Minister offers Warrnambool council a glimmer of hope on Commonwealth Games inclusion

State sport and major events minister Martin Pakula offered a glimmer of hope during a visit to the May Racing Carnival.

"We've still got sports to add and there is still an opportunity if council, in particular, wanted to make a strong case for Warrnambool - that opportunity exists. But that hasn't happened to date," Mr Pakula said.

"Opportunities still exist for a case to be made, if that's what the community wants to do."

A new Commonwealth Games working group chaired by Warrnambool mayor Vicki Jellie met for the first time last week.

The group - which consists of council representatives, state and federal MPs, South West Academy of Sport and the hockey association - will prepare an expression of interest submission for the Commonwealth Games by June 17.

Mr Pakula said in regards to communities that weren't in the initial program, the government hadn't yet finalised all the sports.

"There's probably four or five sports that are still to be added, so opportunities still exist," he said.

"We've got limits on how many villages we can build in a Commonwealth Games and there's requirements about how far events need to be from villages, but the door is not closed."

Moyne Shire Council has also signalled its interest in securing a Commonwealth Games event for the municipality.

In response to a question from Cr Damian Gleeson, the council's acting chief executive officer Brett Davis said it was working to hopefully go for one of the events that was still up for offer.

Warrnambool's mayor and chief executive officer Peter Schneider were quizzed by councillor Ben Blain at last week's public meeting about what had been done to secure Commonwealth Games events before now.

"What work was done to advocate for Warrnambool as part of the games?" he asked.

Cr Jellie said Shepparton had been working on a bid since 2017 for the 2030 games, but when a country pulled out the 2026 games became available.

She said Shepparton was the lead in the Regional Cities Victoria group, and the government looked favourably on the work it had been doing. Regional athlete hubs will be created in Geelong, Bendigo, Ballarat and Gippsland while Shepparton will also host sporting and cultural events.

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