2026 Commonwealth Games- hosts pull out

[MaryClare]

The games will have to find a new host. I was wondering the other day though, why does Canada never host?

Commonwealth Games: 2026 event in doubt after Victoria cancels

Victoria says the cost of the tournament had ballooned to three times original estimates.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[RAFIKI]

Good question. The last time they hosted was 1994 but they did it quite regularly (every five or so games) before that.

Year	Games	Location	Country	Dates
2022	XXII	Birmingham	England	July 27-Aug 7
2018	XXI	Gold Coast	Australia	4-15 April
2014	XX	Glasgow	Scotland	Jul 23-Aug 3
2010	XIX	Delhi	India	3-14 Oct
2006	XVIII	Melbourne	Australia	15-26 March
2002	XVII	Manchester	England	25 July-4 Aug
1998	XVI	Kuala Lumpur	Malaysia	10-20 Sept
1994	XV	Victoria	Canada	18-28 Aug
1990	XIV	Auckland	New Zealand	24 Jan-3 Feb
1986	XIII	Edinburgh	Scotland	24 July-2 Aug
1982	XII	Brisbane	Australia	30 Sept-9 Oct
1978	XI	Edmonton	Canada	3-12 Aug
1974	X	Christchurch	New Zealand	24 Jan-2 Feb
1970	IX	Edinburgh	Scotland	16-25 July
1966	VIII	Kingston	Jamaica	4-13 Aug
1962	VII	Perth	Australia	21 Nov-1 Dec
1958	VI	Cardiff	Wales	18-26 July
1954	V	Vancouver	Canada	30 July-7 Aug
1950	IV	Auckland	New Zealand	4-11 Feb
1938	III	Sydney	Australia	5-12 Feb
1934	II	London	England	4-11 Aug
1930	I	Hamilton	Canada	16-23 Aug

This is particularly awkward given Durban, South Africa was meant to host last year. Birmingham stepped in when they were stripped of the games due to financial issues/missing deadlines. A UK city shouldn’t step in twice in a row because it negates many of the positives of having rotating hosts. Particularly given the CWG’s history, it should be moving in a multicultural direction with new countries having the opportunity to host rather than becoming more UK-centric (much as it would be personally excellent to easily attend my 4th CWG).

 

[RAFIKI]

Interesting take on whether CWG should go the way of the Goodwill Games. This quote was particular striking “a second-tier event with a first-tier price tag”. I’d be sad to see it go but then I love big multi-sport events.

Does Victoria’s 2026 cancellation sound Commonwealth Games death knell? | Kieran Pender

For those that believe in the power of sport there will always be a place for major events. But do the Games deserve that place?

www.theguardian.com

 

[Doug1233]

It would be a shame to lose the CWG entirely. I hope they can come up with a solution that isn’t just England hosting it every 4 years.

 

[Sasha]

I hope they can come up with a solution that isn’t just England hosting it every 4 years.

I dunno, maybe that could be considered reparations for centuries of colonialism. ducks

 

[J175]

Victoria’s plans always seemed rather flawed. The regional model was heralded for its benefits in terms of sustainability, legacy etc etc, but seemed to ignore so much existing infrastructure available to host the Games. The idea it would save money seemed extremely optimistic.

Melbourne has so many high quality sports venues, and indeed hosted the Commonwealth Games in 2006. It claims to be the only city in the world with two indoor velodromes - but for 2026 they were going to build another, temporary, one. I don’t believe the state of Victoria doesn’t have a suitable venue for gymnastics - but they were going to build a new one. And then they were talking about road and railway improvements to allow people to actually get to the poorly connected venues they’d chosen.

It feels to me like the whole thing was more about spending money (and winning votes?) in the regional cities and forgot about the budget.

Where they go now who knows. London is always an option but somewhere outside the UK would be better. I would have suggested Melbourne if they weren’t the ones who just pulled out.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

I don’t think CWG are going to be in any position to be choosy. They aren’t likely to get multiple options for 2026 and they certainly aren’t likely to get multiple non-UK ones. It’s probably a bigger deal in Australia than anywhere, and if they won’t do it…

That being said, it’s England and Scotland who host it a lot. Wales have only done it once and NI never. I always thought Belfast as a city and people would suit the vibe of the Games beautifully, actually, if not for the political complexity of having them there.

 

[RedBirdie]

I’m shocked that the only time it’s been held in the eastern half of Canada was the very first one in 1930.

I’m just not sure who is in a position to host “a second-tier event with a first-tier price tag” these days. The places that can afford to do so are likely to experience considerable pushback from their constituents, if the Olympics are anything to go by.

 

[Sasha]

Despite the large proportion of our population that lives in eastern Canada, I think the only cities large enough to host an event the size of CWG would be Toronto, Ottawa, or Montreal. Montreal is probably out as the Commonwealth aspect would be relatively unpopular here, so that leaves only two potential hosts. And I feel like Ottawa is a stretch.

Canada’s kinda small, y’all.

 

[Bogwoppit]

Ottawa would be a cool host though. Plus I can drive there.

 

[RAFIKI]

Melbourne…claims to be the only city in the world with two indoor velodromes - but for 2026 they were going to build another, temporary, one.

That is utterly baffling

 

[Sasha]

If so, let’s carpool.

 

[Bogwoppit]

100% that’d be awesome.

 

[daniTS]

There was a bit of a movement to get Victoria (BC) to host this one, especially since I think on the whole 1994 went pretty well for us (or at least that’s the historical impression I have…I was old enough for Stella Umeh to be training in our gym for a few sessions leading up to it but not old enough to remember much else!) and we have several new stadia since then plus a strong basis for high level athletes training here. I think the government (which also didn’t want a 2030 VANOC bid) kiboshed it and I don’t believe we put in a bid, but I’d love to see it go from one Victoria to the other!

 

[RAFIKI]

Another interesting piece about hosting big events with lots of contributions from those living in Victoria in the comments. The new multi-sport Europeans (2018-?) is also struggling with some big sports (swimming, athletics) not wanting to participate.

Commonwealth Games crisis shows model for hosting big events is broken | Cath Bishop

Victoria’s withdrawal as 2026 host should be a catalyst for a sustainable way of staging major tournaments and meetings

www.theguardian.com

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

She’s right, it doesn’t feel very sustainable- in any sense of the word. I’ve thought for a while that we might end up with a model where countries or at least regions host most multi-sport events, rather than one city. Spreads the burden more.

 

[06gymnast]

My idea would be to have different events in different countries. For simplicity sake let’s just say CWG was only gymnastics, athletics and aquatics. So first year Australia is assigned gymnastics, Canada is assigned athletics, and England is assigned aquatics. Say Australia decided gymnastics would be hosted in Sydney. Canada wants the athletics in Montreal. England puts the aquatics in London. The next games it rotates. Australia has aquatics now. Canada gymnastics and England athletics. The host city could be anywhere in that country. Melbourne host the aquatics Vancouver host the gymnastics, and Birmingham host the athletics.

There would be a mini opening ceremony on the same day in the different cities. They would only need one or two venues if they wanted the opening and closing ceremonies in a different venue. There would be less logistics, money and shorter duration of the games. I think it could still be something important for all the athletes and it would be less of a nightmare for the host cities. It could work for any multisport event. You could also do a random draw as to what event is hosted in each country.

 

[Gymfan93]

I quite like that idea. Lots of smaller CW member countries could probably cope with the logistics and costs of hosting one or two events rather than the whole thing much better too.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

I think CWG would be a particularly interesting one to try that with because the pool of countries with the infrastructure for a full Games is so small.

 

[KathySantoni]

Are any wealthy Middle Eastern countries part of the commonwealth? They love spending money on sports.