India has submitted an expression of interest to stage the Commonwealth Games multi-sport event in 2030.
The last time the country hosted the Commonwealth Games – 2010 in the capital city of Delhi – the event ended up being the victim of a myriad of logistical issues, some of them concerning hygiene and cleanliness, while it also suffered from (unproven) allegations of corruption.
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Now, however, the president of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), P.T. Usha, has told Reuters: “We have sent an expression of interest and we are hopeful the Commonwealth Games Federation [CGF] will consider our proposal.”
The country has never hosted an edition of the Olympics, and the IOA will view the 2030 Commonwealth Games as an opportunity to prepare venues, logistics, and infrastructure, before the 2036 Olympics – which the country will almost certainly bid for. The city of Ahmedabad is set to be the center of that submission.
Bidders for the 2030 Commonwealth Games have until March 31 to submit expressions of interest for hosting. Alberta, Canada, was seen as a frontrunner until that province withdrew interest in mid-2023 (after the Alberta government cut its financial backing).
In 2010, the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Delhi was the focal point of that year’s Commonwealth Games, which cost around $6 billion.
India putting its hat in the ring to host the 2030 event likely represents a significant boost for the CGF, which over the past decade or so has found it increasingly hard to find hosts for the games.
The 2022 edition ended up being hosted in Birmingham, England after Durban in South Africa – the original host city – had to withdraw because of financial issues.
As for the 2026 Commonwealth Games, that has ended up being allocated to Glasgow, Scotland (which also hosted the 2014 edition), in a new, slimline format. This has followed a lengthy saga, in which the intended host, the Australian state of Victoria, pulled out in July 2023, also citing unsustainable costs as the reason for its withdrawal.
Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews announced the state’s decision after new estimates suggested the cost had ballooned to AU$7 billion (at the time of writing, $4.39 billion) rather than the AU$2.7 billion originally projected.
The 2026 games in Glasgow will only feature 10 different sports (as well as para-iterations of six of those sports) staged across four venues.
This smaller program is in contrast to the Birmingham games, which featured 19 sports.
Malaysia was initially considered as a potential 2026 replacement host, before Glasgow stepped in.
In its withdrawal, Victoria had to pay A$380 million to the CGF as compensation, £100 million (at the time, $129 million) of which Commonwealth Games Scotland budgeted to use for the financing of its Commonwealth Games proposal.
