With the games expected to cost so much money, Victoria has cancelled the Commonwealth Games.
👉 Background: We all know the Commonwealth Games as the quasi-Olympics... but only for Commonwealth countries. And without China and the US competing, Aussies love it - because we've won 8 of the 9 most recent games.
👉 What happened: Victoria was announced as the host of the 2026 Commonwealth Games back in April 2022. And the government had an expected budget of $2.6 billion to put on the games in regional Victoria.
👉 What else: But there was a slight miscalculation... Premier Daniel Andrews has now said that the games will cost between $6 - $7 billion. And with the games expected to cost so much money, Andrews has cancelled the Commonwealth Games.
💡The economic impact of hosting the Commonwealth Games and Olympics tends to be less positive than originally anticipated.
💡More than four out of five Olympics ran at a deficit between 1964 and 2016. The expenses of the new infrastructure, new jobs, promotions and everything else cost a LOT more than the revenue from tickets and tourism.
💡A study from 2022 found that the average return-on-investment for an Olympic Games was negative 38%. And while generally, the Commonwealth Games host uses existing stadiums, Victoria were going all-out in the regions.
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