Martin Pakula will visit Birmingham for a week-long trip to discuss the Commonwealth Games bid

An Andrews government minister is heading to England to discuss Victoria’s hopes of hosting the 2026 Commonwealth Games.

Victorian Sports Minister Martin Pakula will fly to the UK this week to try and seal Victoria’s 2026 Commonwealth Games bid.

The Herald Sun can reveal Mr Pakula will travel to Birmingham, the home of the 2022 games, for a week-long trip during which he will meet with senior Commonwealth Games officials.

It is understood Mr Pakula, who was approached for comment about the trip, is keen to outline Victoria’s vision for a regional games.

Announcing Victoria’s interest in the event last month Daniel Andrews said the Games would be a largely regional event.

“It’s not just about taking this off the shelf, it’s not just about re-running what was done back in 2006 … This will be our vision to be a regional Victorian event,” he said.

“It’s about taking this amazing competition across many different sports into regional cities and towns (to create) jobs, tourism, visitors, economic activity, but also amazing legacy benefits.

“We would want this as far and as wide not just in regional cities, but in country towns as well.

“There will be points of focus that we will talk to the Commonwealth Games Federation about, about villages, about opening ceremonies, about all of those sorts of things.

Martin Pakula will meet with senior Commonwealth Games officials. Picture: Getty

“Victoria is Australia’s sporting state, and, if awarded, the 2026 Commonwealth Games would demonstrate to the world a new way to deliver the competition.”

Melbourne last hosted the Commonwealth Games in 2006 in an event which has been dubbed the “best Commonwealth Games ever”.

It saw Australians win a record haul of 221 medals, including 84 gold.

More than 7000 athletes and officials from 71 nations took part in the games, a smorgasbord of sporting events not seen in Melbourne since the 1956 Olympics.

Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, Prime Minister John Howard and Premier Steve Bracks headed the list of dignitaries at the MCG and an estimated worldwide TV audience of 1.5 billion watched as the flying tram descended to a stage at the centre of the ground.

The 11 days of competition that followed went smoothly, especially for the Australian team, which had its most successful Commonwealth Games ever.

A KPMG analysis of the games found total expenditure was around $2.9 billion.

The event resulted in an increase in Gross State Product of around $1.6 billion over a 20-year period and employment of around 13,600 jobs.