Witty Rejoinder said:

Kingy said:

party_pants said:

lack of a suitable venue that could host the event without needing expensive modifications or renovations.

So, no-one had a spare room, not even a pool room, or a local sports club? Maybe with a few hotels nearby that would have really liked the income?

Sounds dodgy to me.

But to be fair, being an Australian, we can’t complain, since there wasn’t one available in the entire state of Victoria.

rolls eyes

One thing I still don’t understand about Victoria’s planned games was that it was somehow better to renege entirely rather than simply say a regional games would be too expensive so it would be a more traditional games with most of the action in Melbourne. Beyond my ken. It’s not as though regional Victoria would suffer from doing without.

Melbourne had the games as recently as 2006. So this regional Victoria bid was based on it being “not Melbourne” as the key selling point, otherwise they probably would not have got it. What you said would be the logical alternative to you and me, but if the whole premise of awarding the bid was based on the “not Melbourne” principal then the organisers might have been reluctant to allow any change. I am sure they were asked (privately) and the refusal to dilute the principle lead to pulling the pin entirely.