Australian state dropping Commonwealth Games raises questions about future bid from Alberta

The Australian state of Victoria has pulled out of its plans to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games just three years from the start of the multinational competition.

Victoria State Premier Daniel Andrews made the bombshell announcement, citing a massive increase in the cost, saying the price tag had ballooned from $2.6 billion to between $6 billion and $7 billion.

"I've made a lot of difficult calls, a lot of very difficult decisions in this job. This is not one of them," said Andrews.

"Frankly, ($6 billion) to $7 billion for a 12-day sporting event, we are not doing that. That does not represent value for money. That is all cost and no benefit.

"We have informed Commonwealth Games authorities of our decision to seek to terminate the contract."

That announcement throws the future of the 2026 games into limbo but also calls into question the future of a bid being prepared for Alberta to host the games in 2030.

Speaking from his home in Calgary, Concordia University Sports Economist Moshe Lander said the numbers don't add up in this province either.

"If the belief is somehow that this money spent is going to create all of this extra revenue, that it's going to pay for itself, that is far from the case," said Lander.

"So what you're seeing time and time again are cities in democratic countries where voters have a say in how their tax dollars are spent saying time and again, 'I don't want this.'"

Whether Albertans will have the chance to vote on holding the games is at this point unclear.

In Tourism and Sport Minister Joseph Schow's mandate letter from Premier Danielle Smith, he is ordered to "include mandatory referenda where appropriate" when examining international gaming bids.

Tuesday, when pressed about whether a multibillion-dollar Commonwealth Games bid would meet that threshold, he refused to offer an opinion.

"That's really too early to tell. There's so many factors that go into answering that question," said Schow.

"To hear that games in Australia swelled from ($2 billion) to $6 billion is certainly concerning. So that's why we're going to get all the relevant information, consult the taxpayers and my caucus colleagues and make sure we make the right decision."

The committee formed to investigate Alberta's bid says it is committed to bringing forward a cost-effective plan for the games.

"Alberta 2030 is still evaluating the costs for us and really, what we're looking at is exploring cost-efficient options, partnerships," said Amanda Espinoza, spokesperson for the 2030 bid committee.

"The other part to note is that what we're really looking at is the benefit to our communities. Commonwealth Games is, above all, a community-building endeavour.

"We're looking at opportunities to increase our legacies, things that we saw from our strong sporting history in Alberta."

Lander says hosting international games to build a legacy is a losing proposition.

"What you're left with is a tremendous amount of infrastructure. And in many of those cases, the infrastructure requires a large amount of maintenance costs that don't deliver ongoing benefits," said Lander.

"We can see that here in Calgary. You just have to look at the ski jump, the bobsled run, even the oval. They've reached their best-before date and now, if you want to continue to keep them in use, it's going to require large amounts of money, and probably for a limited amount of benefit."

Presently, Canada is the only country bidding to host the 2030 Commonwealth Games, implying an Alberta bid would likely be awarded the event.

A decision on whether Alberta will move forward with a formal bid for the games is expected before the fall of 2023.

Any referendum would need to happen quickly.

In 2018, a plebiscite asking if Calgarians would support hosting the 2026 Winter Olympics was shot down with 56 per cent of voters saying they did not want the games.