The Victorian Government has agreed to pay the Commonwealth Games parties a total of $380 million following the decision to withdraw from the 2026 Commonwealth Games – which was due to be held across Central Victoria and the Greater Bendigo region.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is blaming department officials and consultants for a $4 billion estimated cost blowout.
A document released on Saturday revealed the Bendigo region was in line for far more sports and venue upgrades than expected – most of which have now been scrapped.
The Queen Elizabeth Oval missed out on sporting upgrades as did the Bendigo tennis centre and rifle range. The document also stated that Red Energy Arena was originally in line for three sports, not one as thought, including: traditional netball, Fast5 netball – which was later dropped from the program – and 3 on 3 basketball.
The document also revealed that Athletes’ villages, like Bendigo’s, delivered the biggest cost blowouts to Commonwealth Games organisers.
Newly released costings suggest all four host city’s athletes’ villages blew out far beyond the governments’ original worst-case estimates.
By July, costs had reached just over one billion dollars – shortly before the Games were canceled – which is four times the original worst-case estimate of $250 million.
