Caleb Bond: Boring Commonwealth Games will cost Victoria too much

Daniel Andrews is prepared to spend billions to stage the low-rent Olympics as a distraction from the woes of lockdown-ravaged Melbourne.

What’s the point of bringing a second rate athletics carnival to Victoria?

We have no idea what it will cost and, quite frankly, no one cares about the Commonwealth Games anymore.

The former British Empire Games have lost their shine.

We’ll tune into the swimming but, deep down, we all know it’s just a low rent version of the Olympics.

When Melbourne last held the Commonwealth Games, in 2006, the opening ceremony attracted 3.56 million television viewers.

The opening of the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast drew just over two million viewers – still good numbers for TV these days but indicative of a decline in interest in the games.

Melbourne last hosted the Commonwealth Games in 2006. Picture: AFP

The Tokyo Olympics opening, by contrast, had 3.85 million viewers. Almost twice as many as the Comm Games.

People get interested but they don’t get excited.

And for this, the state government will have to stump up billions of dollars.

South Australia considered a Commonwealth Games bid in 2019.

A Deloitte report found it could cost as much as $3.5 billion to put on the 10-day event in 2026.

That comes out to $350 million a day, $14.6 million each hour and $243,055 per minute.

Victoria has not done this modelling. There is no indication of what staging the games would cost or what the potential economic benefit is.

Premier Daniel Andrews is leading Victoria into this blind under the guise of wanting to attract tourists – in four years time, mind you.

There is no plan to get tourist back to Melbourne this year but don’t worry, we’ll have them back by 2026.

Of course, the government knows that its over-the-top restrictions discourage tourists.

Andrews may have walked back his ham-fisted plan to enforce a triple dose for international visitors but they can also fly into parts of the country where they won’t be made to prove their vaccination status to buy a beer.

Daniel Andrews has no plan to address tourism in the short term. Picture: Aaron Francis

And for as long as the mask mandate persists, people will avoid Melbourne.

The Commonwealth Games is simply a distraction from all this and, unfortunately, a money pit.

Even more perplexing is the proposal to have events dotted all over the countryside.

I understand it from the perspective of building new infrastructure in the regions. Great. But will anyone actually go the distance?

If you are one of these tourists who is going to be attracted to Victoria for the Commonwealth Games, you surely want all the events to be within reach?

Say the swimming is in Ballarat and the athletics are in Shepparton.

You land in Melbourne where you might want to stay for a night or two. Then you have to make your way to Ballarat and find accommodation.

If the next event you want to see is in Shepparton, you have to repeat the process all over again.

It takes five hours to catch the train back to Melbourne and then take one north.

It might be okay if you have a car but it would be a nightmare for international tourists.

Tasmania wanted it and we should have left it to them.

Originally published as Caleb Bond: Boring Commonwealth Games will cost Victoria too much