Australia pulls out of 2026 Commonwealth Games

Australia’s Victoria state will not host the 2026 Commonwealth Games as planned, state Premier Daniel Andrews announced on Monday, citing cost overruns and wanting to use the budget elsewhere.

We have terminated our contract with the Commonwealth Games Organizing Committee and decided not to host the event.Andrews said.

It became clear that the cost of hosting the 2026 Games would not be the original $2.6 billion.Andrews added that the actual cost would instead be closer to $7 billion — a figure that is That we cannot afford.

I am not going to take money that funds hospitals and schools to organize a sporting event that costs three times the original budget.Illustrated by Daniel Andrews.

I’ve made many difficult decisions in my life, and honestly, this wasn’t one of them. Spending $7 billion on a sporting event is not what we’re going to do.

The Australian state of Victoria was set to host the Commonwealth Games at four regional venues outside the capital, Melbourne. The award of the 2026 Games was announced in the spring of 2022 and was expected to be delivered A $3 billion (C$2.8 million) boost to Victoria’s economyPrevious years have been heavily affected by health restrictions related to COVID-19.

At the time, Daniel Andrews welcomed the organizing committee’s bold decision because, he admitted, A bit more dangerous than arranging them in the middle of a big city.

The Commonwealth Games are held every four years to bring together the member nations of the British Commonwealth of Nations, a confederation of fifty countries, including Canada, mostly belonging to the British Empire.