Despite the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic, City of Greater Shepparton Mayor Kim O'Keeffe is still hopeful the bid, which was launched in 2017, will be finalised.
“The aspiration to have the 2030 Commonwealth Games across eight regional cities is still strong if we are able to do so, but like a lot of things at the moment there is uncertainty,” O'Keeffe said.
“Greater Shepparton already has attracted major sporting events.
“We already have some world class facilities and have proven we can host the best of the best.
“The proposal of having the games across the proposed eight cities is exciting and would give an incredible economic boost as well as give the locals an opportunity to experience an elite level of sport.
“There would be extra infrastructure needed to host the Games which would be an exciting addition to some of the participating cities’ sporting facilities and would remain for the regions to continue to maximise other sporting event opportunities in the future.”
O'Keeffe said the fact that more Melburnians were moving away from the state capital could help the bid's cause.
“I hope that the current increase of interest and opportunities in regional areas will be an added reason to why the 2030 Commonwealth Games should be invested in regional Victoria,” she said.
“I see greater opportunities (for regional communities) with people wanting to get out of Melbourne and hopefully that will give us some more legs to run with this.”
O'Keeffe said if it wasn't for the pandemic, the pre-feasibility study would have been released to relevant councils by now and she hoped the work on it would resume as soon as possible so they could plan which events would be held where and to determine what extra infrastructure would be needed.
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