Hamilton Commonwealth Games committee abandons any bid for 2026 Games, looks to 2030
https://www.thespec.com/sports/hamil...s-to-2030.html
Back to the future: it’s Hamilton100 again.
That’s 100 as in the year 2030, the 100th anniversary of the Commonwealth Games.
The local bid for the 2026 Games has been abandoned.
The Spectator has learned that the private consortium hoping to bring the Games to Hamilton, where they started in 1930, will concentrate solely on bidding for the 2030 Games after shifting — at the request of the Games’ national and international governing bodies — last year to bid for first, 2026, and later 2027.
Lou Frapporti of Hamilton100 Commonwealth Games Bid Corporation confirmed Tuesday night that “we had been asked to pivot (last fall, to a plan for a possible year-delayed Games for 2027) and worked hard on it, but the process has been aborted.
“Having deliberated on it, we are not interested in attempting to pivot to 2027 and resolve to focus back on, and win, 2030.”
Frapporti told The Spectator that the renewed bid for 2030 will be an amalgam of elements from the original 2030 concept — approved by the province and City Council in 2019 — and the restructured bid for a cheaper, more-regionalized 2026 Games, which would have significantly reduced the number of events and athletes.
The 2026 bid was repositioned as a post-pandemic economic recovery strategy. Because COVID-19 had silenced all other potential bidders, Hamilton was essentially guaranteed to host if the local committee could get the necessary agreements from all three levels of government.
Frapporti isn’t releasing any specific details of the restructured 2030 bid other than that “affordable housing will remain from the 2026 plan as the central legacy and impact strategy for 2030. It wasn’t part of the original 2030 bid.
“I’m disappointed we couldn’t get 2026 delivered but having said that, I’m excited. We are now back to a full centenary Games and we can do it to the nines. We have enough time.”
The provincial government announced last October it would support funding for Commonwealth Games in Hamilton “in 2027 and beyond” but not for 2026. The local committee was then asked to consider planning for a potential 2027 Games, which it did.
But the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), headquartered in London, England, is doggedly determined to try to keep on cycle with a 2026 Games. So when the provincial government, through Commonwealth Sport Canada, recently reaffirmed that it would support a Hamilton bid only for 2027 or later, the writing was on the wall for Hamilton.
The CGF has received new and varying degrees of international interest in 2026, including a suggestion from influential publisher David Black that Victoria, B.C. could host the Games then.
On Tuesday morning, Brian MacPherson CEO of Commonwealth Sport Canada (CSC) confirmed that, other than to help with questions about 2030, the international federation is no longer involved in what had been months of frequent meetings via video conference or by phone with representatives of the bid committee, the city, and the CSC.
And the CSC is also meeting less often with the local group, and then only to work on 2030.
“We won’t talk about 2027 unless the CGF gives some kind of sign that they’ll entertain that,” MacPherson told The Spectator. “And at this point they’re not. They’ve made it clear they want Games in 2026 and I agree with it.”
There has been reported new interest in hosting 2026 from several areas, including Australia, India and Sri Lanka. But Australian cities are now in the running for the 2032 Summer Olympics, so that would likely eliminate that country.
“Exploring is probably the best word for it,” MacPherson said of the inquiries around 2026. Like the international body works in advance with potential host bidders — before, rather than after, their formal bids are presented — the national body has been advising Victoria interests and stressing how much commitment is needed from municipalities, provincial governments, citizens, community and sports leaders.
“Our stance is that we’ll empower any group out there with the information they need so they can make informed decisions,” he said. “We’re not out to hurt anybody’s aspirations but aspirations have to be backed up by solid, facts, figures and work.”
He suggested that Hamilton’s rejuvenated 2030 bid — it is still the one that the CSC officially backs for the centenary Games — is well down all those roads.
Of course if Victoria can assemble a workable bid quickly enough to convince the international federation to go there for 2026, that would ruin Hamilton’s chance at 2030.
Frapporti agrees and his committee is aiming to finalize its 2030 bid by early next year. The CGF could award the 2030 Games sometime in 2023.
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