Coe slams Victoria for deciding the 2026 Games ‘doesn’t suit them’

The head of World Athletics doesn’t understand how a prosperous state in a developed nation can arrive at a $7bn figure to host the Commonwealth Games.

President of World Athletics Sebastian Coe Picture: Getty Images

World Athletics president Seb Coe said he was “perplexed” about how the Victorian government’s projected millions of dollars of cost overruns to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games would have occurred, given that the Games would have had tight cost management oversight.

Coe, who presides over the Commonwealth Games flagship sport of track and field, was left stunned that a prosperous state of a highly developed nation had made the decision in “relatively close quarters’’ to the event, that “for whatever reason, hosting the Games doesn’t suit them’’.

Coe added: “I am not sure that’s the way historically host cities have ever operated, let alone one for the Commonwealth Games’’.

The overarching Commonwealth Games Federation, based in London, has been seeking a legal settlement from the Victorian government to compensate for the late withdrawal and also to help another city take on the Games with the added expenses of having a short three year lead time.

The decision taken a fortnight ago by the Dan Andrews led-government to scrap the 2026 Games has infuriated Victorian regional business owners and small town communities but has also left younger athletes targeting the 2032 Brisbane Olympics without a stepping stone into such a big multi-sport competition.

Pacific nations which also look upon Australia as being a “home games” because of opportunities to train and prepare without long flights have also been hugely disappointed.

Andrews said the original $2bn cost had blown out to $7bn, a figure that the members of the Victorian organising committee board claimed was a fantasy. Board members had not seen these figures, nor had it been given the opportunity to re-plan costly items.

Australian Commonwealth Games chief executive Craig Phillips hasn’t been provided with any breakdown of the costs, and said the headline figure of $6-7 billion was perhaps scaring off other states who might be interested in stepping up to host.

“The numbers out there right now are highly inflated,’’ he said.

Coe, who was the chairman of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, a four time Olympic medallist and former world record holder in all distances from the 800m, 1000m, 1500m, and mile simultaneously, said the Commonwealth Games would survive the current crisis.

He told The Australian: “The Commonwealth Games will survive this, it’s a strong product, it is about innovating and the Commonwealth Games has opportunity to do that. It has less branding (restrictions) than the Olympics and sometimes the World Championships, so it has potential.

“I don’t see the Commonwealth Games disappearing, it has a problem at the moment, and I am hoping others are prepared to step in.

“I have self-interest in that, the Commonwealth Games track and field is a strong event: to win a sprint you have to beat Jamaicans; in endurance you have to beat the Kenyans and there are very strong powerful nations there. Just under a quarter of those nations in world athletics are Commonwealth nations. It is important for track and field that the Commonwealth games is seen as successful.’’

Commonwealth Federation board members are due to meet in Trinidad and Tobago later this week when the Commonwealth Youth Games are held there to discuss their options. One suggestion is that a city in Britain, maybe even London, may step in to take over the Games.