A revamped host selection process covering the 2030 Commonwealth Games and future editions of the multi-sport tournament is now underway.
Yesterday (January 14), the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) governing body launched the new format process, which emphasizes increased collaboration, reduced hosting costs, and more flexibility.
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This comes with the allocation of the upcoming 2026 Commonwealth Games having taken many years and having been a tortuous process that saw the state of Melbourne in Victoria pull out for cost-based reasons in July 2023. Next year's games will now take place in Glasgow, Scotland.
The 74 Commonwealth Games Associations have now been formally invited to submit formal expressions of interest in staging the 2030 games, as well as future editions.
It had originally been anticipated that Alberta, Canada, would host the 2030 games, but that region pulled out of the running in mid-2023 – the combination of the 2026 event host allocation fiasco and the lack of certainty around 2030 have led many observers to conclude that the Commonwealth Games has now fully lost its appeal as a multi-sport event to put on.
The CGF has said its new method for allocating games hosts allows it to be more flexible than before, and to work collaboratively with potential hosts “through a co-creation process.”
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By GlobalDataThe CGF has outlined three principles in terms of its new host selection approach:
Hosts will now have more flexibility to shape each games themselves, to “co-create the event and associated legacy benefits and social return on investment."
The costs of hosting will be lowered significantly, with the aim being to enable more countries to stage the games. This will be achieved through several factors, including “encouraging the use of existing venues for sport and accommodation.”
The exceptions to this, however, will be if additional infrastructure is “part of existing national development plans that will happen irrespective of a games.”
The sports program for each games should be “innovative, inclusive, and exciting,” and should be attractive and relevant to athletes, the host countries, as well as the Commonwealth in general.
The CGF’s president, Chris Jenkins, said: “We have consulted extensively with governments, our CGA members and other stakeholders to create a new framework for advancing the relevance of the Commonwealth Games … Building on this framework, we have identified the strong principles that will steer us in the creation of a modern, flexible games blueprint for the future.”
Darren Hall, director of games and assurance at the CGF, added: “In addition to single city proposals, co-hosting within a country and across nations and territories will be actively encouraged to open up more hosting opportunities for more Commonwealth countries previously excluded from the ability to host.”
Glasgow was formally unveiled as the host for the 2026 games last October, with the event set to run from July 22 through August 2 next year.
The Scottish city will play host for the second time in 12 years, with the games to feature 10 different sports (as well as para-iterations of six of those sports) staged across four venues.
The Victorian regional government withdrew in July 2023 owing to a huge increase in the projected cost of staging the games – originally forecast to hit A$2.6 billion ($1.7 billion), the cost then rose to an untenable A$6 billion.
Malaysia was briefly considered as a replacement before Glasgow stepped in.
In its withdrawal, Victoria had to pay A$380 million to the CGF as compensation, £100 million ($129 million) of which CGS has budgeted to use for the financing of its Commonwealth Games proposal, with the remaining £30-£50 million to be drawn from ticketing, sponsorship, and broadcast revenue.
The last edition of the games, meanwhile, was hosted by the English city Birmingham in 2022 – Birmingham had to step in to replace Durban, South Africa, which faced financial issues.
