Steve Moneghetti talks about Commonwealth Games axing

The 60-year-old Commonwealth Games gold medallist, Commonwealth Games Australia board member, former Chef de Mission and mayor of the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games village says he was kept completely in the dark by the decision to axe the regional Victorian games in 2026, only finding out by an urgent Zoom call when he was travelling in the United States.

The state government quashed the event due to what it says are cost blowouts of more than double the budgeted $2.6 billion.

Mr Moneghetti returned home to Ballarat this week and spoke exclusively to The Courier, expressing his deep frustration and regret over the decision, which he said had left him "blindsided".

"I've only been home three or four days and I've had so many people talk to me that I didn't even know were involved," he said.

"I knew people were excited. It came in such a quick way. There was no negotiation. There was no lead-up. It was just 'bang'.

"It had such a focus for this community and I'm sure it was the same for other regional communities. It's like getting teased with a carrot and having it dragged away from you."

Mr Moneghetti said the Commonwealth Games are more than just a sporting event, adding for some countries it was their one and only chance to get exposure within the Commonwealth.

"I've had so many roles, but my greatest ever role was as mayor of Melbourne 2006," he said.

"When I was mayor of the village, I had countries like Trinidad and Tobago, like Kiribati - when we welcomed them into the village, we would raise their flag, they'd do a cultural ceremony, I had people from those countries in tears at those ceremonies because it is the only time they feel a part of the Commonwealth.

"We simply do not understand the consequences of how powerful sport is in bringing the Commonwealth together.

"You talk about Australia topping the medal tally, it's not that, it's about bringing 7000 people from 72 nations together to share a cultural experience and we're using sport as a vehicle."

Mr Moneghetti said there were far more greater benefits than just sport.

"There's all these benefits that you don't see, the government spends millions of dollars on things anyway, but if they spent it on something that has such a positive effect on the Commonwealth, the local community, the sports people, that gives you the positive political outcome," he said.

"You'd have a sports conference here, delegates come out for meetings, they talk about trade. All of these benefits are locked up in a little thing we call the Commonwealth Games.

"I think I know Commonwealth Games better than anyone in Australia. I've had every role, I've done everything I can, even I don't comprehend the significant impact something like the Commonwealth Games has on Commonwealth relations.

"It goes down from the King to Alanna Peart who walks around the lake tonight, that's the impact of the human level it has and that's the effect I fear we're putting in doubt over a financial decision that has such significant implications on the future of the Commonwealth Games."

Mr Moneghetti said this decision had to cloud the long-term viability of the event.

"The future of the Commonwealth Games for me is the fact that the dollars seem so extravagant, it will scare away other cities, states and countries from hosting," he said.

"The international body has a new model now and that is why this regional model was able to be put in place because it offered a lot more flexibility about where to run events.

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"It has now been so negatively impacted by the decision, we need a realistic figure about what a Games should cost. We now need to talk to countries, not a city, it's more a country thing now. At the moment if you said to any country in the world 'the Commonwealth Games is going to cost you $7 billion', they're going to say 'good luck and goodbye'.

"Having a relationship between Commonwealth Games Australia, the federation, the city or government that takes on the event, I honestly believe you now need federal support as well. I think that's the initial conversation that needs to be had.

"I feel it's the country that needs to own the Games and you need buy-in at a national level. There's so many things you need that support on anyway, things like immigration, national security, there's lots of layers that the federal government has to support on, so it would be nice to have buy-in at the first stage."

Mr Moneghetti said his overwhelming emotion was disappointment.

"It's the community and the athletes we're leaving behind," he said.

"It's the people who have never been it and won't ever get that opportunity. That's the most disappointing thing for me, that opportunity has just been dragged away in one fell swoop.

"I feel for the athletes in regional Victoria. It's not their job to be caught up in the argy-bargy, they anticipated what the experience would be like. I've lived it, I know it's life-changing, I can tell you, regional Victoria has missed out on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

THOUGHTS ON THE CANCELLATION OF THE 2026 COMMONWEALTH GAMES

I was overseas in America and I got a message about an urgent board meeting of Commonwealth Games Australia. I was just blindsided, I had absolutely no comprehension that a decision like this was going to happen. I was just so flat and still flat now.

Having come home and spoken to people, everyone has been affected negatively by this decision. You can justify all you like, but the fallout of this is so depressing for a regional communities like Ballarat, Bendigo, Gippsland and Geelong. You cannot deny that.

I don't think the decision makers really have an understanding of the emotion that the community is feeling. From this joy of suddenly being recognised and supported and feeling like we had a purpose in regional Victoria. Let's be honest, it's metro, metro, metro everything and if not that, its suburban Melbourne, it's never quite got to regional Victoria.

When Warrnambool were complaining because they didn't get anything, or Benalla or Shepparton, that to me was fantastic because it showed they cared. They wanted it, they wanted to be a part of Victoria's games. It wasn't Melbourne.

We always say Melbourne 2006, we say Sydney 2000. This was the opportunity to have the whole of the state to host the games. The whole of the state should be disappointed with this decision, it's not just Ballarat and it's not just the city, it's not just the people at Mars Stadium who would get a few seats, it's far deeper than that and the consequences of this have hit every Victorian.

I know the government is justifying it by the financial constraints, which we're still waiting to see, but the social and a personal disappointments now have been completely underestimated, you can't put a price on those.

IMMEDIATE REACTION TO THE NEWS

I was in Lee Troop's backyard in Boulder, Colorado. We'd come from Monument Valley, so I'd gone from having one of the greatest moments in my life, it's something I've wanted to do for 25 years, we drove there and stayed at a place called Moab, I'd just arrived at 'Troopy's'.

Lee Troop and I are best mates and the reason we are is when he came back from university he said 'I want to be the best marathon runner, you're the best at the moment, so I'm going to move to Ballarat and train with you.' He turned up, we trained together twice a day for the next 10 years. He went to Commonwealth Games. Sport forged our relationship and so I wanted to catch up with him before he came back to Australia.

There I am having a beer and chat and five minutes later I get a message of an urgent meeting of the Commonwealth Games board, can you get on a Zoom call? I sat out on his deck and I've gone from being the highest of highs to the lowest of lows.

I was bewildered and I was thinking, 'surely this is not happening, am I dreaming this?' I don't normally get like that, I'm a pretty practical person and I'm thinking, 'nah, this isn't right, have we just in one fell swoop, have we just dumped the Commonwealth Games?' They won't be in Ballarat and who knows, they may never exist again. It's not a local decision, it might be the death knell of the games as an event. To have that happen in a flick of a switch was just incredible how that moment could just happen.

REACTION AT HOME

I've only been home three or four days and I've had so many people talk to me that I didn't even know were involved. I knew people were excited, but I didn't know how deeply this town cared about having a meaning in regional Victoria. It gave us a reason to feel a part of the state. Valued. It's all that stuff which just isn't understood.

It came in such a quick way, there was no negotiation, there was no lead-up, it was just bang. To me that's the shortsighted nature. To me there's a sense of disappointment and frustration, but there's also a feeling of a big vacant space. It had such a focus for this community and I'm sure it was the same for other regional communities, it feels like not only being back to where we were, it's like getting teased with a carrot and having it dragged away from you.

As a regional resident of this great state of Victoria where we say we've got the greatest state, back it up, don't just say it with your words, and at the moment, I feel we're getting none of that. Right now, I feel it's this great Melbourne, not the great Victoria.

If they had have come to us at CGA, we could have come up with an option that was financially viable, we could do it for less than $2 billion. If there's not an economic or social benefit of having the games of $2 billion, then you're not trying.

How many people do you have come to Ballarat and say, they didn't realise what sort of a beautiful city we have and we would have been showcasing that all across the Commonwealth. And now we don't get the opportunity to do that.

We've lost the RoadNats now and to be honest if we had have kept the games, there's probably a lot of people that would have 'ok, it's a like-for-like' but I feel there's a negativity around, every decision now is right under the microscope and we're right on the back foot now.

THE MARATHON LEGACY (Ballarat was not going to host a full marathon at the 2026 Commonwealth Games, despite hosting athletics)

I was initially disappointed with that but I was in Birmingham and I've seen the way the Commonwealth Games marathon has been going and it's struggled to get the best runners in the world to do it so the decision was taken to run a half marathon.

The reason they don't run in it, is because there are big city marathons where they get the appearance fees. We were going to struggle to get a quality field. We would have definitely got the best Australians, but if we were to try and get the best Kenyans, the best African nations, there would be some that would be foregoing $250,000.

So for those reasons, the half-marathon would have allowed someone to become the Commonwealth champion, but they wouldn't forego the opportunity in the lead up to big city marathon in the next few weeks. Obviously an event like that wouldn't have the history of the marathon, but it was a distance event that would have been highly sort after. Right now the marathon at the Commonwealth Games is not a priority for the world's best runners.

THE INAUGURAL BALLARAT MARATHON

Recreational running is booming. I'm on the Sydney Marathon board and we've broken through the 14,000 entrants for that event. The biggest marathon in Australia ever has had about 8200 runners, so we have now almost doubled the biggest marathon field ever in Australia for that event.

The Melbourne marathon and half-marathon is sold out, Gold Coast marathon is sold out. Recreational running is absolutely booming. How good will it be to try and capitalise on that at the Ballarat Marathon next year? I'm the race director for that and it will be a fantastic event to showcase Ballarat, as it would have been for the Commonwealth Games.

FUTURE OF THE COMMONWEALTH GAMES

The future of the Commonwealth Games for me is the fact that the dollars seem so extravagant, it will scare away other cities, states and countries from hosting. We now need a realistic figure on what the games cost.

The international body has a new model now and that is why this regional model was able to be put in place because it offered a lot more flexibility about where to run events, what the capacity is required and that whole new model was to be tested here in Victoria.

It has now been so negatively impacted by the decision of the government. We need a realistic figure about what a Games should cost. We now need to talk to countries, not a city, it's more a country thing now. At the moment if you said to any country in the world the Commonwealth Games is going to cost you $7 billion, they're going say 'good luck and goodbye'.

The model is now trying to open up the games hosting to other countries. For example, I think there should be a possibility that somewhere like New Zealand could host, but co-hosting with a Pacific nation like Fiji. I'm not sure Fiji could host such an event in isolation, but absolutely you could do it with New Zealand, then hopefully we can assist the infrastructure at a place like Fiji to a position that maybe down the track they can host events such as this on their own.

WHAT THE GAMES MEAN

The other thing about the Commonwealth Games is nations feeling like they are a part of the Commonwealth.

I've had so many roles, but my greatest ever role was as mayor of Melbourne 2006. When I was mayor of the village, I had countries like Trinidad and Tobago, like Kiribati, when we welcomed them into the village, we would raise their flag, they'd do a cultural ceremony, I had people from those countries in tears at those ceremonies because it is the only time they feel a part of the Commonwealth.

We simply do not understand the consequences of how powerful sport is in bringing the Commonwealth together. You talk about Australia topping the medal tally, it's not that. It's about bringing 7000 people from 72 nations together to share a cultural experience and we're using sport as a vehicle. We need a reason to bring these people together every four years and where we hold it is so important.

Imagine Togo coming into Ballarat and seeing a primary school adopt them, how good would that be for everyone? That knock down effect of spreading good will, it not only affects the Commonwealth countries but also the host nations because they get an exposure to a culture they would not know about otherwise.

It's the human relationships you build, not having the Games reinforces to me how important the Games are. We've got 14 kids going off to the cross country championships later this month, so I'm disappointed for those type of athletes here who won't get the opportunity to be exposed to the best in the world and have an opportunity. It's the human element of this decision that I'm really struggling to comprehend, it's the athletes and the community that miss out.

BENEFITS OF THE GAMES

There's all these benefits that you don't see, the government spends millions of dollars on things anyway, but if they spent it on something that has such a positive affect on the Commonwealth, the local community, the sports people, that gives you the positive political outcome. You'd have a sports conference here, delegates comes out for meetings, they talk about trade. All of these benefits are locked up in a little thing we call the Commonwealth Games.

I think I know Commonwealth Games better than anyone in Australia. I've had every role, I've done everything I can, even I don't comprehend the significant impact something like the Commonwealth Games has on Commonwealth relations. It goes from the top of the Commonwealth right down to the bottom, it goes down from King to Alanna Peart who walks around the lake tonight, that's the impact on the human level it has and that's the effect I fear we're putting in doubt over a financial decision that has such significant implications on the future of the Commonwealth Games.

RECOLLECTION OF COMPETING AT HOME

I represented Australia from 1986 right through to 2000 and never on Australian soil, but I knew Sydney was going to emotional because it was always going to be my last race.

But the thing I remember was being at North Sydney Oval on the start line and there were a couple of yahoos having a beer at a pub at the balcony and they were yelling out to us.

For the next 42.2km, I had people on the side of the road yelling my name and I'd never experienced that at all. You're running overseas and you never understand the impact that can have. The home ground is such an advantage.

Whenever a footy side wins they thank their supporters, when Jess Trengove (nee Stenson) crosses the line at Birmingham she has her family there, but wants to thank all the people who supported her back home. When you're at home, they are all there and they feel a part of it.

In the marathon itself, you're not combined by a fence, so you can basically reach out and touch the spectators, you have that direct personal contact you don't get often in life.

An artist gets a million hit on Spotify but they don't get to connect with the people until the concert, it's exactly the same in sport. I'm looking at someone in the eye and you can't put a price on that.

Sports outside venues - the Tour de France, for example, those cyclist coming up to the Tourmalet - that's human emotion, these are the little stories that I understand perhaps more than others.

There are the stories that maybe bureaucracy doesn't understand when they make decisions based on other factors. That's why at a grassroots level, these types of events are so important to a community that you just can't work on financial restraints.

LESSONS TO BE LEARNED

Having a relationships between Commonwealth Games Australia, the federation, the city or government that takes on the event, I honestly believe you now need federal support as well. I think that's the initial conversation that needs to be had.

I feel it's the country that needs to own the Games and you need buy in at a national level. There's so many things you need that support on anyway, things like immigration, national security, there's lots of layers that the federal government has to support on, so it would be nice to have buy in at the first stage.

To be honest, Commonwealth Games is far friendlier, far more relaxed than an Olympics, so countries actually get more benefit from them. What happens is at an Olympics it's such a big event, no one goes out anywhere, the athletes don't engage, because it's so serious, it's a more sanitised version, so the benefits to the community are diluted.

The Commonwealth Games you could see someone walking from Mars Stadium down Creswick Road to meet their family and they'll stop to give you an autograph and have a conversation.

Smaller countries at the Olympic level, you don't even notice their presence, at the Commonwealth Games last time we had some countries win their first ever medal and it was the biggest thing that happened in that year politically and sporting wise.

You can get a person from Kiribati mixing with a person from Australia or Canada, we're all in the same place - at the Olympics, the high profile superstars stay outside the village and don't interact.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I'm just so disappointed, it's not about me or the organisation, it's the community and the athletes we're leaving behind. I went to four Commonwealth Games, I was Chef de Mission, I was mayor, I don't need to go to another one. It's the people who have never been it and won't ever get that opportunity. That's the most disappointing thing for me, that opportunity has just been dragged away in one fell swoop.

I'm not disappointed with the decision makers, they'll justify why they did it, but I feel for the athletes in regional Victoria. It's not their job to be caught up in the argy-bargy, they anticipated what the experience would be like. I've lived it, I know it's life changing, I can tell you, regional Victoria has missed out on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

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