The Victorian Government has confirmed the state will host the 2026 Commonwealth games, with regional areas set to hold the majority of the events.

Geelong, Bendigo, Ballarat and Gippsland will become hubs for the athletes, with villages to be established in the towns.

With only the opening ceremony to be held at the MCG, the remainder of the events will be split up to the various regional towns.

Victorian Premier, Daniel Andrews commented on the announcement with pride as he aims to showcase and boost the regional areas of Victoria.

“This will be a Commonwealth Games like no other. We promised we wouldn’t be doing a re-run of 2006, as successful as that was,” he said.

“This is also about creating jobs, some nearly 4,000 jobs during the Commonwealth Games and some 3,000 enduring jobs thereafter.”

“Affordable housing and modern sports infrastructure built for the games will leave a legacy and attract future major events,”

“I’m sure from their point of view, it’s a bit riskier than just running it in the middle of a large city.

The Andrews’ government has been in negotiations to bring the games to Victoria since February, as they attempted to bring the commonwealth games back to Victoria after the 2006 campaign.

The event will bring in over 600 jobs beforehand, 3900 during the event and 3000 beyond the closing ceremony.