The Commonwealth Games and its discontents: Has Daniel Andrews done us all a favour?

Daniel Andrews may have done us all a favour. In cancelling the Commonwealth Games, he called out the excesses of the sport mega-event industry – though it may come at great political cost.

Andrews was back in pandemic form, bluntly stating that a $2.6 billion estimate had blown out to a near $7 billion cost for a 12-day event. He had made some difficult decisions during his premiership, he added, but this was not one of them. The games were cancelled – and that was that.

Eighteen months previously, Andrews had promoted the great outcomes that the Commonwealth Games would bring to regional Victoria, readily using the “Melbourne as the sporting capital of the world” mantra. He now realised that without extensive federal and state government money, the event would be anything but beneficial to Victorians.

Predictably, the sports media clique, led by the Murdoch press, criticised the decision, as did the CEO of Commonwealth Games Australia (CGA), Craig Phillips.

An angry Phillips questioned the Premier’s costings and transparency. As with the municipal authorities in the host cities, Phillips had little prior warning of the government’s decision.

Phillips was more forthcoming than the Premier on the flaws in the regional model. As he suggested, costs could have been reduced by moving some events to existing facilities in Melbourne, but the government refused to budge.

It was a regional event, or none at all, and therein lay the problem. The model was flawed from the start. A mega-event spread across five regional hubs without the necessary infrastructure was always going to be costly.  

Cancelling the Commonwealth Games will also be costly. Revenues have already been spent on preparing sites and establishing an organisational base. The outcome of negotiations on the contract’s termination are yet to be finalised, and there will payouts to administrative staff and contractors.

In addition, the Premier has pledged a $2 billion sport and housing package to placate the regional centres affected by the cancellation.

The weightier cost will be to Victoria’s fading reputation as the sporting capital of the world.

For decades, Melbourne reinvented itself on this fiction after the city’s de-industrialisation during the ’70s and ’80s.

Orchestrated by entrepreneurial governments of both persuasions, Melbourne secured events such as the Australian Grand Prix, and managed to revitalise a flagging Australia Open. Public lands were transformed into elite sporting venues, while governments pork-barrelled major sporting bodies.

A grifter sports economy developed, as politicians and developers transformed the cityscape while sporting organisations pocketed public monies.

Melburnians swallowed the marketing line that the city was the sporting equivalent of London, Paris and New York. Similar lines were sold by sports boosters in other de-industrialised cities, such as Manchester and Cleveland, which reinvented their economies around sport and services.

In his withering press conference, Andrews dispelled this fantasy. He’s prepared to wear the damage to Melbourne’s reputation.

Tearing up a contract for a major event is not a good look for a city once considered a global leader in sport business. He may have realised that the Commonwealth Games barely registered in voters’ minds, and took a punt on axing the event while minimising further political pain.

In doing so, Andrews was merely stating the obvious. Melbourne cannot afford to indulge the “world sporting capital” fantasy any longer. The city is no longer a global sport player, confirmed by the Women’s World Cup.

Read more: Women’s World Cup: Remarkable progress, but the longer-term challenges remain

It’s the most significant sporting event staged in Australia since the 2000 Sydney Olympics, while the Matildas are perhaps the best football team this country has produced. In Sam Kerr it may have the best footballer across all codes. Indeed, the team has a strong chance of advancing deep into the tournament.

Melbourne, however, will not be there. In the global game, the self-proclaimed sporting capital of the world is not hosting a match at the cutting edge of the tournament. Brisbane will stage a semi-final, and Sydney the final. When bracketed with Brisbane securing the 2032 Olympics, Melbourne must be considered no longer the sporting capital of Australia.       

This may not be a bad thing. Sporting circuses are costly and many cities are baulking them. As Andrews found, they break the budget – a prospect Brisbane faces as it approaches 2032.

Transformation ... for the good?

Such mega-events also transform cities. They introduce hyper-surveillance technologies that aren’t removed once the show leaves town. As was evident at the 2016 Rio Olympics, the games militarised law enforcement, seen in the city’s favelas.

In preparation for the Olympics, Rio de Janeiro implemented a “pacification” blitz in the city’s favelas. The legacy for the affected communities hasn’t been as rosy as painted by Olympic boosters. Many of the communities’ residents had little to do with the sporting event, and felt deeply the sheer force of the military police.

Similar campaigns are now being repeated in Los Angeles, targeting the homeless and marginalised African-American and Latino communities. Areas are being “swept” to remove the homeless and gentrified around sporting stadiums.

Promises about social housing are also “swept” aside. Neoliberal sport requires neoliberal solutions. Olympic villages are sold into property markets to maximise returns and limit debt. They may even be listed on Airbnb, an official Olympic sponsor.

NOlympics LA has run a prolonged campaign to stop the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. The organisation represents diverse groups across the city from tenants and the homeless, to Latino and African-American communities. Overnight it praised the Andrews government’s decision to cancel the Commonwealth Games, and called on the Garcetti administration to do likewise. 

It’s time to benefit the many, not the few

Perhaps it’s time governments started looking at sport as not merely an economic vehicle that benefits the few.

No doubt, the cancellation of the Commonwealth Games will deeply affect the athletes. Perhaps it’s time that governments invested public money into growing sport participation and building community infrastructure and sporting areas that benefit all Australians, particularly those who are disadvantaged.

Sport can create cohesive and thriving communities, but it must not be co-opted by governments and sporting bodies to the detriment of those communities.

While the sport media clique may rail against the cancellation, Andrews has done us a favour. If the Commonwealth and Olympic games are to survive, they need to be reformed. If not, they should be scrapped. They cannot continue given the financial and social costs they inflict on many marginalised communities and cities.