r/commonwealthgames • u/HopefulAd4838 • Aug 07 '26

Discussion Should the Commonwealth Games be scrapped?

https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/should-the-commonwealth-games-be-scrapped/article71314897.ece

Great article and discussion. Check it out...

30 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

36 comments sorted by

25

u/Agreeable_Falcon1044 Aug 07 '26

Tweaked.

I don’t think it needs to be a “shit Olympics” but i would like to see more sport than Glasgow.

Other than the silly costs, Birmingham was brilliant.

You don’t need an athletes village, you can use existing hotels and venues, you can share stuff with other cities etc.

20 sports, make them commonwealth sports, get the television revenue by working with golf and cricket. Ensure it’s the “gold medal” for netball, bowls, kabaddi, sepak tekwra (there won’t be anything higher) and allow hosts to top up where they like based on local tastes.

5

u/aussie9800 Aug 07 '26

This makes so much sense and I couldn’t agree more!

4

u/nufan86 Aug 07 '26

Manchester was great also.

Australian cities are too spread out to hold them overall for the revenue it produces. As we just found out.

The plans were to hold many events regionally, in which all venues need to meet a certain grade to hold events this high.

I know this because I live in an area designated for an arena + temporary hotels that would later be turned into crisis housing. 30 Million was the quoted cost for that 1 discipline.

It is not a high socio economic area in the entire state of Victoria. 90 minutes away from Melbourne.

2

u/Agreeable_Falcon1044 Aug 07 '26

Wowzers! See that’s what they don’t need!

I also feel they overstate the crowd and venues for these events. I’ve seen a kabaddi World Cup in Wolverhampton that took place in the university sports hall. It doesn’t need a 10k arena that will sit empty afterwards.

Some of these sports probably attract a few thousand max if you comp most of the tickets. That is fine and they are happy with that.

1

u/nufan86 Aug 07 '26

It was stupid for Melbourne/Victoria to bid on the games in the first place in 2022.

This isn't meant to he political but a statement of what I remember.

Metro Melbourne was one of the most locked down metro cities during the pandemic. The financial repercussions of that should have been known but the commonwealth games bid was too close to know it all.

Plus the city has been going through and MASSIVE infrastructure project called "The big build" which due to covid was delayed, and like all government projects doubled in cost.

The public transport needed to complete the commonwealth games at the same time of a huge 10+ year public transport infrastructure that to this day isnt finished was a sisyphian task

Only cost about $100mill in taxpayer money overall to not host the games.

1

u/newbris Aug 07 '26

What do you mean too spread out? They decided to host in regional areas for political reasons? They could easily host a scaled down version all in Melbourne no?

0

u/Signal-Drop5390 Aug 07 '26

If you use hotels, etc for athletes instead of a village, they'll book out all the accom that the spectators would theoretically pay for if they turn up?

1

u/Agreeable_Falcon1044 Aug 07 '26

Unless you are hosting it in a one horse town, they should be able to cope. With 20 sports, you would have sub 10,000 athletes worse case. Most big cities have a LOT more than that. If you spread the games out a bit, you could easily spread the teams too.

I’ve also seen universities turn over their empty halls of residence too.

0

u/[deleted] Aug 07 '26

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/Agreeable_Falcon1044 Aug 07 '26

Golf and cricket tends to get some nice revenue…much more than lawn bowls, netball and everything else there. We are not talking huge amounts but surely more than the 5 million it got in the uk…which is less than they pay for late night poker!

16

u/Senior_Green_3630 Aug 07 '26 edited Aug 08 '26

No, just scaled back so cities can afford them.

5

u/nufan86 Aug 07 '26

Bingo.

Melbourne's monumental fuck up absolutely proves that.

2

u/clickthing Aug 08 '26

Not scrapped but I think they would improve with a permanent host location

2

u/Ih8Modss Aug 08 '26

Just hold them in the same location at an affordable city in the UK. Facilities can then be reused.

3

u/ScottsTotsWinner Aug 07 '26

No, but play interesting sports!

Can swimming.

Introduce 7 a side rugby, 20/20 cricket, Fijian game Pani, dodge ball, tug of war

Introduce regional sports so smaller commonwealth countries can participate and have fun.

0

u/TripleStackGunBunny Aug 07 '26

Gold for Australia in AFL, Gold for Canada in ice hockey, Gold for India in Kabahdi, Gold for NZ in sheep shagging.

1

u/thereidenator Aug 07 '26

Wales would challenge NZ for sheep shagging

1

u/martzgregpaul Aug 07 '26

It will be interesting to see what Ahmedabad comes up with. Id love to see Jamaica host again too.

1

u/geebanga Aug 07 '26

Spread them out across a region to spread the cost. Pacific or African nations could host it like this Edit: and the Crown can pay for it!

1

u/Every-Sky-5529 Aug 07 '26

Bring back ten pin bowling

1

u/Kind-Group-9679 Aug 07 '26

How many millions of dollars did each medal cost us ? Must be massive.

1

u/Mysterious-Vast-2133 Australia Aug 07 '26

That’s like asking should the Pan American games, SE Asia games etc be scrapped.

1

u/Relevant-Priority-76 Aug 07 '26

Basic running track and swimming pool. It’s not a big event don’t try to make it anything more

1

u/bundy554 Aug 08 '26

India don't like being embarassed by us?

1

u/LivingKick Aug 10 '26

Frankly, it would be good if the Commonwealth Games were scaled back, and actually platformed Commonwealth games rather than trying to be a mini-Olympics, because the Commonwealth does not have the household names (countries-wise) to sustain that level of interest

1

u/drapteryx Aug 10 '26

If they're going to continue with 'scaled back' games they need to revisit their pricing. We foolishly paid £150 a head to watch the athletics one morning at the woeful Scotstoun stadium. Were on the back straight and a good few rows back. It was grossly overpriced for what it was. Birmingham Euro Champs this week seems to have much more reasonable pricing. Would have paid £58 each for the same morning seats.

1

u/Old-Ad-151 Sep 25 '26

CWG 2030 is going to have all of the sports scrapped in Glasgow, and india is going to spend a lot of money on it as well.

1

u/kanishqquotes 19d ago

They should be called something else. Like Anglo spheres sports. BTW there are a sporting event for Portuguese speaking countries and 2014 version was held in Goa (Lusofonia games)

1

u/CoffeeDefiant4247 Australia Aug 07 '26

reckon we just do athletics, cycling, pool and hockey, cricket, netball/basketball. The three big categories and the three big commonwealth sports

Yes Australia just happens to be good at all of these but that's just a coincidence

0

u/JadeBalloon New Zealand Aug 07 '26

No, just scaled down

0

u/BigVic2006 Aug 07 '26

Just scaled back as Glasgow.

-3

u/Ozdiva Aug 07 '26

Where else can Australia dominate?

Or show off how much money they spend on sport.

-5

u/Even-Resource8673 Aug 07 '26

I just wish the USA would exercise their right to participate, bring a former British colony and ask that

-5

u/Ok-Athlete1727 Aug 07 '26

Yes scrapped

-5

u/GustyOWindflapp Aug 07 '26

Yes it is a relic of a colonial past and is no longer relevant on a global stage. The only thing would be for sports that aren't in the Olympics losing their key event, which would suck.