Part of me is inclined to say might as well keep going with the games, but then I think sunk cost fallacy.
Does anyone even care about the commonwealth games?
While I enjoy the Commonwealth/Olympics Games, I think that pulling out is the best thing for us (heh) because just how much money government bodies sink into these games with us getting nothing out of it. Sure there might be more tourism, but so many buildings built for these games just become decrepit and unused. So while it does foster comraderee and tourism, in the end it’d be such a waste. And with our cost of living crisis and other crisis’ post-Covid, it just feels like… a waste.
First time someone’s ever pulled out in regional Victoria.
It sucks about the withdrawal fine but if it stopped greater expenditure… I think there’s a lot of core things that could more urgently use the money
It is simple math, the penalty for not hosting vs the cost of hosting. It seems thing was going to have a negative cost much more than the penalty so they decided to withdraw. People who are angry are thinking with their heart, not their head (or will just whinge about anything)
Whether you like Dan or not I think this is the correct call. I believe Dan was counting on some federal funding to make this happen and that Albo probably pulled it in favour of a surplus.
So instead of spending the extra couple of billion, we would also need to spend the couple of billion we should have gotten federally and we got screwed instead.
On that though, I think Dan needs to appoint a successor and plan to retire.
Whether you like Dan or not the original decision to sweep in like a hero and host the games was a reckless political play that’s cost us dearly.
Victorian Labor has a nasty habit of signing up for things they can’t afford, and then hoping the federal government foots the bill.
Also, this should really put into perspective how small the $5M settlement for COVID lockdown is in the scale of things.
Im sure they actually discussed it beforehand, no hoping here.
And it was affordable until inflation and crippled building industry kicks in.
No, they made assumptions about receiving funding from the federal government and local councils without receiving any commitments: https://www.smh.com.au/politics/victoria/victoria-banked-on-getting-200m-in-federal-funding-when-it-bid-for-games-20230820-p5dxyt.html
It was never going to be affordable given how much security would cost with it split across regional areas. It was always going to saddle the regional areas with the cost of maintaining sports facilities they’ll never fully utilise.
