Ninety-three years is not a band innings for a sports event that started life as a political construct to demonstrate the unity and strength of the mighty British Empire.
But times change, and ideas that were once symbols of harmony and co-operation are now seen as reminders of inequality and division.
This was evidenced by reaction to the Victorian Premier’s announcement this week to cancel the state’s hosting of the 2026 Commonwealth Games.
Of course, the decision was met with predictable howls of outrage from the Dictator Dan army. But an equal number of people, including regional city councillors and grass-roots sports, fans saw a silver lining in the decision to cancel, with the promise of improved sports facilities contained in a $2 billion regional support package.
At the moment that silver lining is just a promise and we know the promises of politicians can become leaves in the wind — easily scattered, buried and forgotten unless doors are loudly knocked, and lights are continually focused. We now depend on the efficacy of our first-term Nationals state member to knock on those doors and shine those lights. It will be a testing time.
There are undoubtedly larger questions to be asked, as our mayor has done, about how a $2.6 billion budget could blow out to more than $6 billion in just over a year. Is this just mismanagement, a sign of the rising costs that we are all experiencing — or is something else in play?
Perhaps Daniel Andrews’ shock announcement this week was not just a reflection of difficult economic times but also of diminishing popular support for the Commonwealth Games.
The first Commonwealth Games event was held in Canada in 1930 under the title of the British Empire Games.
Over the subsequent years it became the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1954, the British Commonwealth Games in 1970 and finally the idea of ‘Britishness’ was dropped to become simply the Commonwealth Games in 1978.
The name changes reflected the fading power of the British Empire.
In 2015 the South African city of Durban was stripped of its right to host the 2022 Commonwealth Games because it failed to meet its obligations — citing financial problems. The only other bid competitor, Edmonton in Canada, had already withdrawn its offer also because of cost. The 2022 Games were finally staged in Birmingham in the UK when the British Government coughed up more than ₤560 million (more than $1 billion in our money).
It seems plausible the Andrews Government, already burdened with enormous capital expenditure, saw an opportunity to abandon the sinking ship of an ageing event losing its relevance in post-colonial times. In the process it would save money and win the support of voters clamouring for more social housing and better roads, not more swimming pools and athletics stadia.
If this is the case, why it thought staging the games was a good idea in the first place seems a staggering miscalculation.
Perhaps there were not enough consultants consulted. Or perhaps — and this also seems entirely plausible — the reins of government were once again in the hands of creative marketers and Blue Sky dreamers.
It seems there is a role for fearless civil servants and accountants after all.
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