NSW rules out last-minute bid to save 2026 Commonwealth Games
Premier Chris Minns has emphatically ruled out NSW swooping in to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games after Victoria embarrassingly cancelled the event. Should the state step up? Vote in our poll.
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Premier Chris Minns emphatically ruled out NSW swooping in to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games, saying: “We’re not bidding for the Commonwealth Games, and we’re not going to take them on”.
While he said he understood calls for NSW to host the games, he blamed budget pressures for his decision not to pursue the event.
“We’ve got world class facilities and of course we’re hosting the Women’s World Cup in the coming months as well as hosting the best Olympic games ever,” he said on Tuesday after Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews pulled the pin on his state hosting the games.
“But we’ve also got unprecedented debt in the state and I’m not going to commit to a massive project…I’m not confident that we can complete given the (huge pressure) the government and the people of New South Wales are already facing. I’ve got to be acutely aware of the mandate for which we were elected.”
“So I can’t commit to things that I’m not sure or confident that we can complete... We’re not in a position to take them on.”
Meanwhile, the man who led Sydney’s bid for the 2000 Olympics has questioned the long-term future of the Commonwealth Games if a country like Australia is not prepared to host the event.
Rod McGeoch, who is now the interim chair of Venues NSW, backed Premier Minns’ decision not to make a last minute bid for the games on Thursday.
“Premier Minns has a budget in September and until then you couldn’t possibly expect him to be spending that kind of money,” Mr McGeoch said.
Mr McGeoch said the previous NSW government looked at making a bid but was not interested.
“I was accepting of it then and I accept it now,” Mr McGeoch said.
With state Premiers lining up to rule out a last minute bid to host the 2026 games, the event could be without a host city in Australia.
“If a country like Australia isn’t prepared to put (the Commonwealth Games) on, then you have to think about what its future is in the long term,” Mr McGeoch said.
Peter Beattie - who chaired the organising committee for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in 2018 told the Telegraph that the decision to cancel the 2026 event is “embarrassing”.
“It is embarrassing - canceling any major global event, it doesn’t matter what it is, doesn’t matter who does, it doesn’t matter what politics (are involved), it has to be. You can’t pretend it’s not,” Mr Beattie said.
The Gold Coast games came in on budget - reported to be around $2 billion - and even delivered money back to taxpayers.
“It was very, very difficult,” he said.
“The most common word that we said was no.”
GAMES WOULD BE GREAT FOR SYDNEY
Former Australian Olympic Committee boss John Coates threw his support behind Sydney hosting the Commonwealth Games for the first time since 1938.
“There’s no question we’ve got the venues ... and March would be a good time to host it,” he said.
“I’d love to see it come here...(in) 2026 it would coincide with the aerotropolis (opening). There’s the venues, the sports have the ability to organise it.
“It’d be great for Sydney’s reputation. We last hosted the games in 1938.”
He added Victoria’s dumping of the games had the potential to harm Australia’s reputation – but that NSW stood by to rescue the event.
“It’s very disappointing and disappointing having regard to Australia’s reputation hosting events,” he said.
“You only have to look at what’s happening with the Matildas. The Australians and Sydneysiders have a tremendous appetite for sport and there’d be no question tickets would sell out.”
Coates is heading to Adelaide to have dinner with legendary broadcaster Bruce McAvaney and Olympic sprint legend Marjorie Jackson.
“We’ll have plenty to talk about,” he said.
Chris Hall, the chair of Sport NSW, said the existing infrastructure left over from the 2000 Olympics was ready to be brought back into use.
“I think it’s a tremendous opportunity for NSW, particularly considering the facilities we already have in place which we used for the 2000 Olympics,” he said.
“It’s an opportunity for our city and existing venues used in the Olympics to bring elite sporting talent to Sydney and New South Wales.”
“We might have to spruce up a few venues because they are 23 to 25 years old – but they’re there and they’re capable.”
Former Labor MP Graham Richardson, who had a seat on the Sydney Olympic Game Organising Committee (SOCOG) and was Mayor of the Olympic Village, said it would be a “tremendous coup” for Sydney to host the Commonwealth Games.
“It would be a tremendous coup ... if I were (Premier Chris) Minns I’d jump at it.
“We’ve got the facilities - we’ve got adequate facilities for every sport because of the Olympics so we’re in a really good position to snap it up.
“It would bring millions of dollars to the economy - no doubt you get a lot of tourists. It’s a bloody lot of money.
“It would improve the image of Sydney and destroy the Melbourne myth that they are the sporting capital of Australia.
“The euphoria in Sydney during the Olympic Games is something I haven’t seen since and something I hadn’t seen before. It was quite extraordinary. These kinds of events just lift the place.”
WEST IS BEST TO SAVE 2026 GAMES
The 2026 Commonwealth Games should be held in western Sydney, with the region’s peak business body declaring it’s time to relight the Olympic flame.
“Western Sydney delivered the best Olympic Games ever 23 years ago, we’re ready to deliver the best Commonwealth Games ever in 2026,” Business Western Sydney CEO David Borger said.
“Back in 2000 we had one fantastic stadium site in Sydney Olympic Park, now we have another world-class stadium in Parramatta. We have rowing in the heart of Penrith and a cycling velodrome right next to Bankstown.
“Thanks to Victoria’s false start, Western Sydney is ready to relight the flame.”
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