Victoria paid for Glasgow’s Commonwealth Games. It’s not the state’s only recent sporting debacle

It’s a highly unusual Commonwealth Games, hosted in Glasgow and largely paid for by Victorian taxpayers. Is the state’s sporting crown slipping?

The 2026 Commonwealth Games have started in Glasgow with a stripped-back 10-sport event that is largely funded by Victorian taxpayers.

The Victorian government controversially walked away from its hosting commitments in 2023, citing a projected cost blowout.

Victoria could not envision hosting the games for less than A$6 billion – yet Glasgow is budgeted to deliver the games at about five per cent of this cost: £150 million (A$290 million).

Astonishingly, there is to be no United Kingdom or Scottish taxpayer contribution to the event’s delivery.

Meanwhile, Victoria spent $589 million of taxpayer funds in sunk costs and legal compensation, including about $194 million to Glasgow organisers.

The event’s cancellation has been followed by a string of shifts in the Australian sport landscape that poses what was once an unimaginable question: is Victoria, and Melbourne specifically, losing its “sporting capital of Australia” status?

A strategy born of economic anxiety

The sport and events strategy that built Melbourne’s global reputation was in response to economic anxiety. Through the 1980s, as manufacturing drained out of the inner suburbs of Melbourne, John Cain’s Labor government leaned into sport, events and culture for........

© InDaily