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Ryan Seacrest
Foreign.
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Samantha Salinger Morris
The Victorian government made headlines for all the wrong reasons in 2023 when it pulled out of hosting the Commonwealth Games on the grounds that it was too expensive. Now the Games are on in Glasgow with many locals barely registering that it's even taking place in their city, according to our reporter on the ground. I'm Samantha Salinger Morris and you're listening to the Morning edition from the Age and the Sydney Morning Herald. Today, senior sports writer Michael Gleason on whether the competition, which started in 1930 as a means for the colonies to unite and honor the monarchy, is on its last legs. It's July 29th.
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Podcast Host
Welcome, Michael, to the podcast.
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Michael Gleason
Thanks very much for having me. All the way from Scotland.
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Podcast Host
Exactly. Well, we can't wait to get stuck into this with you because I think I might be like many listeners, you know, I'm not a massive follower of the Commonwealth Games. I don't actually know so much about why it matters. But now you are in Glasgow, like you've said, you're there for the Games and it's been widely reported that this has been severely stripped back. Right, less sports, fewer athletes. So talk to us, I guess, a bit about why this matters and why has it been stripped back this year.
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Michael Gleason
Well, it matters to Australia because we win a lot. So we like to, we like a sport, we like a competition where we dominate and certainly that's true here. The Commonwealth Games were one of the few multi sport carnivals like an Olympics and they were always a mini Olympics but they just became too expensive. Now this Games is particularly interesting because the Games looked like they were dead after Victoria pulled the pin on hosting them.
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Daniel Andrews
The Games will not proceed in Victoria
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Michael Gleason
in 2026 with what was always a
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Daniel Andrews
folly, frankly, six to seven billion dollars for a 12 day sporting event. We are not doing that.
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Michael Gleason
It was a crazy idea to have a rural games, a country games in Victoria that you just, it was inconceivable that it would go ahead to anyone that had actually been to a Games and seen the size of them, seen the influen infrastructure needed to think that you would have a Games in Victoria in only rural areas was, was crazy. So in the breach, Glasgow jumped in, they said, well, we'll do it. But you know, being here now and having been here for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, which were fantastic, they built the city up, they polished the city up. It was looking schmick, it looked fantastic. Everyone bought in. It was a full Commonwealth Games. There was bus services, heaps of tourists here, the whole city was buzzing with it. Here now, it's a bit like being told at the last minute that you're the one of your friends that's got to host the dinner party. And you say, all right, well, you all bring the food and don't bring your kids because, you know, I'm sick of them and there's too many of them and. And I've got to work in the morning, so you're all going to leave early. And honestly, they're holding their nose through. That's how it feels.
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Podcast Host
Okay, so a bit of a political question here, because obviously Scotland has had a bit of a separatist movement from the Empire. So is part of it other sort of British Empire vibes, like a bit on the nose there? Is that part of the reason why perhaps the Scottish are a little bit.
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Michael Gleason
No, I don't think it is. Because, like, actually the last time the Games were on here was in 2014, and it was right at the time of the referendum, which they then voted to remain within the, you know, the uk. So I don't think it's that. I think it's just this was foisted on them. They've agreed to have it. And so it's really interesting. I think that they've. I think the whole Commonwealth Games concept here fumbled it a bit because they, they thought that this would salvage something from the Games that was going to die. So they just said, whatever form you can put it on, we don't want a mini Olympics, just do it. So there's a winnowed back number of sports. There's obviously swimming and there's athletics. They're the two big ones. But then they've got, you know, they've got gymnastics and weightlifting and, and bowls, indoor bowls. But there's no road races, there's no marathon, there's no, you know, there will be cycling, but there's no, you know, other key sports. Like, there's no. There's no hockey, massive. In India. There's no rugby sevens, which is big throughout all the, all the other Pacific countries and the rest of the Commonwealth, you know, there's no rowing, which is really big. In the uk. They didn't have those because they're team sports that you would have had to bring in much bigger teams for much more infrastructure. You would have had more venues required. They didn't have it. Now, why I say that was a mistake is because at the time they made those decisions, they didn't have anyone else putting their hand up to have any more Commonwealth camps. They couldn't find any Other venue other than Perth I think wanted to hold this one. They didn't have another city saying we'll, we'll fill the breach, let alone do the one in a few years time. Since then though, India has said we will take the next Games in four years time because India wants to bid for the 2036 Olympics and they want to show the world and the icioc that they can actually host an event of this type because they stuffed it up so badly when they held the Dow Valley Commonwealth Games that no one was ever going to send, you know, a major event there again because it was just so badly handled. But on top of that, when they had the games here last time the athletics was on at Hampton park, it held 40,000 people. They've got it on at a track now in Scotstoun Hill which is, which holds well, really only about 8,000 punters that are getting in. That's tiny. And it's just not as a consequence doesn't have that bus. And further to that, it hasn't brought in the tourists the way another one would. When you've got big volumes of sports and you've got lots of teams and things, lots of things that you can get access to, even free things like, you know, the, the, the walks and the road races and, and that sort of thing. So there's a lot of people, you go into, you know, places, restaurants and bars and they say, what are you here for? The Commonwealth camps. Oh that's right, that's on. Yeah.
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Podcast Host
And so you mentioned there before that Glasgow went into this. Obviously it was a sort of last minute arrangement and they were not going to look at this as being a mini Olympics. But as a layperson, like the Commonwealth game sort of strikes me as the poor cousin of the Olympics. I don't know if that's fair but I guess talk to me about the relevance. Yeah, right, okay, so talk to me, I guess about the relevant, of relevance of the Commonwealth Games to the athletes and particular sports. Is this like an important jumping off point during the year for our athletes to train for the Olympics or what's, what's the relevance here?
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Michael Gleason
No, it's huge. Well, the whole multi sport thing, carnival is really important. They really enjoy it, they really do peg themselves for it. I mean, but like they also have it in its perspective, like gout, gout in the biggest name in athletics. Was not going to compete, hasn't competed here and wasn't going to compete here because he planned to compete at the World Juniors which are on next week. But look, what it does is, it really varies here. So Rose Davies won gold in the 10,000 meters. In the athletics, Davies beat two African runners who were one and two in just one. The African, they were gold and silver in the African championships. And African runners have dominated the 10,000 meters. No Australians ever won, no Australian woman's ever won over that distance at Commonwealth level. So that's a phenomenal performance. You know, in the men's 1500, which will, or the mile, sorry, which will be the event of the, of the athletics and probably of the games is you, you've got Josh Kerr who just broke the world record for the marathon running against Cam Myers who's the, who just broke the Australian record over 1500 meters. He's only 20. He's the rising star of the whole sport. Then you got Jake Whiteman who's the reigning, who's a world champion. So you've got these world champion and you've got the two chariots from, from Kenya who are just stars of the sport. It is an absolute world class field. So it matters because it's also that sort of championship level. Running is really different to even diamond leagues or to, to the swimming. And athletes really like it too because they know that the public likes it, particularly in Australia and low profile sports, they don't get their moment in the sun. They're squeezed of oxygen by, you know, both football, all the football codes and you know, they get their little windows every, you know, every two or four years. Well, every two years because you get an Olympics and then Commonwealth Games in between, you have the worlds and that sort of thing. But because they don't get that moment, that's their chance to really be on telly, become a public, you know, a household name after the break in the scale of things that Victoria's wasted money on from the big build and the corruption in that, I don't, you know, this just adds to the list. People have almost forgotten that they'd committed this and wasted the money on it.
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Podcast Host
Foreign. Tell us, I guess a bit about how expensive these games are because obviously it made huge news here that the Victorian state government had announced in January 2022 it was in serious consideration to host the games. And then, you know, a month later, Premier Victoria at the time, Daniel Andrews confirmed that, you know, he was in exclusive negotiations to host this. And then of course next year state government pulls out saying it's way too expensive. So how expensive are they?
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Michael Gleason
Look, I wish I knew, I wish I could answer that accurately because the Victorian government was just Making numbers up on the fly at the time. It's going to cost 6 billion. Was it? Did I see 6? I might have meant 7. 7. Maybe it was 8.
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Daniel Andrews
It is in fact at least $6 billion and could be as high as $7 billion. And I cannot stand here and say to you that I have any confidence that that even $7 billion number would appropriately and adequately fund these Games. I think it could be more than that. Now there's a whole range of reasons for that and today's not about.
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Michael Gleason
There is no doubt to put them on in. At the scale they wanted in Victoria it was going to be super expensive. But that's also because they chose this stupid idea to think that they could host them all in regional centers and not utilize existing infrastructure and not utilize the mcg. And you know that that was completely unnecessary and silly. And to think that smaller towns had the capacity to host athletes and get the volunteers they want and think that they were going to bring in tourists and have places for them to stay and not just can be commuting back and forth on the train and staying in Melbourne anyway was, was ridiculous. And anyone that had been to any of the Commonwealth or Olympic Games before that would knew that immediately and thought this just isn't going to happen. And eventually the government gets to the point where realization themselves. Now they could have, they could have changed all of that. They could have still with the Victorian government said you know what we overestimated rather than just pull the pin on the whole thing. We're going to host it, but it's going to be in, you know, we are going to use Victoria, we are going to use Melbourne, we are going to use Geelong, we're going to use the depth of pool we have there and the track. They could have done a much better scale back version but they basically just said, you know, we're out.
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Podcast Host
And we have seen reporting though that this, the total cost of the games to Victorians is over $589 million. So I guess is it worth the cost? I mean how much anger is there, I guess perhaps in Victoria that the taxpayers are on the hook for this money even though Victoria didn't of course end up hosting it. Get the, get whatever tourists they might have got from it. What can you tell us about that, Michael?
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Michael Gleason
Look in the scale of things that Victoria's wasted money on from the big build and the corruption in that. I don't, you know, this just adds to the list. People have almost forgotten that they'd committed this and wasted the money on it, it was, you know, like, I don't want to be, you know, be Pollyanna about it. But it's just when you look at how that could have still been scaled back to a better version than this, and when you looked at the fact that it was just never going to be what they thought it was, what they were selling it to be, it's ridiculous to think that it was, it was conceived of in the first place.
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Podcast Host
And, and when, of course, Victoria did finally announce that it was pulling out of hosting the Commonwealth Games, the Commonwealth Games Authority certainly expressed some disappointment. You know, they said that they were only given eight hours notice. I mean they were, they were a bit filthy about it, it sounded like, from their announcement. So I guess let's just talk about the reduction of the number of sports from 20 in 2022 to 10 this year. Is this Victoria's fault? Did the government kill the games, Michael?
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Michael Gleason
Yeah, well, they nearly killed the entire concept and that's, and the Indians have saved it and the Scots to that degree as well. Certainly the Brits didn't want the concept to fall. And it was, they looked at a whole range of options of sending it back to Birmingham, spreading it between Birmingham, maybe Manchester, possibly Liverp know, having it in the smaller cities and spreading it through there because they, they didn't want. England in particular didn't want the concept to go. Glasgow obviously stepped in and, and, and took it on and, and, but they did so on the basis that this isn't going to be costing us money and that's what they kept selling to their own people. We'll do it, but it's not going to cost the Scots. Like it's going to be funded by the CGA and by basically the Victorian government.
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Podcast Host
And is that, is that, what, is that what happened in the end? The Scots haven't, haven't been putting the buffet. Wow.
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Michael Gleason
They're saying we're not, it's not costing the taxpayers. That's what they keep stressing here.
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Podcast Host
Is that the case?
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Michael Gleason
Yeah, well, to the best of my knowledge it is. Yeah.
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Samantha Salinger Morris
Okay.
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Podcast Host
Okay. And so Michael, just to wrap up, I mean we know that the next Commonwealth Games is in India in four years time. That's locked in. But talk to us, I guess a bit about the future of this event. I mean, is it at risk? Is it going to keep going? I mean this is an interesting event in terms of, I guess it's where sport and politics also sort of merge because there's an argument that, well, traditional allies have been frayed Under Donald Trump, he's sort of eroded many alliances. So is there an argument that perhaps the Commonwealth Games are more important than ever to sort of solidify these ties between countries that perhaps do see eye to eye more than not in this time?
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Michael Gleason
Well, the Canadians certainly finally found someone that's friendly to them again other than the country that wants to take them over as another state. So they're very, yeah, they're very proudly wearing their, their red and their maple leaves anywhere they are here to just to say, I know you can hear my accent but I'm not one of those ones that you think I am. I'm a Canadian. I think that it's a really interesting point you make about the, the future of it. I think it's really, it's been saved and a lot of it now is only is going to hinge on India and how they handle it and do, and what kind of games they put on in four years time. But then it's also by doing this with Glasgow, even though it might not be, you know, it might not be this again, what they've at least done is open the idea that cities can offer to post it without hosting mini Olympics and they can say look, we'll host it, but we'll host these seven sports and they may not be the same ones every time. You know, it may not be that. Well, you're always going to have athletics and, and swimming because they're just so, they're so big in the thing but, but you could be changing around. But as the Olympics has done, they've tried to say we, we can't be bank, we can't be sort of bankrupting cities by asking them to host these games. So therefore we have to be open to. You must utilize existing facilities, as many existing facilities as you have, but also have legacy facilities that if you build something, therefore you're leaving something behind. And that was the silly thing about what Victoria did. They were, they were going to build things that then rip them down again while they actually had purpose built facilities that they could have used.
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Podcast Host
Michael, thank you so much for your time there with you on the ground in, in Scotland.
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Michael Gleason
Thank you. Thanks for the interest in the Commonwealth Games because yeah, it's good fun. I mean they are laughed at as the school sports but they're better than that. As I said, some of these events are genuine world class and, and they're fun. The games are fun.
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Samantha Salinger Morris
Today's episode was produced by Chi Wong. Our executive producer is Tammy Mills and our podcasts are overseen by Lisa Muxworthy and Tom Tom McKendrick if you like our show, follow the Morning Edition and leave a review for us on Apple or Spotify. Thanks for listening.
- [17:26]
Ryan Seacrest
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Podcast Host
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