Victoria’s axed Comm Games makes list of world’s biggest flops
In a major embarrassment for Victoria, the Commonwealth Games fiasco has made a list of the worst-ever major event disasters in global history — rating even worse than the Munich Olympics massacre.
Victoria’s Commonwealth Games debacle has been listed among the world’s worst ever flops in global event history.
In a major embarrassment for Victoria, the cancelled Games has been ranked 25th out of 50 of the world’s biggest major events fumbles.
The list – published by international events platform GatheringPoint.news – ranked the musical Fyre Festival in first place, followed by Woodstock ‘99 and 1969’s Altamont concert.
It blamed a “rushed, inadequate business case, unrealistic cost estimates and hidden contingencies” and “a financial model so flawed it couldn’t survive first contact with reality” for the Games debacle.
“The numbers never worked. Originally costed at $2.6bn, internal projections ballooned to $6bn-7bn within a year,” it said.
“The most expensive event is the one that never happens. Cancelled dreams can drain coffers faster than bad execution.”
It argued the business case should have been pressure-tested and experienced event operators engaged before committing the state to billions of dollars in investment.
“The cancellation alone cost $589m in taxpayer funds — settlements, staff, contracts, and planning — without a single event staged,” it said.
GatheringPoint.news describes itself as an “insider’s guide to the events industry”.
The list ranked the event – which will now be funded by Victorian taxpayers and staged in Glasgow next year – worse than the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre.
In the darkest day in Olympic history 11 Israeli Olympic team members were taken hostage by Palestinian group Black September.
Two were killed at the village and nine during a failed rescue attempt at the Fürstenfeldbruck airbase.
The Allan government has continued to bleed over the Games cancellation amid opposition attacks that it squandered opportunity for major investment in regional Victoria and global reach.
Former premier Daniel Andrews sensationally pulled out of hosting the major event in July 2023, claiming the cost had blown out from $2.6bn to at least $6bn.
The shock announcement left the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) scrambling to find a new host and demanding compensation from the Victorian government.
Now Scottish taxpayers have been promised they won’t pay a cent for the Games, with Victorians instead handing over almost $200m to cover the event.
In a damning report Victoria’s Auditor-General Andrew Greaves later blamed a lack of due diligence for the games debacle.
Mr Greaves also cast doubt over government claims of a cost blowout to almost $7bn, saying the figure was overstated by $2.1bn.
And he said government guidelines that stipulated a business case should include analysis of different options to deliver a project were ignored.
That business case projected more than 328,000 unique visitors to regional Victoria during the Games, “free branding” for regional Victoria on a global stage, and almost $600m in “induced tourism” for the state.
It estimated $2.07bn in total economic output for Regional Victoria.
In April a Victorian parliament committee published its final report into the failed event, calling for the Premier and former premier, as well as former treasurer Tim Pallas and former major events minister Martin Pakula to be hauled before parliament to explain how it all went wrong.
The inquiry also called for new guidelines that required business cases for all projects estimated over $250m to be assessed as high value high risk.
The government is yet to respond to the report.
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