Gold Coast offers to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games after Victoria pulled out

The mayor of the Gold Coast has offered to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games, after Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews made the shock announcement his state could not go ahead with the event due to a debt crisis.

Mayor Tom Tate said the city could host the 2026 games on Thursday morning, after Mr Andrews announced the Games would have cost Victoria up to $7billion to host.

‘We are games ready,’ Mr Tate said. ‘The Premier of Victoria’s lemon, the Gold Coast can turn that into a lemonade because that’s how we roll.’

Tate says he’s called the Queensland Premier to discuss but hasn’t ‘had a return call’ yet.

Having successfully hosted the 2018 Commonwealth Games, the city boasts a well-established infrastructure, that could be made ready to accommodate the upcoming games 

No leader of any of Australia’s states and territories have put their hand up to host in lieu of Mr Andrews’ announcement on Tuesday morning. 

NSW Premier Chris Minns told reporters: ‘We’re not bidding for the Commonwealth Games, and we’re not going to take them on.

‘We have world-class facilities, but we’re facing unprecedented debt in the state. I can’t commit to a massive project that we might not be able to complete.’

South Australia and Tasmania did not contest hosting duties while Brisbane remains deep in preparation for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics. 

Western Australian Premier Roger Cook said hosting would be ‘ruinously expensive’.

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Mr Andrews made the announcement on Tuesday, with the Games’ peak body revealing it had only been told eight hours earlier.

‘What’s become clear is the cost of hosting these games is not the $2.6billion which was allocated, it is at least $6billion or $7billion,’ he said.

The rights to host the 2026 event were awarded to regional Victoria last year after not one of the 70 countries in the Commonwealth Games Federation offered to host.

The reason behind the shock decision is down to the state’s money woes, with Victoria’s debt forecast to be $135.4billion in 2024, rising to $171.4billion by 2026-27.

‘What’s become clear is the cost of hosting these games is not the $2.6billion which was allocated, it is at least $6billion or $7billion,’ Mr Andrews said on Tuesday

Mr Andrews said he wouldn’t be taking funds out of hospitals and schools in order to fund the event, but many have lashed out at the premier’s decision. 

In an angry statement, the Commonwealth Games Federation said it had only been told of Victoria’s decision hours beforehand.

‘We are disappointed that we were only given eight hours’ notice and that no consideration was given to discussing the situation to jointly find solutions prior to this decision being reached by the government,’ it said in a statement.

‘Up until this point, the government had advised that sufficient funding was available to deliver the Victoria 2026 Commonwealth Games.’ 

It remains to be seen whether the cities that had initially shown an interest to host will step up to the plate now.

Kuala Lumpur, Cardiff, Calgary, Edmonton and Adelaide were all interested but pulled out because, like Victoria, they were concerned about costs.