Australia’s Victoria state has withdrawn from hosting the 2026 Commonwealth Games because of a massive increase in the projected cost of staging the multi-sports event. The Victoria premier, Daniel Andrews, said the event was ‘all cost and no benefit’ and gave an estimate of ‘$6 to $7 billion’ for the 12-day Games. Organisers said the decision was ‘beyond disappointing’ and disputed the claims of spiralling costs, saying: ‘The stated cost overruns, in our opinion, are a gross exaggeration and not reflective of the operational costs presented to the Victorian 2026 organising committee board as recently as June this year’.
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