MELBOURNE (Reuters) – The Commonwealth Games could be pushed back by a year to allow an Australian host to salvage the multi-sport event after Victoria state withdrew from staging the 2026 edition, the nation’s Games boss said.
Commonwealth Games Australia (CGA) CEO Craig Phillips said the Games’ global governing body was open to a delay to give potential hosts more time to prepare.
“The CGF (Commonwealth Games Federation) have already indicated … that they are open to the Games moving into 2027 to give any potential host more time, and that’s certainly something we’re looking at in terms of any state or any host city that we do talk to,” he told a parliamentary inquiry.
Victoria pulled out of hosting the quadrennial event in July, citing a projected cost blow-out.
The future of the Games remains up in the air, with Canada’s Alberta province also withdrawing its support for a bid for the 2030 event.
Phillips said he hoped to present a solution to the CGF general assembly in Singapore in November, however, no Australian state government has expressed interest in hosting the Games in lieu of Victoria.
“It may be a scaled back version of the Games, given the time we have, but if you look around the capital cities around Australia … all have the capability of hosting,” Phillips said.
Australia, by far the Games’ most successful competing nation, has hosted five of the previous 22 editions.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
