Key: Govt will not support $600m games bid

Screengrab from commonwealthgames.org.nz

The Government will not be supporting a bid to host the Commonwealth Games in Auckland, Prime Minister John Key said today.

Mr Key said the 2018 games would come with a price tag of nearly $600 million.

The Government share of that was to have been half.

"It's very very expensive and we can't see the economic payback," Mr Key said.

Labour leader Phil Goff said this morning he did not believe the Government should back the bid if it was going to make a loss.

Last year the Government put up money to assess Auckland's ability to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

The assessment was commissioned by the New Zealand Olympic Committee and funded by New Zealand Major Events, a unit of the Ministry of Economic Development, along with government sport funding agency Sparc and Auckland councils.

Auckland mayor John Banks said he was not surprised by the Governments lack of support, given the current financial climate.

He said the Government has no interest in spending more money while they are borrowing $240 million a week to balance the Crown accounts.

"Even if the lever had been pulled on this operation, it was still a long bow to win the bid," Mr Banks said.

He said African countries would have opposed the New Zealand bid in favour of a host country closer to home.

Mr Banks was asked if the games were just the latest in a long line of events lost by Auckland.

"Auckland lost the V8s and I lost the mayoralty over that," Mr Banks said.

But he said AUckland will be hosting most of the key games in the 2011 Rugby World Cup and he hoped to secure a future APEC meeting for the city.

Sparc chief executive Peter Miskimmin said last year the assessment would give more information about the costs and benefits of holding the Games.

"Hosting a Commonwealth Games would provide substantial benefits for sport in New Zealand, and potentially major positive legacies in terms of infrastructure, volunteer base and participation."

If Auckland decided to bid for the Games, documents would be filed with the Commonwealth Games Federation in May 2011 before the host city was announced in November 2011.

- NZHERALD STAFF