Following the country’s success in hosting the All African Games, the Minister of Youth and Sport, Mustapha Ussif has revealed discussions are underway to host the next Commonwealth Games in 2026. He said he’s had discussions with the President of Commonwealth Games who has already toured Ghana’s facilities.
“In fact, the president of Commonwealth Games was in Ghana. He has visited our facilities and held a meeting with my good self. I had the opportunity of even attending some of their meetings,” Mustapha Ussif told GHOne TV.
Mustapha Ussif’s comments come a day after the Commonwealth Games Federation announced it will announce a new host city in May.
“Significant progress has been made and we are excited by the initial concepts that aim to reset and reimagine the Games. We are now working with the relevant Commonwealth Games Associations (CGAs) to undertake further detailed assessments, and aim to announce the host of the 2026 Commonwealth Games in May. Our CGAs have asked that their proposals remain confidential during this process and we have agreed,” CGF said.
The sports minister express optimism of the country’s winning the bid to host the competitions because Ghana has the requisite facilities. He added that the games’ authorities want an African nation as the host for the next edition.
“And their programs, they want African nation. They said it is time for Africa to host the Commonwealth Games, and Ghana, we have the facilities now.”
Commonwealth Games Hosting and Cost Concerns
According to the Minister, the Commonwealth Games won’t be expensive to organize. He said the cost for organizing the 12-day event would be less than what was spent to organize the delayed 2023 African Games in March.
“It is not going to cost us as much as it cost us to organize the African Games if we decide as a country to go for Commonwealth Games.”
Though we cannot confirm how much the country plans to spend on the Commonwealth Games, the country spent $195 million on facilities for the the African Games. Nearly all of those facilities can still be used though maintenance and a few other facilities may be added.
Also, the country budgeted $48 million as operational expenses for the 18-day event and that amounted to approximately GHS 33.4 million a day for the event.
However, cities and countries have been running away from hosting the competition due to its cost implications. Durban South Africa was originally scheduled to host the last games in 2022 but pulled out later due to cost concerns. Birmingham stepped in to host the 2022 event, thus leaving the 2026 spot vacant as it was planned to be hosted there. The City of Birmingham declared bankruptcy after hosting the games.
The Commonwealth Games in 2022 was budgeted to cost $978 million but the City underspent by $75 million, according to InsidetheGames. Despite its success, the City went bankrupt in 2023 and needed help from the UK Government in London to get back to its feet.
The Australian state of Victoria announced its decision to host the games in 2026 but the State’s governor later cancelled the decision claiming it was it was ridiculous to spend $6.9 billion to host the two week event. Though the state’s initial budget for the games was $1.7 billion, they later found out the cost would be more though less than the $4.5 billion quoted by Dan Andrews when he announced the decision to cancel the games. The exact cost was A$5.9 billion.
Nonetheless, the games still set the state back by at least $242 million in dispute settlement with Commonwealth due to the decision to cancel the hosting rights.
Gold Coast agreed to host it with Victoria State to share cost but also pulled out due to cost concerns. London and Scotland considered options but pulled out due cost after the UK government said there was no financial appetite to host the games.
The Commonwealth Games Federation offered Malaysia £100 million to host the games but the Malaysian cabinet blocked the decision in March 2024. Commonwealth Games Singapore (CGS), the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) and Sport Singapore (SportSG) also considered stepping and even discussed a joint-hosting with Malaysia but also pulled out on April 3, 2024 due to the same reasons.
Though the country will get financial support from the Commonwealth Games Federation, the number of countries expected to participate are more. There 72 nations and territories that are eligible to participate in Commonwealth Games, 19 more than the participating countries at the most recent African Games. The number of disciplines (20 core) are significantly lower compared to the African Games 2023 which had 30 disciplines including some Olympic qualifiers. In 2022, there were 5,054 athletes that competed in 280 events. The African Games however, had just 2,644 but a significantly greater number of events, 335.
So the Minister’s claim that cost will be less for now is debatable but until the host city is announced in May, there is not much to talk about except projections.