Glasgow gets the party, Victorians get the bill: 2026 Commonwealth Games set to begin in Scotland

In case you hadn’t heard, what with the FIFA World Cup and all, the much-maligned 2026 Commonwealth Games begins in less than 24 hours.

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On the eve of Glasgow’s cut-price, ten-sport, four-venue ‘Friendly Games’ it’s time to spare a thought for the state that could have had it all — including a budget blowout so spectacular it needed its own Select Committee to dissect the whole debacle.

Back in 2022, Victoria signed up to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games for a tidy $2.6 billion.

Then fifteen months later in July 2023 the then-Premier Daniel Andrews looked at a revised bill somewhere north of $6 billion and promptly pulled the pin on the whole thing.

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The Victorian Auditor-General’s Office has since tallied the complete cost of the process — bidding, planning and then un-planning the Games — at over $589 million, explaining the entire sorry saga had left the state of Victoria with ‘no discernible benefit’. 

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No kidding. 

Even better, Victoria also had to send Commonwealth Games Australia a $380 million withdrawal payment which — depending on who’s counting — has underpinned the lion’s share of Glasgow’s entire budget.

How is that possible, you ask?

Well those canny Scots have scraped together a cut-price Games for roughly £150–160 million which is equivalent to what Victoria spent simply changing its mind. 

So how are Victorians feeling as the party begins without them? 

Judging by the silence, largely unbothered. 

Premier Jacinta Allan isn’t expected to make the trip to Glasgow and there’s no confirmed word yet on whether Anthony Albanese will bother either, which tells you most of what you need to know about how much political appetite remains for revisiting the whole sorry affair.

Regrets? None that are audible. 

The general Victorian mood seems to be the sporting equivalent of walking past a gym you cancelled your membership at — a flicker of guilt, quickly overtaken by relief that someone else is paying for the equipment now.

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And with that let the Games begin. In Scotland.