The Commonwealth Games in crisis?
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 9 October 2023
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The event is facing its biggest financing challenge in its 93-year history.
There is no host city for the next edition in 2026, and the Commonwealth Games Federation is struggling to persuade other cities to host after that.
We speak to academics who say the model of structuring and paying for the Games is broken. Some observers go further – saying the Games and the Commonwealth itself are relics of the British Empire and should be wound up.
We also hear from athletes who have competed at the Games and highlight their importance for their respective sports and countries.
And we look at one city that has hosted with relative success – within budget and with long-lasting benefits to civic infrastructure.
Producer/Presenter: Gideon Long
(Image: The closing ceremony of the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From global current affairs to art, science and culture. |
| 0:05.1 | The documentary from the BBC World Service tells the world's stories. |
| 0:10.6 | Search for the documentary, wherever you get your BBC podcasts. |
| 0:16.8 | Hello and welcome to Business Daily with me, Gideon Long. |
| 0:20.8 | Today, does anyone actually want to host the Commonwealth Games? |
| 0:25.6 | The games will not proceed in Victoria in 2026. |
| 0:30.2 | Frankly, $6 to $7 billion for a 12-day sporting event. |
| 0:33.7 | We are not doing that. |
| 0:35.0 | It's an event in crisis without a host for its next edition in 2026, and yet to confirm one |
| 0:41.2 | for the following event four years later. |
| 0:43.7 | Last year's host city, Birmingham in the UK, has run into financing problems. |
| 0:48.8 | Its city council recently effectively declared itself bankrupt, and Birmingham was a second |
| 0:53.8 | choice option anyway after |
| 0:55.2 | Durbin in South Africa pulled out due to costs. It's an existential crisis because if you look at |
| 1:00.7 | the balance sheets of the Commonwealth Games Federation, which is the body that organises the games, |
| 1:05.3 | it's only got a few million pounds sitting in its bank account. If it can't get a games on in 2026, it may never |
| 1:13.0 | come back. So what's going on here? Is this another consequence of the cost of living crisis and |
| 1:18.2 | high inflation that might eventually pass? Or is there something more fundamental at play? |
| 1:23.3 | Do we need to rethink the way we host and finance the Commonwealth Games and similar big sporting events? |
| 1:30.6 | That's what we're exploring on this edition of Business Daily from the BBC World Service. |
| 1:37.6 | Very good. Thanks very much for being here this morning. |
| 1:40.6 | It's July the 18th this year and in Victoria, in Australia, the state's premier, Daniel Andrews, has called a news conference to discuss the hosting of the Commonwealth Games. |
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