2026 Commonwealth Games Regional Victoria Venues/Stadiums Discussion

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My_Username said:
Or in the Victorian industrial landscape.

Delay until they're forced to give you lots of overtime in order to reach the deadlines.
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Certainly a geological survey is time well invested if they wish to avoid delays caused through lack of information about the soil conditions or what's potentially under the ground. When we consider Melbourne's horrific track record over the decades of major projects that went years over time and budget because of poor prior planning:
  • The Westgate Bridge - Took five years longer to build because the original British construction and engineering firm contracted to build and erect the box sections was sacked over costs and a local firm with no experience in advanced box-girder construction was appointed to finish to linkage over the river. The resultant catastrophe, investigations and re-design saw construction completely stop for five years.
  • The Hamer Hall - Took 12 years to build and a massive re-design because nobody realised there was was so much river silt and water underneath.
  • City Link - Opened 18 months late and $500 million over budget because of persistent leaks in the Burnley Tunnel where it struck similar issues to those that plagued Hamer Hall.
  • Federation Square - Three years late and $300 million over budget because nobody accounted for the complexities of building over existing electric rail lines.
  • Southern Cross Station - Built on time but construction costs blew out because of the limited times (1 am - 4.30 am) that workers were actually able to access the site while the entire inner-city train electrical system was shut down during the 2-year long construction of the roof meaning that workers were paid astronomical penalty rates.
  • Myki - Wow! NSW, Hong Kong and Singapore all had perfectly working card systems and yet Victoria managed to spend $1.5 billion developing an inferior system that still doesn't work state wide. Yea!!! Go Victoria :rolleyes:
  • Westgate Tunnels - Three years behind schedule and running over budget because of poor soil analysis prior to tunnelling and subsequent issues with heavily industrial contaminated soil. Of course the construction company wants more money for disposing of the contaminated soils and workers want due compensation for working in a potentially hazardous environment (Can you blame them?).
Yep, I think that we'd both agree that it definitely pays to do your research. The soil analysis at the Comm Games sites in Ballarat, Bendigo, Geelong and Latrobe Valley is more about ensuring that no potential historical aboriginal sites will be unearthed, that there's no unrecorded mineshafts sitting beneath the Ballarat and Bendigo sites, and that there are no underlying water tables which may cause issues. If they open up the ground with construction works underway and any of those issues arise then that will send the whole project timeline into a complete tail spin ... And with three years to go as you rightly said, they definitely cannot afford to waste one second of that time.

Once construction actually gets underway later this year, I think that the construction sites will be flat out like the proverbial one-legged man in an arse kicking contest.
 
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Roogal said:
It's about right. They're not building the MCG. It's just a 5000 permanent seats upgrade and the rest is temporary. Birmingham's CG stadium was designed and built on a similar timeline and scale. I don't doubt that the villages and venes will be done on time. In fact I reckon that they will be built very quickly. The main issue facing Commonwealth Games planners in my humble opinion will be the public transport and housing all of the workers (during construction and the conduct phase). :rolleyes:

It is exciting and will be interesting to see how they overcome these challenges. The building of infrastructure in the country isn't as complex as the issues associated with metropolitan builds. In particular most of the 2026 sites will be mostly upgrades or construction of temporary facilities that will have little local residential disruption, and the roads near those venues aren't terribly busy. Don't forget that the entire 1st stage of Mars Stadium was built in just under 12 months using entirely local labour back in 2016/17, while the Ballarat Sports Events Centre (the boxing venue) only took about 10 months.
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For one venue, sure, but it looks like all the venues are on a similar timeline.
 
robbieando said:
Event Cancelled.
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No idea why we wanted to host it in the first place, completely irrelevant event that’s been on a nosedive for a long time. This will be the death of it without a shadow of a doubt.
 
The event cancelled due to estimated running costs blowing out to $6-7 billion. It was a highly responsible call by the Premier. With the cost of living crisis and state budget situation, the cost blowout would have been inexcusable if the games had gone ahead.

On the plus side, all stadium's will be built to their promised 'legacy' configuration. This means that Geelong still gets upgraded hockey fields, new sports centre and pool at Waurn Ponds, Bendigo gets it's Basketball stadium upgrade, Ballarat gets Eureka Stadium upgraded in capacity and social housing will be built across regional Victoria.

All facilities will be upgraded as originally promised. The full announcement was detailed on ABC Radio at 9.35 this morning.
 
Roogal said:
The event cancelled due to estimated running costs blowing out to $6-7 billion. It was a highly responsible call by the Premier. With the cost of living crisis and state budget situation, the cost blowout would have been inexcusable if the games had gone ahead.

On the plus side, all stadium's will be built to their promised 'legacy' configuration. This means that Geelong still gets upgraded hockey fields, new sports centre and pool at Waurn Ponds, Bendigo gets it's Basketball stadium upgrade, Ballarat gets Eureka Stadium upgraded in capacity and social housing will be built across regional Victoria.
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It’s a fantastic call politically by Andrews, regional Victoria still gets badly needed infrastructure, particularly the social housing and he gets to present himself as having made the hard call by cancelling the games. It has an ongoing benefit for the government as they will now be able to make a series of ongoing announcements each time they present a new project as a result of reallocating the games funding.

Plus he gets to add killing a ridiculous colonial era hangover event to his resume, I’d want that on mine!
 
Corn Cobbers said:
Not good to win a bid for an event then call it off. Kills any chance of Victoria ever hosting major events like the Olympics.
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It wasn’t a bid, literally no one else wanted it. They reached out to Victoria to host it and it was a stupid decision to accept it. It took time, but the right decision has been made now, but with the added benefit of infrastructure still being built.

Sporting bodies around the world recognise the Commonwealth Games for what it is (should say was now), a complete irrelevance that has now seen its last edition.

Even the IOC are basically having to beg cities to host the Olympics as it is anyway. They’re going to have to change their model going forward somehow. Cities just aren’t going to wear it anymore.
 

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Corn Cobbers said:
Not good to win a bid for an event then call it off. Kills any chance of Victoria ever hosting major events like the Olympics.
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We will never host Olympics again and that has already been announced by the IOC a few years ago when they expressed their preference for the Games to be held during our Winter months which effectively locks them into the Northern Hemisphere or Queensland. This was why Melbourne and Sydney were immediately ruled out by the AOC for bidding for the 2032 Games.

Victoria should stick with what it is good at, the spring carnival, the grand prix, the tennis open, moto GP, and AFL.
 
TheEscapeClub said:
Pick a site somewhere on the planet and build it. Everyone pays their share to build it and to maintain it.

Can be used for Olympics, World Champs, Commonwealth and any other time an owner nation or organisation wants to use it.
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Comm Games are dead and buried after this but it’s a good idea for the rest. World Champs will be able to survive going forward as they aren’t a gigantic undertaking but the Olympics will need something like this if they are to survive.
 
TheEscapeClub said:
Pick a site somewhere on the planet and build it. Everyone pays their share to build it and to maintain it.

Can be used for Olympics, World Champs, Commonwealth and any other time an owner nation or organisation wants to use it.
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As I said on page 1.

They should have used pre-existing venues, where possible, even if they were in Melbourne.

A few hundred Million (perhaps even a Billion) in savings might have made the difference here.

If things were getting this tight, make a deal with the comm games committee...We get 2 (or 3...) games in a row to use the infrastructure and so it can pay itself off.
 
DeIulio2Pearce said:
Comm Games are dead and buried after this but it’s a good idea for the rest. World Champs will be able to survive going forward as they aren’t a gigantic undertaking but the Olympics will need something like this if they are to survive.
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So it should.
Commonwealth games as a concept is a dud, absolute waste of time.
Australia just wins it all with competition from England.

Melbourne did the right choice.
Cities like Birmingham, Manchester are hosting these games shows how meh and boring these games are.
 
Roogal said:
We will never host Olympics again and that has already been announced by the IOC a few years ago when they expressed their preference for the Games to be held during our Winter months which effectively locks them into the Northern Hemisphere or Queensland. This was why Melbourne and Sydney were immediately ruled out by the AOC for bidding for the 2032 Games.

Victoria should stick with what it is good at, the spring carnival, the grand prix, the tennis open, moto GP, and AFL.
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The cities hosting Olympics will narrow each 4 years. Old cities re hosting the games will be the preferred method.
Paris, London, LA have come back.

No new city is going to be lining up to host the event. It’s a major cost wastage
 
FreoRicci said:
So it should.
Commonwealth games as a concept is a dud, absolute waste of time.
Australia just wins it all with competition from England.

Melbourne did the right choice.
Cities like Birmingham, Manchester are hosting these games shows how meh and boring these games are.
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Agreed. It has always been a shocker of an event, if last years edition turns out to be the last one, then good riddance
 
Was a dud idea in the first place
Fancy trying to run an international multi sport event over multiple hick country towns
Logic says, host most events in existing facilities in Melbourne and a few minor ones in regional Victoria
Sebastian Coe last year made the point, how many people in Ballarat are going to the Morning Heat sessions of Athletics days on end?
 
Black Panther said:
Was a dud idea in the first place
Fancy trying to run an international multi sport event over multiple hick country towns
Logic says, host most events in existing facilities in Melbourne and a few minor ones in regional Victoria
Sebastian Coe last year made the point, how many people in Ballarat are going to the Morning Heat sessions of Athletics days on end?
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Me. I was going to take holidays and get to as many sessions as I could get tickets for. Boxing was the other one scheduled for Ballarat that I have a big interest in.

We only moved here to Ballarat last year for my work but the plan was to stay until at least the end of the games in 2026 and look at moving again. No need to wait now although I am enjoying Ballarat.
 
My_Username said:
As I said on page 1.

They should have used pre-existing venues, where possible, even if they were in Melbourne.

A few hundred Million (perhaps even a Billion) in savings might have made the difference here.

If things were getting this tight, make a deal with the comm games committee...We get 2 (or 3...) games in a row to use the infrastructure and so it can pay itself off.
Click to expand...
It wasn't the infrastructure costs that blew out the budget, because the government are promising to actually build more than what the legacy of the games would have been. They were only going to orginally spend around $1.2 billion on infrastructure, but now will allocate $2 billion including millions to promote tourism and 500 more houses than what was to be delivered for the Games. It's actually a win, win for regional Victoria ... people just don't fully realise that yet.

It was the costs associated with the temporary builds and removal (after the Games), the cost of hosting 7,000 athletes and officials, the hiring of busses, workers, security etc. We kinda knew that the Games were in trouble when they started penny pinching and cutting corners on the proposed builds. Particularly when the events train platforms at Bendigo and Ballarat were ruled out and the last-minute announcement that the entire Ballarat Village was to be temporary. The Premier was quite clear that they had studied ALL OPTIONS starting back a few months ago, including relocating to Melbourne, before deciding to cancel outright. He was adamant that even staging the Games in Melbourne would have only saved a billion dollars which was still too high in the government's budget.
 
Roogal said:
It wasn't the infrastructure costs that blew out the budget, because the government are promising to actually build more than what the legacy of the games would have been. They were only going to orginally spend around $1.2 billion on infrastructure, but now will allocate $2 billion including millions to promote tourism and 500 more houses than what was to be delivered for the Games. It's actually a win, win for regional Victoria ... people just don't fully realise that yet.

It was the costs associated with the temporary builds and removal (after the Games), the cost of hosting 7,000 athletes and officials, the hiring of busses, workers, security etc. We kinda knew that the Games were in trouble when they started penny pinching and cutting corners on the proposed builds. Particularly when the events train platforms at Bendigo and Ballarat were ruled out and the last-minute announcement that the entire Ballarat Village was to be temporary. The Premier was quite clear that they had studied ALL OPTIONS starting back a few months ago, including relocating to Melbourne, before deciding to cancel outright. He was adamant that even staging the Games in Melbourne would have only saved a billion dollars which was still too high in the government's budget.
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Guess the Suburban Rail Loop will be next then, because these Cth Games savings are peanuts compared to that.
 
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