Shepparton political voices Shane Sali and state Member for Shepparton Kim O'Keeffe have weighed in on the mixed legacy of the ill-fated 2026 Victoria Commonwealth Games – in the month when the spectacle had been due to take place.
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The seeds for the bid to bring the event to regional Victoria had been sown in 2017, when the Greater Shepparton region, Wodonga, Bendigo, Ballarat, Warrnambool and Traralgon came together to reveal a blueprint for an ambitious master plan.
With the Games having previously been held in the metropolis cities of Brisbane, Melbourne and Gold Coast, the event would have been the first of its kind in being staged on regional soil in Australia.
Apart from a planned opening ceremony at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, all of the other festivities would have taken place in country towns between March 17 and 29 – including a proposed closing ceremony at Kardinia Park in Geelong.
In Shepparton specifically, the plan was for elite competitors from throughout the Commonwealth to descend on the area to take part in BMX racing and cycling road race time trials.
However, fast-forward to July 2023 and then-Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and Deputy Premier Jacinta Allan announced that plans had been scrapped after escalating costs.
Having previously been projected to have cost Victorian taxpayers an estimated $2.6 billion to host the event, it was predicted that the true figure would have skyrocketed to at least $6 billion.
With financial benefits to the state region having been calculated to have been worth about $3 billion to Victoria, Andrews then took the controversial and much-discussed decision to pull the plug on the Games.
Announcing the call to cancel the staging of the 2026 edition of the competition – which would have seen more than 3000 athletes from more than 74 nations take part – Andrews appeared visibly anguished by the decision.
"What's become clear is that the cost of hosting these Games in 2026 is not the $2.6 billion which was budgeted and allocated," he said.
"I will not take money out of hospitals and schools to host an event that is three times the cost estimated and budgeted for last year."
However, there was no mistaking the contrast in tone when compared with his speech 15 months previously as he promised to deliver a historic two-week spectacle in regional Victoria.
Declaring that the state would put on ‘a games like no other’, he emphatically made a host of promises to the electorate at Eureka Stadium in Ballarat more than a year prior to that infamous U-turn.
"We're very, very confident that this will deliver jobs, it'll deliver better facilities, better housing and it'll be a showcase to the world,“ he had said.
Now, during what was meant to have been regional Victoria’s fortnight on the world stage, O’Keefe has addressed a letter to the editor of the Shepparton News as she rued what she described as the ‘embarrassing and shameful’ call to cede the rights to host the Games.
“This week the 2026 Commonwealth Games would have been commencing across regional Victoria, including Shepparton as one of the host cities,” she wrote.
“The Games would have seen thousands visit our region, injecting a significant economic boost at a time when we need it most and leaving a lasting legacy for years to come.
“This global event should have put Shepparton and our region on the world stage, highlighting our reputation as the regional sporting capital of the nation, showcasing all that we have on offer.
“But instead, it has turned into nothing more than financial debts, lost opportunities in tourism, hospitality, retail and so much more.
“Our city would have been abuzz full of visitors, excitement and activity.”
Her view is one shared by colleague and current City of Greater Shepparton Mayor Sali, who also has been left wondering what might have been for the region, had the Games not been axed.
“In 2017, when they were announced, they were announced right here in Shepparton,” he said, recalling the initial days following the emergence of the original successful bid.
“That’s where the concept evolved from and we were very pleased to see that the state government was wanting to pursue it for all the right reasons to reconnect an audience to regional Victoria like never before.
“We know that in terms of visitation, our retail and hospitality sectors would have benefitted sustainably from people visiting our region.
“As time progressed, the initial concept had the Games in 2030 not 2026 – so it was effectively going to be delivered four years earlier than what had been put forward, which was great.
“We were really excited and work was undertaken in terms of the planning and from an infrastructure perspective, when then we were informed that the state government were going to cancel the Commonwealth Games.
“We were obviously really disappointed – not only because of the potential loss in infrastructure investment but, more so, the significant visitation that was going to be taking place and also the global audience from a TV perspective.
One major bone of contention for former Mayor O’Keefe is the $589 million cost of the development of the Games, which ultimately proved to be in vain, with the event now set to take place in Glasgow, Scotland later this year instead.
“Victorian taxpayers are now paying $589 million for the cancellation of the Games and for Glasgow in Scotland to host the Games later this year in July,” she said.
“It is embarrassing and shameful.”
In a report released to Parliament in 2024, the Victorian Auditor-General’s offices estimated that $589 million of public money had been ‘wasted’ on the abandoned event included the declaration that there had been a $380 million settlement with Games organisers.
“This waste would have been avoided if agencies had worked together better to give frank and full advice to the government before it decided to host the Games,” their findings said.
“This waste of taxpayer money on an event that will not happen is significant, especially considering the state’s recent sustained operating deficits and rising debt levels.”
Nearly three years on from Andrews’ announcement of the decision to axe the Games, the fallout refuses to go away.
To soften the blow of missing out on a one-in-a-generation opportunity to stage a globally-renowned event of this magnitude, the ex-premier promised that $2 billion would be budgeted and allocated to regional Victoria to provide upgrades to its sporting infrastructure.
Sali confirmed that conversations with Victorian Government officials about how to proceed with regeneration projects in spite of the cancellation of the Games occurred swiftly after the announcement that they would be axed.
“Obviously conversations continued (with the Victorian Government) to understand, with the cancellation of the Games, that the government was still committed to delivering infrastructure projects that were promised.
“Through that period we worked very closely with the state government to make sure that we can deliver those projects.”
One of those projects that was completed were the upgrades to the BMX track and cycling precinct at Shepparton Sports City, which has since been installed as the host venue for the 2026 GWM BMX Racing National Championships.
In addition, projects were launched in the wake of the Commonwealth Games collapse to revitalise VISY Community Stadium, Shepparton Sports City and Yahna Gurtji Shared Path – with the latter set to be officially completed in June.
Sali sees these regeneration schemes as a major positive to come out of the otherwise ‘bitterly disappointing’ decision to cancel the 2026 Commonwealth Games.
“We know millions of people watch the Commonwealth Games and people love sport in our country,” he said.
“One thing we do really well in Shepparton is host sports events, so if you look at events that you would want to be hosting, BMX would be right up there,” he said of the spectacle expected to attract 4000 victors to the region, along with 1400 riders, between April 13 and April 19.
“So we were super stoked to have that announcement that the championships will take place (in Shepparton) – it’s a really fast-paced and exciting event with a strong audience both from an Australian and global perspective.”
Allan and Andrews were approached for comment, but we received no response at the time of writing.