Hamilton group hopes city hosts pared down 2030 Commonwealth Games

A group in Hamilton is hoping there’s still a chance for the city to host the 2030 Commonwealth Games, but likely with a “pared down” budget.

When hosting the 100th Commonwealth Games was first talked about, the price tag was north of $1 billion, but now a new Games is being proposed at a significant discount.

Hamilton hosted the first Commonwealth Games in 1930 and a group called Hamilton 100 hasn’t given up hope that the city can be part of hosting the games again in 2030.

Louis Frapporti, a lawyer at Gowling WLG, said “Commonwealth Games has done what they needed to do to make it more affordable and attractive. We won’t need to build any other capital projects because we already have a $350 million venue here behind me, and a community that’s eager for event programming to revitalize our economy.”

The original price tag to host the 2030 games was around $1.4 billion but the International Commonwealth Games Committee has pared the event down from 22 events to 15, and drastically lowered the overall cost of hosting.

Brian MacPhearson, CEO of Commonwealth Sport Canada, said “our model for a 2030 games in Canada would be an operating budget of $350 million, however there’s a return on that investment of at least two times in our forecasted economic model.”

The idea is that the 2030 Commonwealth Games wouldn’t be a “Hamilton Games” because Canada would be hosting events throughout the country.

“In our model, we’re looking at multiple provinces, so no province would host the entire Games, no one city would host the entire Games,” MacPhearson said.

Hamilton City Councillor John-Paul Danko said he is in support of a pared down Commonwealth Games, with no capital projects required to host.

“The concern right now is what is being proposed,” he said. “We don’t have an idea what the city’s commitment would be – in kind, road closures, policing – that sort of thing.”

“My understanding is that they’re not looking for a significant investment from municipalities, similar to [the] Grey Cup Festival and other large events we’re  used to hosting in the community.”

Ultimately it is up to the provincial governments to decide by the end of March if they want to bid for the Games.

Each province would be on the hook for about $156 million of the overall cost.

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