eSports, BMX, skateboarding pitch considered for 2026 Commonwealth Games

Video games and extreme sports may form one of the central pillars of the SA Government’s potential pitch to hold in the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Adelaide — here’s how it’ll work.

A futuristic program of electronic and extreme sports is being considered by the State Government as part of a plan to change the face of the Commonwealth Games and bring the international event to Adelaide in 2026.

A feasibility study into whether SA has the capacity to host the Games, at what cost and economic benefit is due by the end of the month but the Sunday Mail understands it has been broadened to investigate what the event would look like in six years’ time.

According to sources, the State Government has also challenged its Commonwealth Games working party, led by the Office of Recreation and Sport, to find ways that it can put its own modern stamp on what is typically seen as a traditional sporting event.

The game-changer could well be eSports — online video game competitions — that attract millions of eyeballs of professional competitors and fans all over the world and present new commercial and marketing opportunities particularly in Asia.

The Adelaide Football Club bought into eSports in 2017 and now owns five different teams with the corporate backing of companies such as Optus, Samsung, Intel and Acer, and one of its players streams his games to 20,000 followers on YouTube.

The international eSports community was rocked on Friday when one of its biggest stars known as “Ninja”, who reportedly earns $500,000 a month streaming his games on Twitch, had been poached by a rival platform owned by Microsoft.

According to reports, eSports will have a total audience of 250 million by 2021.

There have also been talks about whether a Commonwealth Games in Adelaide could incorporate non-traditional sports such as skateboarding, freestyle BMX and speed climbing which are all on the next Olympic program in Tokyo next year.

Sports Minister Corey Wingard would not comment on specifics of the State Government’s feasibility study but said it remained “open minded” to ideas of how to grow or change the event.

“A feasibility study for a potential bid for the Commonwealth Games is currently underway and we would not want to pre-empt that process,” Mr Wingard said.

“However, we remain open-minded to any ideas which may stem from that study, and during the planning process, that would ensure that if Adelaide did bid for the Games in either 2026, 2030 or 2034 it would be the best ever.”

The next Commonwealth Games are set to be held in Birmingham, UK, in 2022, and 2030 is set to go to Canada to mark the 100th anniversary of the birthplace of the Empire Games, meaning 2026 is Australia — and Adelaide’s — to lose if the State Government wants it.

A decision on the 2026 host city was expected to be made by the end of this year but that has been delayed by 12 months after the Commonwealth Games Federation wrote to its member nations advising them it would now be made at its general assembly next September or October.

The CGF’s constitution says host cities must be decided at least seven years out but the new timeframe has been introduced after Durban was stripped of the 2022 Games and they were awarded to Birmingham.

Commonwealth Games Australia has until next July to nominate which, if any, of its cities will nominate for hosting rights.

Skateboarder Tony Hawk. Photo by Dean Tirkot

Adelaide is the only major Australian capital city yet to host the Commonwealth Games after Sydney (1938), Perth (1962), Brisbane (1982), Melbourne (2006) and the Gold Coast (2018) which delivered a $2.5 billion economic boost to the Queensland Government, and that was after significant capital infrastructure spend.

The Commonwealth Games Federation says it is determined to work with potential host cities to find a way of staging a Games with infrastructure upgrades rather than starting from scratch and has formed a new arm called CGF Partnerships to help with the Games’ delivery.

The State Government has previously said hosting the Commonwealth Games in 2026 could be too soon, but with the Queensland Government expected to bid for the 2032 Olympics, there is expected to be significant competition for corporate sponsorship if a Commonwealth Games came Down Under in 2030 or 2034.

CGA chief executive Craig Phillips was in Adelaide in April to meet with the State Government and said SA would mount a “compelling case” to host the Games.

One of the major sticking points is the use of Adelaide Oval and delivering a Games with minimal disruption to normal activity.

As of last month, the State Government’s working party had not had any formal discussions with the Stadium Management Authority, but the most likely scenario would see an Adelaide Games held in late October, forcing the Redbacks to temporarily relocate and pushing the annual Test Match to January.

“You have to go a long way to beat Adelaide in terms of a city that could really come alive with the festival of the Games, along the riverbank, the Convention Centre and Adelaide Oval, we see it being a very vibrant place,” Mr Phillips said in Adelaide in April.

“In fact you would have to go a long way to find cities anywhere else in the Commonwealth that have the same sort of offering of venues in close proximity to each other but also to the centre of town.