Victoria 2026 - Commonwealth Games

[AustralianFan]

15 minutes ago, Victorian said:

This is what the set up for Beach Volleyball during the World Tour in 2017 looked like at Victoria Park Lake, Shepparton. Obviously there would be bigger grandstands required but gives an idea of the set up and what is possible.

This is great @Victorian and fits into the Regional led Com Games approach.  Shepparton were the leading regional City Council behind the original 2030 Greater Victoria Com Games bid.

[AustralianFan]

2026 Greater Victoria Commonwealth Games

Following on from  @Victorian‘s post just now, is this from the City of Shepparton about the 2026 Greater Victoria Commonwealth Games bid:

“Greater Shepparton City Council is seeing the culmination of more than five years work come to fruition with the announcement from the Victorian State Government this morning that they will bid for a regional cities 2026 Commonwealth Games.”

“We have been involved in the development of a regional cities model for a number of years with a pre-feasibility study completed in early 2020. This was contributed to by the State Government and several regional councils including Shepparton, Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo,” said Cr O’Keeffe. “We set up a Commonwealth Games Working Group, chaired by Adem Karafili, which has worked tirelessly on the bid for a regional games.”

“The Melbourne Commonwealth Games in 2006 was a great success. A Victorian Commonwealth Games in 2026, hosted across the state, will be an event to remember, and will show the world what Victoria has to offer.”

Mayor, Cr Kim O’Keeffe said the news was absolutely fantastic for Greater Shepparton. “This will be the economic boost that our region and many regional areas need after two years of pandemic impact.”

Regional cities are well placed to support such an event with the potential to create significant economic and social opportunities for local businesses and the community.

The regional model is a good one with great facilities and infrastructure already available. Shepparton has a proven track record of hosting successful large scale international events such as the 2020 UCI BMX Supercross World Cup. Shepparton’s Victoria Park Lake also hosted the 2017 and 2018 World Tour Beach Volleyball events along with several international standard Triathlons, with the ability to host bigger events in the future.

Greater Shepparton City Council CEO Peter Harriott said “while we are fortunate to have some world class infrastructure in our region, we also welcome investment towards new and updated facilities.”

“We understand that this is a big expenditure for the state and we look forward to working closely with the government to make this happen,” said Mr Harriott.

[Victorian]

13 minutes ago, AustralianFan said:

2026 Greater Victoria Commonwealth Games

Following on from  @Victorian‘s post just now, is this from the City of Shepparton about the 2026 Greater Victoria Commonwealth Games bid:

“Greater Shepparton City Council is seeing the culmination of more than five years work come to fruition with the announcement from the Victorian State Government this morning that they will bid for a regional cities 2026 Commonwealth Games.”

“We have been involved in the development of a regional cities model for a number of years with a pre-feasibility study completed in early 2020. This was contributed to by the State Government and several regional councils including Shepparton, Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo,” said Cr O’Keeffe. “We set up a Commonwealth Games Working Group, chaired by Adem Karafili, which has worked tirelessly on the bid for a regional games.”

“The Melbourne Commonwealth Games in 2006 was a great success. A Victorian Commonwealth Games in 2026, hosted across the state, will be an event to remember, and will show the world what Victoria has to offer.”

Mayor, Cr Kim O’Keeffe said the news was absolutely fantastic for Greater Shepparton. “This will be the economic boost that our region and many regional areas need after two years of pandemic impact.”

Regional cities are well placed to support such an event with the potential to create significant economic and social opportunities for local businesses and the community.

The regional model is a good one with great facilities and infrastructure already available. Shepparton has a proven track record of hosting successful large scale international events such as the 2020 UCI BMX Supercross World Cup. Shepparton’s Victoria Park Lake also hosted the 2017 and 2018 World Tour Beach Volleyball events along with several international standard Triathlons, with the ability to host bigger events in the future.

Greater Shepparton City Council CEO Peter Harriott said “while we are fortunate to have some world class infrastructure in our region, we also welcome investment towards new and updated facilities.”

“We understand that this is a big expenditure for the state and we look forward to working closely with the government to make this happen,” said Mr Harriott.

BMX won't be in the games given it is not on the new list of sports however, Beach Volleyball and Triathlon are both big chances to be hosted in Shepparton.

[AustralianFan]

From Commonwealth Games Australia:

 

[Victorian]

The Latrobe Valley think they are hosting the aquatics 

https://www.miragenews.com/latrobe-city-set-for-commonwealth-games-726484/

[Victorian]

 

1 minute ago, Victorian said:

The Latrobe Valley think they are hosting the aquatics 

https://www.miragenews.com/latrobe-city-set-for-commonwealth-games-726484/

This is the facility they speak about. It is not big enough. Being indoor too, it restricts the ability to create temporary grandstands.

I am leaning with Kardinia Aquatic Centre or MSAC

[AustralianFan]

16 minutes ago, Victorian said:

 

This is the facility they speak about. It is not big enough. Being indoor too, it restricts the ability to create temporary grandstands.

I am leaning with Kardinia Aquatic Centre or MSAC

Yes very limited in capacity, although it might be a useful training venue.

Being a regional-led bid, my money’s on Kardinia Aquatics Centre being the 2026 swimming venue with installation of bigger capacity temporary grandstands. 

Post-Covid, the Victorian Governmnent are keen to stimulate growth and jobs in regional Victoria as are the regional City Councils.

[AustralianFan]

Speaking of regional city councils,  this is from the City of Geelong:

 

 

[ulu]

26 minutes ago, Victorian said:

 

 

The second pool doesn't have enough lanes to be the warm up pool and there isn't enough room around the main pool for stands.

[AustralianFan]

John Cain Arena in Melbourne Park would have to be odds on as the 2026 track cycling venue since I don’t believe there is a ready made indoor cycling venue in regional Victoria.

[AustralianFan]

From the City of Ballarat about Mars Stadium …..

Yes can easily see this venue hosting track and field in 2026 with temporary grandstands similar to Brisbane 1982.

This aligns with the regional led bid approach.  Would be a huge boost to the economy and jobs in and around Ballarat.

 

[AustralianFan]

Regions welcome Vic's bid for 2026 games - 17 February 2022 - Canberra Times

[Gonzo]

2 hours ago, AustralianFan said:

Being a regional-led bid, my money’s on Kardinia Aquatics Centre being the 2026 swimming venue with installation of bigger capacity temporary grandstands. 

It's more than just a few temporary grandstands, the Kardinia Aquatic Centre is just a local community pool you find in every country town, it has no facilities apart from a sparse changing room & small kiosk

You need to build media facilities, proper athlete facilities, the diving facility is not of FINA standard

It will cost millions to make it CG games minimum standard, millions which could be better spent elsewhere

[AustralianFan]

33 minutes ago, Gonzo said:

It's more than just a few temporary grandstands, the Kardinia Aquatic Centre is just a local community pool you find in every country town, it has no facilities apart from a sparse changing room & small kiosk

You need to build media facilities, proper athlete facilities, the diving facility is not of FINA standard

It will cost millions to make it CG games minimum standard, millions which could be better spent elsewhere

Kardinia Aquatics Centre has a 10-lane FINA standard pool and an 8-lane Olympic pool.

It was used as a training venue for the 2007 World Swimming Championships.

Temporary grandstands would only be a part of the other temporary infrastructure required.

International standard athlete and media facilities can of course be temporary, air conditioned and very comfortable.

The diving pool can be brought up to FINA standard.

This is a regional led bid so if swimming can be done at an outdoor venue outside of Melbourne, it will be done at an outside venue outside Melbourne.

The whole thrust of this bid is to spend money in the Regions to stimulate their economies.  That’s the whole point.

 

.

 

 

[AustralianFan]

From Yarra Trams:

 

 

[AustralianFan]

We can expect that Kardinia Aquatic Centre in Geelong will get the same facelift and facilities upgrade with temporary grandstands that the outdoor Gold Coast Aquatic Centre received for the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

 

[AustralianFan]

Kardinia Aquatics Centre - Geelong 

The 10-lane FINA pool on the left most likely the competition pool with 4 temporary grandstands (yellow).

The 8-lane Olympic pool on the right would be the warm-up pool.  

To the right of that (blue), there’s plenty of space to install a temporary structure to house athletes facilities, marshalling area, etc.

Bottom right (red) of the complex might be an al fresco food and beverage area.

The upgraded diving pool at top with temporary grandstands (green).

[Gonzo]

So basically you are going to level the whole joint, removing all the trees people use for shade in the summer

[Australian Kiwi]

18 hours ago, AustralianFan said:

We can expect that Kardinia Aquatic Centre in Geelong will get the same facelift and facilities upgrade with temporary grandstands that the outdoor Gold Coast Aquatic Centre received for the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

 

No, we can't expect anything at this stage. 

Kardinia would need a very significant investment to host aquatics. My money is still on MSAC unless the Government stumps up some cash. In that instance Northern Arc could be a possibility as its still yet to have its second stage undertaken. 

[AustralianFan]

 

7 hours ago, Gonzo said:

So basically you are going to level the whole joint, removing all the trees people use for shade in the summer

Yes of course, they’re going to level the entire place, all the trees, all the buildings, the stadium and the nearby houses too.

Get real.

 

[AustralianFan]

1 hour ago, Australian Kiwi said:

No, we can't expect anything at this stage. 

Kardinia would need a very significant investment to host aquatics. My money is still on MSAC unless the Government stumps up some cash. In that instance Northern Arc could be a possibility as its still yet to have its second stage undertaken. 

These are Regional Led Games and the Victorian Government is clearly in the mood to spendup in Regional Victoria.

Forget this Melbourne-centric mindset.  This is not about Melbourne.

This is about spending in the regions to aid the post-covid recovery.

Of course there is hardly a single sport that Melbourne could not host.

But this time, it’s all about the Regions, unless there is no other option eg track cycling at John Cain.

My money’s most definitely on Kardinia Aquatics Centre getting a Gold Coast Aquatic Centre makeover and a great legacy for the region once the grandstands and other temporary structures are removed.

[Gonzo]

Quote

Boring Commonwealth Games will cost Victoria too much

Daniel Andrews is prepared to spend billions to stage the low-rent Olympics as a distraction from the woes of lockdown-ravaged Melbourne.

Herald-Sun

February 18, 2022

What’s the point of bringing a second rate athletics carnival to Victoria?

We have no idea what it will cost and, quite frankly, no one cares about the Commonwealth Games anymore.

The former British Empire Games have lost their shine.

We’ll tune into the swimming but, deep down, we all know it’s just a low rent version of the Olympics.

When Melbourne last held the Commonwealth Games, in 2006, the opening ceremony attracted 3.56 million television viewers.

The opening of the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast drew just over two million viewers – still good numbers for TV these days but indicative of a decline in interest in the games.

The Tokyo Olympics opening, by contrast, had 3.85 million viewers. Almost twice as many as the Comm Games.

People get interested but they don’t get excited.

And for this, the state government will have to stump up billions of dollars.

South Australia considered a Commonwealth Games bid in 2019.

A Deloitte report found it could cost as much as $3.5 billion to put on the 10-day event in 2026.

That comes out to $350 million a day, $14.6 million each hour and $243,055 per minute.

Victoria has not done this modelling. There is no indication of what staging the games would cost or what the potential economic benefit is.

Premier Daniel Andrews is leading Victoria into this blind under the guise of wanting to attract tourists – in four years time, mind you.

There is no plan to get tourist back to Melbourne this year but don’t worry, we’ll have them back by 2026.

Of course, the government knows that its over-the-top restrictions discourage tourists.

Andrews may have walked back his ham-fisted plan to enforce a triple dose for international visitors but they can also fly into parts of the country where they won’t be made to prove their vaccination status to buy a beer.

And for as long as the mask mandate persists, people will avoid Melbourne.

The Commonwealth Games is simply a distraction from all this and, unfortunately, a money pit.

Even more perplexing is the proposal to have events dotted all over the countryside.

I understand it from the perspective of building new infrastructure in the regions. Great. But will anyone actually go the distance?

If you are one of these tourists who is going to be attracted to Victoria for the Commonwealth Games, you surely want all the events to be within reach?

Say the swimming is in Ballarat and the athletics are in Shepparton.

You land in Melbourne where you might want to stay for a night or two. Then you have to make your way to Ballarat and find accommodation.

If the next event you want to see is in Shepparton, you have to repeat the process all over again.

It takes five hours to catch the train back to Melbourne and then take one north.

It might be okay if you have a car but it would be a nightmare for international tourists.

Tasmania wanted it and we should have left it to them.

 

[Victorian]

1 minute ago, Gonzo said:

 

Herald sun journalism is not journalism at all. It is a Lib spin

[Gonzo]

They were an Official Sponsor of Melbourne 2006, so a bit of a turn around in view

[AustralianFan]

 

On 2/17/2022 at 11:27 AM, Australian Kiwi said:

Glad you have a place to spam every tweet regarding 2026 over the next four years.

I'll stay here. 

 

4 hours ago, Australian Kiwi said:

While the Feds have more or less said there will be no cash (except for security) I'll be interested to see whether the Geelong City Deal is sped up to provide funding for the Convention Centre. 

Might still be a stretch to have it delivered by 2026 (bizarre Andrews is pushing March and not an October-Dec Games). 

https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/sites/default/files/migrated/cities/city-deals/geelong/files/geelong-city-deal-snapshot.pdf

 

16 minutes ago, Gonzo said:

Election in November 2026

It’s game on for econmic stimulation, jobs, sport and sporting facilities upgrades for Regional Victoria through these 2026 Commonwealth Games.   A very welcome exit morale lifter too from the Covid era.

Excellent work from the Victorian Government.