Commonwealth Games canceled: Event boss Craig Phillips says Dan Andrews’s $6bn figure exaggerated

Event director Craig Phillips stated on Day 10 following the shocking cancellation of the 2026 Commonwealth Games that Victorian Premier Dan Andrews had not supplied any documentation to establish the cancellation will cost taxpayers between $6-7 billion.

At a press conference on Friday afternoon, Phillips said that his group was aiming to provide state premiers with accurate statistics of the entire cost of hosting the Games in three years.

Commonwealth Games Australia chief executive Phillips claimed in an unexpected admission that he had been given no documentation of how Andrews generated his "exaggerated" statistics after Andrews said his state would withdraw from hosting rights due to high costs.

Phillips stated, "We have not seen the numbers."

Tim Ada, Victoria's deputy secretary for economic policy and state productivity, told us about the announcement on the morning of the announcement, about an hour and a half before Dan Andrews' speech. This was the only time I talked to the Victorian Government in an official way.

"I can't give you any insight into what the lawyers are discussing; we sit in on their conversations from time to time. However, except for those exchanges, there has been radio-quiet.

While negotiating a financial settlement that might see Victorian taxpayers essentially part-fund the Games for another city, Phillips said CGA's lawyers have also not been provided with any paperwork explaining how Andrews reached an estimated cost of $6-7 billion.

"We were totally caught off guard, and I don't think most people would appreciate being treated that way," Phillips added.

This is disrespectful, and it is exactly how our movement and our athletes were handled last week.

We haven't talked to any local governments or state legislatures yet, but we plan to in the near future.

"Let's give the recent decision some time to sink in. It's still fresh for everyone."

"We have a number of $6-7 billion, which we know is too high, so when we get the chance, we'll talk to those who might be able to host in a reasonable way.

"From our point of view, there's always a chance it could be here. To be fair to the premiers of the other states, they're probably responding to a number like $6-7 billion, which is a lot of money.

"We think we can make progress if we can talk to each other in a reasonable way."

Phillips intends to attract them with his own financial estimates, despite all Australian premiers coming out and declaring they cannot afford to step in as replacements for Victoria.

While "the numbers that are out there right now are highly inflated," Phillips added, "we'll look at working with any state that wants to know what the Games could look like, what the costs may be."

"It depends on how you cut the numbers because it depends on how big the Games are, where they are held, and what you use."

The Victorian Government is now going through a formal process to get out of hosting the Games. As a result, they will have to pay compensation that could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Phillips said, "There are a lot of people involved in this, including the CGF (Commonwealth Games Federation), which owns the Games, their subsidiary the Commonwealth Games Federation Partnerships, and us as an entity."

"We all had some hopes because of a hosting deal, which, as Dan Andrews put it last week, has been canceled. So, we expect to be made whole, mostly by what was in that deal.

"I can't tell you what that is because those numbers are already private."

Phillips couldn't say exactly how much it would cost to put on the Games, but he did say, "I can't give you a number, but I can tell you what Birmingham cost, which was $1.5 billion, and what the Gold Coast cost, which was $1.2 billion. Those are the two most recent Games, and one of them was just last year."

"That gives you an idea of how much the Olympics might cost.

"Right now, the only thing we know for sure is that they won't be in Victoria. We will keep trying to find hosts and will work with the CGAF to do so. Whether the hosts we find are in Australia or somewhere else in the Commonwealth, we'll support it and send a team.

However, the performance must go on.

While the Scottish government and Birmingham have both expressed interest in hosting at least some of the Games, no Australian or international city has yet shown interest in hosting the complete event.

Phillips stated that conversations with other interested parties will "go hand-in-hand" with the reparation payout sought from the Andrews government.