Commonwealth Games cancelled: Event boss Craig Phillips says Dan Andrews $6bn figure exaggerated

The boss of the Commonwealth Games says he has seen no proof of Daniel Andrews’ claim the cancelled event would have cost between $6bn and $7bn.

Ten days after sensationally cancelling the 2026 Commonwealth Games, Victorian Premier Dan Andrews has still not provided any paperwork to prove it will cost taxpayers between $6-7 billion, Australia event boss Craig Phillips said.

On Friday afternoon, Phillips revealed that he still held out hope another Australian state could host the Games in three years, and says his organisation is working on providing state premiers with realistic figures of the total cost of hosting them.

But in an extraordinary revelation, after Andrews announced his state would be withdrawing from hosting rights because of exorbitant costs, Commonwealth Games Australia chief executive Phillips said he’d been given no proof of how Andrews derived his “exaggerated” figures.

Commonwealth Games boss Craig Phillips says he still hasn’t heard from Daniel Andrews about claims the event would have cost more than $6 million. Picture: AAP Image/James Ross.

“We’ve not seen the numbers,” Phillips said

“In terms of contact, my only official communication with the Victorian Government was with Tim Ada (Victoria’s deputy secretary, economic policy and state productivity) on the morning of the announcement, when he told us an hour-and-a-half before the announcement by Dan Andrews.

“Obviously the lawyers are talking, we’re in the room from time to time, I can’t shed light on that. But apart from those discussions, it’s been silence.”

Phillips said CGA’s lawyers also have not been provided any paperwork to explain how Andrews reached an estimated cost of $6-7 billion, as they now negotiate a financial settlement that could effectively see Victorian taxpayers partly fund the Games for another city.

Josh Simmonds clears during the Birmingham Commonwealth Games gold medal match. Picture: Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images.

“It came out of the blue, we were blindsided, most people would not like to be treated that way,” Phillips said.

“It’s disrespectful, and that’s how we were treated last week, our movement, our athletes were disrespected.

“We’ve not had any conversations yet with any state government or city council at this point, those conversations will be in the future for us.

“We’ll let the dust settle on the recent decision, it’s still very raw for everybody.

“We have a number of $6-7 billion which we know is exaggerated, so once we get the opportunity we’ll have a sensible conversation with those who might have the opportunity to host.

“There’s always hope that it could be here from our perspective, to be fair to the other premiers of other states, they’re probably reacting to a number of $6-7 billion which is eye watering.

“We believe if we can have a sensible conversation, there is a chance of progressing it.”

Daniel Andrews at the press conference to announce the Commonwealth Games had been called off. Picture: AAP Image/James Ross.

While all Australian premiers have come out saying they cannot afford to step in as replacements for Victoria, Phillips plans to woo them with his own financial projections.

“We’ll look at working with any state that wants to know what the Games could look like, what the costs may be, but certainly the numbers that are out there right now are highly inflated,” Phillips said.

“It depends on how you cut the cloth in terms of what the number look like, because it depends on the scale of the Games will be and where it’s hosted, and what you use.”

The Victorian Government is now involved in a legal process to withdraw from the Games, and as such will be expected to pay compensation that could be in the hundreds of millions.

“There are multiple parties involved in this, the CGF (Commonwealth Games Federation) as the owners of the Games, their subsidiary the Commonwealth Games Federation Partnerships, and us an entity,” Phillips said.

“All of us had some expectation through a host contract which essentially, in Dan Andrews’ words last week, has been terminated. So we expect to be made whole, essentially by what was in that contract.

“I cannot reveal to you what that is because those numbers are already confidential.”

Phillips could not give a specific answer on what it would cost to stage the Games, but added: “I can’t give you a ballpark, what I can tell you is what Birmingham cost, $1.5 billion, I can tell you what the Gold Coast cost, $1.2 billion, so they’re the two most recent Games, one only last year.

“That gives you some guide as to what the Games could cost.

“The only thing that’s certain right now is that they won’t be in Victoria, we will press on to find hosts, we’ll work with the CGAF on that, whether the hosts we find are in Australia or somewhere else in the Commonwealth, we’ll support it, we’ll take a team.

“But the show will go on.”

The Scottish Government has indicated they would be willing to host part of the Games, as has Birmingham, but no city in Australia or overseas has yet expressed interest in staging the entire event.

Phillips said the compensation payout sought from the Andrews government would “go hand-in-hand” with negotiations with other parties keen to host the Games.