Victoria's Premier Daniel Andrews has admitted the business case for the 2026 Commonwealth Games, which his Government withdrew from hosting, was "hardly the greatest piece of work" ©Getty Images

Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews has admitted that the business case for the axed 2026 Commonwealth Games was "hardly the greatest piece of work", during a media conference.

Andrews was speaking after documents were released showing the cost of hosting the Commonwealth Games in regional centres across Victoria more than doubled between April 2022 and July 2023.

Earlier this month, Victoria reached an agreement to pay AUD$380 million (£190 million/$242 million/€222 million) to the Commonwealth Games Federation, Commonwealth Games Federation Partnerships and Commonwealth Games Australia to settle all disputes arising from the cancellation of the event.

The cost of hosting the Commonwealth Games rose from $2.5 billion (£1.9 billion/€2.31 billion) in April 2022 to $7 billion (£5.5 billion/€6.4 billion) in July 2023, according to the documents.

The originally proposed business case also revealed an estimated benefit-cost-ratio of between 0.7 and 1.6, meaning that for every dollar invested by the Government it would receive a return of between AUD$0.70 ($0.44/£0.35/€0.41) and AUD$1.60 ($1.02/£0.80/€0.95), as reported by Guardian Australia.

The business case was prepared with input by the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions, Visit Victoria, the Department of Treasury and Finance and consultancy firms EY, MI Associates and DHW Ludus.

The Commonwealth Games is facing an
The Commonwealth Games is facing an "uncertain future" following Victoria's withdrawal from hosting in 2026 ©Getty Images

Andrews said the business case was "hardly the greatest piece of work", because "the estimates are a long way from what the costs were going to be."

Andrews refused to divulge the names of those who did the work, but added: "I’m not for a moment suggesting that people didn’t do their best.

"I’m not for a moment suggesting that every single thing that affected these costs was foreseeable and ought to have been included. That would be unfair to say.

"But in any event, we are in a situation where we either proceed and have to take money from hospitals and schools and heaven knows where else to run a AUS$7billion ($4.49 billion/£3.57 billion/€4.16 billion) 12-day sporting event or we have a year-long global legal action or we have a settlement and we close this matter.

"The third option is what we have delivered."

Polls showed that Andrews suffered a decline in support since Victoria’s withdrawal from hosting the Commonwealth Games in 2026, with a survey by Resolve Political Monitor finding that the Victorian Government’s vote dropped from 41 per cent to 39.