CGA's Craig Phillips says Glasgow Commonwealth Games model would have worked in Victoria

Commonwealth Games Australia (CGA) Chief Executive Craig Phillips has stated that Victoria could have hosted the same pared-back Commonwealth Games program in 2026 as Glasgow for the same cost but that the Victorian Government never considered the option.

Phillips was speaking in the wake of the announcement of a scaled-back events program for the 2026 Games by the Scottish city of Glasgow, which stepped in to host the next event following Victoria's withdrawal last year.

Using just four venues, the 2026 Games will feature 10 sports  contested at a projected cost of $221.51 million (£114  million).

When announcing its withdrawl from hosting the Games, the Victorian Government cited a budget blow-out to $6 billion which Phillips said was "outrageous and overestimated".

Instead of hosting, Victoria paid $380 million in compensation to the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), of which $200 million has been directed to Scotland.

Advising that the Victorian Government withdrew without considering scaling back the multi-sport event, Phillips stated “we were happy to talk to the Victorian Government about finding ways of saving the costs of the Games and if eliminating sports from the program was part of that, we certainly would have had that conversation.

"I've been on record as saying before, we really didn't get that opportunity to have that conversation.

"We knew there was some budget pressure and we had some discussion with the Victorian government about ways of saving money, including potentially moving sports to Melbourne,  reducing the use of temporary venues and overlay.

"But as we know now, with the cancellation of Victoria, much of that wasn't taken up.

"It absolutely could have (been held in this format) but there wasn't the appetite in this state to do that.

"We're pleased that our Scottish friends put their hand up as it's important for not only our own athletes in Australia, but the athletes from the 74 nations and territories around the Commonwealth.

"We know how important it is to athletes, particularly from the developing world, that don't get the opportunity to go to the Olympics or World Championships."

Phillips, who held a meeting with the Commonwealth sports earlier today during which told them that the CGA would look to change the constitution to ensure they remained in the fold, said there was no anger from sports bodies toward the CGA but there was toward the Victorian Government, with had included 22 sports in its program.

As reported by AAP, Phillips advised "I think that's probably well-placed because if it wasn't for the cancellation, they would be on the program, those sports.”

With 10 sports the minimum, he said there was scope for the next hosts in 2030 to increase the size of the program and change the sports included.

There have been questions about the appeal of such a slim-line program, down from 19 contested at the last Games in the English city of Birmingham, but Phillips expected it to still be sizeable enough for athletes and fans to embrace the event.

He went on to say “it's still a high concentration of sports and we know there'll still be approximately 3000 athletes at the Games and we'll have a team of somewhere between 260 to 280 athletes.

"We're yet to get the medal event program but our initial estimates are, with the sports that have been included, the number of medals will probably be about 70 per cent of what was in Birmingham so it's still a sizeable and fairly comprehensive program.

"We think it will attract good spectator attendance in Glasgow, and also good TV broadcast interest and media interest here for Australian fans.

"So we're fairly confident it'll still have the necessary weight to be an attractive event."

Image: Craig Phillips. Credit: CGA.