{"id":316837,"date":"2023-07-18T00:43:37","date_gmt":"2023-07-18T00:43:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=316837"},"modified":"2023-07-18T00:59:08","modified_gmt":"2023-07-18T00:59:08","slug":"really-disappointing-star-lashes-comm-games-axing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=316837","title":{"rendered":"'Really disappointing': Star lashes Comm Games axing"},"content":{"rendered":"

T\ufeffhe Victorian government has announced the 2026 Commonwealth Games<\/a> will not go ahead in the state due to financial issues – and the bombshell call is already drawing backlash.<\/p>\n

The Games were due to be hosted in regional Victoria, but premier Dan Andrews has abandoned those plans.<\/p>\n

He made the announcement to media on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Victoria cancels 2026 Commonwealth Games<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Djokovic fined $11,734 for 'furious' reaction in Wimbledon final<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Ashes villain out, veteran recalled for fourth Test<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Andrews said the original budget to host the Games in five regional cities was $2.6 billion, but the government came to the realisation it would need to spend as much as $7b to host the 12-day event.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"I will not take money out of hospitals and schools to fund an event that is three times the cost what was estimated and budgeted for last year," he said.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"I have made a lot of difficult calls, a lot of very difficult decisions in this job. This is not one of them.<\/p>\n

"Frankly, six to $7 billion for a 12-day sporting event, we are not doing that. That does not represent value for money."<\/p>\n

The decision has not been received well by Australian athletes.<\/p>\n

Former tennis player turned Liberal MP Sam Groth fumed at the Andrews government via Twitter.\ufeff<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/SamGrothMP\/status\/1681087324409700353?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/magnetbrain\/status\/1681086399070568455?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

Former champion swimmer James Magnussen was devastated to hear the news.<\/p>\n

"It's really disappointing," he told SEN radio.<\/p>\n

"The Commonwealth Games holds a special place in Australian athletes' hearts. We don't get a grand final every year like you do in the football codes. We train year-round to perform often once per year.<\/p>\n

"You've got a World Champs year, you've got a Comm Games year, and you've got an Olympics year. Take that out of the cycle and we're racing once every two years.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/cokeefe9\/status\/1681098300341252097?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

"As an athlete who competed at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, and for all those fans who went along… that was a massive event and was very well received.<\/p>\n

"It still holds a lot of importance in the sporting landscape here in Australia. That's essentially the biggest recruitment tool for a sport like swimming. People are watching NRL and AFL every weekend.<\/p>\n

"Something like the Commonwealth Games on home soil just ignites that dream for a young athlete. It has a huge impact on those sports.\ufeff"<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

T\ufeffhe Victorian government has announced the 2026 Commonwealth Games will not go ahead in the state due to financial issues – and the bombshell call […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":316841,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316837"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=316837"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":316843,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316837\/revisions\/316843"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/316841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=316837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=316837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=316837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}