Gold Coast backs out of hosting 2026 Commonwealth Games

The future of the Commonwealth Games remains up in the air after the only Aussie city interested in hosting the event backed out.

The Gold Coast has ditched its bid to host the 2026-27 Commonwealth Games after the city’s mayor confirmed it could not generate support from state and federal governments.

Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate said he would withdraw his $700m bid to host a “streamlined” games with Perth that he claimed would have “saved Australia’s tarnished reputation” and “delivered billions into the national economy”.

“We did our best and that’s all people can expect,” Mr Tate said in a statement on Sunday.

“Sadly, at the same time, our country’s reputation as a place that reneges on a global sports contract remains in tatters.”

No state in Australia has expressed interest in hosting the games after Victoria withdrew its bid to host the event earlier this year, citing overblown costs.

Senator Jacqui Lambie said Queensland’s refusal to back the Gold Coast ‘was not a good thing’. NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The Queensland government said it had no interest in hosting the international event after Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she was “100 per cent focused” on hosting the 2032 Olympics.

Independent senator Jacqui Lambie said the state’s controversial $2.7bn plan to knock down and rebuild a stadium for the Olympics would come back to bite the Premier at next year’s election.

“I think people are sick of seeing money spent when it doesn’t need to be spent,“ Senator Lambie said on Monday.

“The multitude of sports grounds and whatever else you already have in Brisbane and the Gold Coast region, and this is the best solution you can come up with and this is supposed to be cost-effective? I seriously think they’ll probably pay for it in the next election.”

The future of the Commonwealth Games, meanwhile, remains up in the air, with Canada’s Alberta province also withdrawing its support for a bid for the 2030 event.

It comes after Athletics Australia last week took a shot at former Victorian Premier Dan Andrews over his snap decision to kill the event.

The Australian team pose for a photograph after the medal ceremony for the Men's Hockey at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. AAP Image/Dean Lewins.

The Victorian government will pay $380m in compensation after pulling out of the event in July amid concerns costs had blown out from $2bn to $7bn.

In a submission to the parliamentary inquiry into the decision, the peak body representing the sport of athletics said the move had caused “immeasurable” upheaval for athletes across the country.

“The upheaval this decision has caused for athletics in Victoria and Australia, as well as the Commonwealth Games, is immeasurable, with a blatant disregard for the significant logistic, emotional, financial and reputational damage caused,” the submission said.

The submission states the cancellation had a “devastating impact” on the sport and the Commonwealth Games brand that the body said it “may never recover” from.