Victoria slammed over shock Gay Games bid after Commonwealth Games fiasco

Victoria has been slammed after it threw its hat into the ring to host the 2030 Gay Games after the $600m Commonwealth Games fiasco.

Victoria has thrown its hat into the ring to host the 2030 Gay Games but the bid has been slammed after the state’s 2026 Commonwealth Games disaster.

Melbourne is among 10 cities, including Perth and Adelaide to be short-listed for the event, although the Star Observer reported that Adelaide had dropped out of the running.

According to The Herald Sun, the other cities include New Zealand’s Auckland, as well as Cape Town, Frankfurt, Denver, Taipei, Vancouver and Edmonton.

The Gay Games is the world’s largest LGBTQ+ sports and culture event which, like the Olympics and Commonwealth Games, is held every four years and has been since 1982.

“We’re in the running I hear, so that’s great, we’ll see what happens,” Victorian minister for tourism, sport and major events Steve Dimopoulos said on Saturday.

But Victoria’s entrance into the race has come under fire after the unmitigated disaster of the 2026 Commonwealth Games.

Australian athletes at the opening ceremony of the Gay Games in Hong Kong in November, 2023. Photo by Peter PARKS / AFP

In July 2023, then Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews pulled the plug on the event, claiming costs had blown out to $7 billion.

A probe from Victoria’s Auditor-General Andrew Greaves in March revealed the costs had blown out to $4.9bn.

“The original Games budget was unrealistically low, but the $6.9bn cost estimate the government publicly released when it withdrew from the Games was overstated,” he said.

Instead, Andrews blew up the event, meaning it cost Victorian taxpayers nearly $600m to not host the event.

It’s believed that Glasgow is in line to host the 2026 event, although Commonwealth Games Scotland has reportedly proposed a “scaled-down” event with 10-13 sports and using existing infrastructure from when the city hosted in 2014.

Officially, a host city for the 2026 Games has not been confirmed.

While Paris hosted the Gay Games in 2018 with a reported boost to the economy of $118m, Nine News reported that the Victorian government had not yet developed a business case for the bid, arguing it was too early in the process as the host will be announced in November 2025.

Daniel Andrews after the Commonwealth Games was cancelled. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Luis Enrique Ascui

But there have already been questions asked with Sam Groth, Victoria’s shadow minister for tourism, sport and events, taking aim at the bid.

“After wasting $600 million on the Commonwealth Games debacle, how can any Victorian have confidence Labor can deliver this event?” Groth said.

Deputy opposition leader David Southwick argued: “Before we do anything, I think Victorians deserve to see what’s the business case.

“Victoria was the internationally recognised events capital of the world — and now we couldn’t deliver a chook raffle.”

Former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett also claimed that the Commonwealth Games debacle had trashed Victoria’s reputation and that he’d be surprised if the state won the bid.

“Why would anyone, any organisation committee, trust the state government to deliver? So, I’ll be surprised if we get it,” Mr Kennett said.

“Secondly, has there been due diligence done in terms of costings, viability, or is this just an application without any business plan associated with it like the Commonwealth Games?

“If so, that should be made public, so that the people can have some confidence that the government knows what it’s doing.”

The next Gay Games will be held in Valencia, Spain in 2026.