Commonwealth Games

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Originally Posted by mayo hibee

Maybe Sunak will try to get it to somewhere in England to try to appeal to empire loving Tories down there by "saving" the games.

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Well that literally took one day for the Tories to start using it for a bit of posturing.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-66242529.amp

Although it would be quite fitting to see the Commonwealth/Empire Games reduced to being held in England only, more or less like the empire itself.

Alberta pulls out of bidding to host in 2030 which means as it stands there is no host for 2026 and no one bidding to host in 2030. Add to that the games have only been hosted outside the UK or Australia once this century (India) and only 3 times outside the UK, Australia, New Zealand or Canada in their entire history (India, Jamaica and Malaysia) and I think it's safe to say the Commonwealth Games are coming to an end.

A shame in some ways as I know a lot of UK and Channel Islands athletes enjoyed and were proud of competing wearing a Scotland, England etc vest. It just feels a bit dated though, the prestige just isn't there for the truly elite athletes and the financial benefits for a host city and country just aren't comparable to the Olympics, World Cup and so on. The TV revenues are limited, corporate sponsorship is limited and the risks outweigh the benefits.

It will be interesting to see if anything else takes the space on the calendar. I doubt it as a lot of top athletes just skipped the games altogether and enjoyed the rest period as it was a non Olympic and non World Championships year.

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Originally Posted by Pretty Boy

Alberta pulls out of bidding to host in 2030 which means as it stands there is no host for 2026 and no one bidding to host in 2030. Add to that the games have only been hosted outside the UK or Australia once this century (India) and only 3 times outside the UK, Australia, New Zealand or Canada in their entire history (India, Jamaica and Malaysia) and I think it's safe to say the Commonwealth Games are coming to an end.

A shame in some ways as I know a lot of UK and Channel Islands athletes enjoyed and were proud of competing wearing a Scotland, England etc vest. It just feels a bit dated though, the prestige just isn't there for the truly elite athletes and the financial benefits for a host city and country just aren't comparable to the Olympics, World Cup and so on. The TV revenues are limited, corporate sponsorship is limited and the risks outweigh the benefits.

It will be interesting to see if anything else takes the space on the calendar. I doubt it as a lot of top athletes just skipped the games altogether and enjoyed the rest period as it was a non Olympic and non World Championships year.

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https://www.bbc.com/sport/commonwealth-games/66255262

Gold Coast set to step in for 2026.

I like the Games. Glasgow was great and Birmingham was one of the best ever.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pretty Boy

Alberta pulls out of bidding to host in 2030 which means as it stands there is no host for 2026 and no one bidding to host in 2030. Add to that the games have only been hosted outside the UK or Australia once this century (India) and only 3 times outside the UK, Australia, New Zealand or Canada in their entire history (India, Jamaica and Malaysia) and I think it's safe to say the Commonwealth Games are coming to an end.

A shame in some ways as I know a lot of UK and Channel Islands athletes enjoyed and were proud of competing wearing a Scotland, England etc vest. It just feels a bit dated though, the prestige just isn't there for the truly elite athletes and the financial benefits for a host city and country just aren't comparable to the Olympics, World Cup and so on. The TV revenues are limited, corporate sponsorship is limited and the risks outweigh the benefits.

It will be interesting to see if anything else takes the space on the calendar. I doubt it as a lot of top athletes just skipped the games altogether and enjoyed the rest period as it was a non Olympic and non World Championships year.

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In athletics the European Championships fall the same year as the Commonwealths and are already seen as a bigger event by the top athletes in most cases. If the Commonwealths fell away it wouldn't make much difference to the athletics calendar anyway.

I think they'll cobble together something for 2026 to save face. After that it will probably come down to whether the UK government of the day (probably Labour at that point) feels that the "soft power" benefit of the games is significant enough to warrant them paying hundreds of millions to keep them going.

Outside of Britain the Commonwealth in general is dying a death all over the English speaking world so they might chuck the money at the games to keep the whole thing alive. But it will probably only be held in UK cities after 2026, if it survives at all.

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Originally Posted by mayo hibee

In athletics the European Championships fall the same year as the Commonwealths and are already seen as a bigger event by the top athletes in most cases. If the Commonwealths fell away it wouldn't make much difference to the athletics calendar anyway.

I think they'll cobble together something for 2026 to save face. After that it will probably come down to whether the UK government of the day (probably Labour at that point) feels that the "soft power" benefit of the games is significant enough to warrant them paying hundreds of millions to keep them going.

Outside of Britain the Commonwealth in general is dying a death all over the English speaking world so they might chuck the money at the games to keep the whole thing alive. But it will probably only be held in UK cities after 2026, if it survives at all.

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Just outside of Britain? I dont know a single person who would careless if it disappeared tomorrow.

Well, without getting too political on the sports forum, the fact that Britain remains a single country suggests the principle of the Commonwealth is still holding firm on the island!