Greater Shepparton City Council is seeing the culmination of more than five years work come to fruition with the announcement from the Victorian State Government this morning that they will bid for a regional cities 2026 Commonwealth Games.
“Regional Victoria is ready to welcome the Commonwealth Games”, Regional Cities Victoria Chair and Mayor of Greater Shepparton, Cr Kim O’Keeffe, said. “I am absolutely thrilled for our region and for all of Victoria.”
“We have been involved in the development of a regional cities model for a number of years with a pre-feasibility study completed in early 2020. This was contributed to by the State Government and several regional councils including Shepparton, Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo,” said Cr O’Keeffe. “We set up a Commonwealth Games Working Group, chaired by Adem Karafili, which has worked tirelessly on the bid for a regional games.”
“The Melbourne Commonwealth Games in 2006 was a great success. A Victorian Commonwealth Games in 2026, hosted across the state, will be an event to remember, and will show the world what Victoria has to offer.”
Mayor, Cr Kim O’Keeffe said the news was absolutely fantastic for Greater Shepparton. “This will be the economic boost that our region and many regional areas need after two years of pandemic impact.”
Regional cities are well placed to support such an event with the potential to create significant economic and social opportunities for local businesses and the community.
The regional model is a good one with great facilities and infrastructure already available. Shepparton has a proven track record of hosting successful large scale international events such as the 2020 UCI BMX Supercross World Cup. Shepparton’s Victoria Park Lake also hosted the 2017 and 2018 World Tour Beach Volleyball events along with several international standard Triathlons, with the ability to host bigger events in the future.
Greater Shepparton City Council CEO Peter Harriott said “while we are fortunate to have some world class infrastructure in our region, we also welcome investment towards new and updated facilities.”
“We understand that this is a big expenditure for the state and we look forward to working closely with the government to make this happen,” said Mr Harriott.
