Have Your Say on Central Victoria’s 2026 Commonwealth Games Legacy

 

Lead researcher of a new survey looking into the 2026 regional Victoria Commonwealth Games legacy says local Central Victorian sports clubs and associations need strategies to prepare for life after the event.  

 

Experts in sport and event legacies from Federation, La Trobe and Griffith Universities are collaborating with Bendigo-based organisation Sports Focus on a project that will hear from Central Victorian residents about their hopes, ideas and concerns surrounding the Games.

 

Federation University lecturer in international sport management, Dr Alana Thomson, said research shows “long-held assumptions about ‘trickledown effects'” of big events, such as the Games, don’t always come to fruition. 

 

“Based on the insights the community shares with us, we will then work up a plan with Sport Focus and the local sport sector to ensure that sport in Bendigo and Central Victoria see benefits beyond the two weeks of elite sport competition.”

 

She added that they learnt a lot from last year’s Birmingham Commonwealth Games, which dealt with the challenges of Brexit and COVID-19, and the successes of a balance between “temporary infrastructure” and larger, permanent venues at the 2018 Gold Coast Games.  

 

Below is a link to the survey, which will close on Wednesday March 1. 

 

 

Image: Sirhissofloxley, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.