The City of Hamilton in Canada is laying the groundwork ahead of a possible bid to host the 2030 Commonwealth Games, an event that would mark the centennial of the year the Games were originally launched in the same city.
If approved at a meeting of the General Issues Committee on Wednesday City staff will be asked “send a letter, under the signature of the Mayor, to Commonwealth Games Canada (CGC) expressing a non-binding interest in the
City of Hamilton hosting the 100th Anniversary Commonwealth Games in 2030.”
Staff will then be directed to prepare a business proposal outlining the the requirements of bidding and hosting the Games and to report back early in 2018. With the report to be developed by Greg Maychak – a Senior Project Manager for The Energy, Fleet & Facilities Management Division of Public Works – the City Council will determine whether to move forward with a bid.
Hamilton has only hosted the 1930 Games, but has bid to host three times more recently for the 1994, 2000 and 2014 editions of the Games that were awarded to Victoria, New Delhi and Glasgow respectively. After preliminary discussions with CGC, Anna Bradford, Hamilton’s Director of Tourism and Culture believes that her City will be looked upon favourably to host the Centenary Edition.
It was a sports journalist from Hamilton who originally came up with the concept of the Games, first hosted in the city as the British Empire Games.
In 2007, planners for Hamilton’s 2014 bid proposed a budget of (CAD) $425 million for the Games.
The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) will need to site two editions of the Games prior to focusing on 2030. Earlier this year Durban was stripped of the 2022 Games after missing financial milestones leaving Games officials scrambling for a replacement. By the end of the year the CGF is expected to pick from among Liverpool, Birmingham or Kuala Lumpur to host those Games. England officials will narrow the choice when it selects one of two former cities as a nomination later this month.
Canadian Cities Toronto and Victoria both dropped fledgling bids to replace Durban in 2022 when they failed to rally government support for the projects.
In two years the CGF will begin to search for a 2026 host city and won’t likely turn its attention to the 2030 race until 2023.
Victoria in Australia has expressed interest in organizing a bid for the 2030 Games. Gold Coast, also in Australia is set to host the Games in 2018.
Hamilton hosted the Soccer matches at the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games, and was originally to be the site of the Track and Field events before those plans were scrapped and Toronto staged them instead.
