Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

No Commonwealth Games in Auckland in 2018

Updated at 9:40 am on 17 March 2010

Auckland's hopes of hosting the Commonwealth Games in eight years have been dashed, with the Government saying the half billion dollar cost is too high.

The Auckland region had been hoping to sway the Government, arguing the 2018 games would have brought major economic benefit.

A feasibility study on Auckland hosting the games put the running costs at about $550 million.

Prime Minister John Key announced on Tuesday holding the event would be too expensive, after Cabinet discussions about Auckland's bid on Monday.

The region's leaders had hoped the Commonwealth Games would be one of the major events to boost tourism in the wake of next year's Rugby World Cup.

Prime Minister John Key agrees there are arguments in favour of the event but says the economic loss is so great it cannot be justified.

Barnett disappointed

The leader of the Auckland bid, regional development agency Auckland Plus chairman Michael Barnett, says the decision is disappointing.

Mr Barnett says without the Government sharing the costs the bid cannot proceed.

He says the region had had a long-term vision of the benefits that would have flowed from hosting the games.

Waitakere City mayor Bob Harvey made a last-minute appeal to Sport and Recreation Minister Murray McCully over the games.

However, Auckland City mayor John Banks says the Government struggled with picking up a share of costs running into hundreds of millions of dollars and he did not expect it would share in the costs.

The Auckland region, together with the Olympic Committee and a Commonwealth Games agency, began studying the feasibility of making a bid to host the Games since the middle of last year. They were last held in New Zealand in 1990.

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