Games-From Ozzy to Aussie: Commonwealth Games face uncertain future

Birmingham rock icons Black Sabbath fittingly capped a buzzing fortnight in England's second city at the Commonwealth Games closing ceremony on Monday but it may be the last time the multi-sport event makes such a big noise.

Reliable hosts Australia and the country's sports-mad fans will welcome the 2026 Games in the southern state of Victoria but it promises to be a much different affair to the Birmingham bash.

Not unlike this year's hosts, Victoria did not plan to stage the Games as quickly as 2026 but rode in as a white knight to the rescue when no other city bid for them.

In a handover during the closing ceremony, Indigenous Australian elders issued a welcome to "Naarm", the Aboriginal name for the land where Melbourne sits.

But barring the opening ceremony, the Games are set to skip the Victoria capital and cultural heart, and scatter the sports across multiple regional centres.

Officials have touted infrastructure improvements and new jobs created in sleepy rural areas among a range of benefits along with themes like meeting diversity and inclusion commitments.

But the disparate nature of the Games may mean they struggle to reproduce the atmosphere and fan engagement that drove Birmingham's success as a singular urban hub.

Other familiar questions will dog the Games through the interim period.

Hosts Australia, who finished top of the medals table in Birmingham, will be certain to push its champions into competition, and most will willingly grab the chance to dominate their sports in front of home fans.

Whether other nations' athletes fancy the long trip Down Under is doubtful, given the profile of the Games struggles to match that of other meets.

The women's 100 metres at Birmingham could have been a showdown between