Is it time to scrap the Commonwealth Games?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 7 April 2026
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For the second time in 12 years Glasgow is preparing to host the Commonwealth Games after Australia’s Victoria state pulled out because of increased costs. Victoria’s withdrawal raised questions about whether the 2026 games would go ahead before Glasgow agreed to step in.
Staging a sporting mega-event is expensive and governments face increasing scrutiny over public spending. Victoria’s decision raised wider questions about affordability for potential hosts. At the same time, critics question the Games’ political relevance, given its origins in Britain’s colonial past.
The Commonwealth Games Federation says the event can be delivered in a more sustainable way and argues that it brings cultural and economic benefits to host cities, but recent editions have run into significant costs and budget pressures.
Our contributors this week are Dr Stuart Whigham, senior lecturer in sport, coaching and physical education at Oxford Brookes University, UK; Dr Matthew McDowell, lecturer in sport policy, management, and international development at the University of Edinburgh, UK; Dr Verity Postlethwaite, lecturer in strategic event management at Loughborough University, UK and Professor Gayle McPherson, associate dean for research at the University of the West of Scotland, and director of legacy and community engagement for Commonwealth Games Scotland, UK.
Presenter: Tanya Beckett Producer: Matt Toulson Technical Producer: Craig Boardman Editor: Tom Bigwood
(Photo: 2022 Commonwealth Games gold medals. Credit: Adrian Dennis/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.4 | Welcome to the inquiry from the BBC World Service with me, Tanya Beckett. |
| 0:10.6 | One question, four expert witnesses and an answer. |
| 0:31.4 | This is the sound of bagpipes marking the departure of King Charles III's batten from London's Buckingham Palace in March last year. |
| 0:41.5 | It's the launch of the countdown to the 26 Commonwealth Games. For the ensuing 500 days, the Baton makes its way across all 74 competing nations, calling them to friendly competition. For the second time in |
| 0:48.9 | 12 years, the games are due to be held in Glasgow in Scotland. And for the Commonwealth Games Committee, |
| 0:56.4 | the departure of the baton is a significant moment of relief. |
| 1:04.0 | The original winning bidder on the other side of the world had stepped back. Rapidly escalating |
| 1:10.2 | costs meant that Australia's Victoria State |
| 1:13.2 | had to rethink whether it could justify acting as host. A flurry of newspaper headlines and |
| 1:20.0 | a pillion columns followed, speculating as to whether the games could in the end go ahead. Indeed, |
| 1:26.7 | if they had a role at all in the 21st century. |
| 1:30.7 | This week on the inquiry, we're asking, is it time to scrap the Commonwealth Games? |
| 1:38.0 | Part 1, withdrawal. |
| 1:40.8 | As president of the Commonwealth Games Federation, I'm absolutely delighted to announce that the 2026 Commonwealth Games has been awarded to Victoria. |
| 1:52.2 | Well done. |
| 1:53.5 | In April 2022, the Australian State of Victoria triumphed in its bid to stage the 23rd Commonwealth Games to be held four |
| 2:03.6 | years later in 2026. |
| 2:08.7 | Australia was certainly no stranger to the task having played host to the games five times |
| 2:13.8 | before in Brisbane, Sydney, Perth and the Gold Coast, and also Melbourne, Victoria's State |
| 2:21.0 | Capital, which had staged the event two decades before. Melbourne had also played host to multiple |
| 2:28.2 | other large contests, but the Victorian government was determined that the project of the Commonwealth Games |
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