending public money for major sports events in Victoria, Australia didn’t get the memo from their United States counterparts. The one that reads you must spend the public’s Australian dollars on sporting events to make the people who bring you these events happy. Victoria will not be hosting the 2026 Commonwealth Games, which is one of the world’s biggest sports competitions. The Commonwealth is a group of 54 nations that were once a part of the British Empire. The United States is not part of the Commonwealth because some British citizens decided in 1776 that they had enough of King George III and went to war to break away from Britain.
The problem with the 2026 Commonwealth Games started when Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced that the city pulled out of hosting the games. The reason? Money. The event was too expensive. “Today is not about finding fault with those cost estimates,” Andrews said. “Frankly, 6-7 billion Australian dollars for a 12-day sporting event, we are not doing that, that does not represent value for money, that is all costs and no benefit.” Mega events such as the Olympics and the FIFA’s World Cup in soccer are touted as leaving a legacy but more often than not, there is no tangible legacy from the mega events except for debt that the public has to assume. But there are politicians and business leaders who will ignore the reason Victoria has said no to hosting the 2026 Commonwealth Games because of finances. Political and business leaders in Scotland, London and Birmingham in the United Kingdom might be interested and in Canada, Alberta leaders are thinking “what an opportunity, let’s host the games” because of the allure of being a host city and making money although it is a money loser.
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